Tax Rates Around World - 4/30/12

Top tax rates around the world have fallen over the past three decades. That may be about to change.

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GDP: Take The Under - 4/30/12

What do slowing indicators say about GDP growth in this quarter?

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Productive Workers - 4/27/12

Today's factory workers produce more output in an hour than workers in the 1940s produced in a day.

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Don't Mess With Texas - 4/27/12

New figures  show how rapidly oil production is growing in the Eagle Ford shale region. Figure 1 below shows a nearly 600 percent increase in just one year, and a 9,700 percent increase since 2009.

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Public Unions and Default Risks - 4/27/12

New research by Paul Peterson and Daniel Nadler at Harvard finds that the higher the percentage of public employee who are unionized, the greater risk investors see of the state defaulting on its bonds, resulting in higher interest rates.

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Lost Time - 4/24/12

It will take developed countries another 2.7 years to reach  pre-crisis trend levels of economic output, on average, but for some countries the road back could take as long as 15 years.

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America Since 1980 - 4/23/12

Suppose you had gotten a room full of economists together in 1980, and made the following predictions:  Over the next 28 years the US would grow as fast as Japan, and faster than Europe (in GDP per capita, PPP.) Over the next 28 years Britain would overtake Germany and France in GDP per capita. And you said you were making these predictions because you thought Thatcher and Reagan’s policies would be a success. ... More

State Tax Collections Per Capita - 4/23/12

Ranging from a low of $1,475 to a high of $6,395.

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The Housing Bust Again - 4/20/12

Adjusting for Consumer Price Index inflation, the drop in house prices since the peak has been 41 percent. There’s a number nobody predicted!

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Hot Jobs - 4/20/12

Best and worst job prospects.

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Jobless Revisions Ever Upward - 4/20/12

The Department of Labor has revised higher the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits  in 58 out of the last 59 weeks.The same has held true since the beginning of the year. There have been 14 weeks of jobless data this year, and there have been 14 revisions. And all 14 were revisions that made the claims picture higher than what the government originally reported.


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Cost of Aging Population Grows - 4/19/12

People worldwide are living three years longer than expected on average, pushing up the costs of aging by 50 percent, and governments and pension funds are ill prepared.

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Natural Resource Wealth - 4/19/12

Using estimates of each country’s total reserves and the market value of these resources, here are the 10 countries that have the most valuable supplies of natural resources.

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Public Opinion on Taxes - 4/16/12

It does not appear that taxing the rich or tax reform will be key issues for voters this fall. Occupy Wall Street has done little to change attitudes toward taxing the rich, with long-standing support toward taxing them more remaining strong. On a related point, polls show solid support for the Buffett Rule.

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Celebrity Tax Delinquents - 4/16/12

California law requires tax authorities to update and publish the names and amounts owed by the state’s 500 biggest tax scofflaws twice a year. The latest list contains a number of notable celebrities.

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White House and the Buffett Rule - 4/16/12

This week, President Obama re-launched his advocacy for a "Buffett Rule," which maintains that no millionaire should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle-class family. On Tuesday, the National Economic Council issued a white paper justifying the Buffett Rule as a "basic principle of tax fairness."More

Digital Shopkeepers - 4/16/12

Much of the world may still (or again) be in recession, but the internet keeps growing—and so does its economic weight.

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Effective Tax Rates In U.S. - 4/13/12

There has been so much talk recently about millionaires and billionaires not paying their "fair share" of taxes, I decided to look up exactly how much they end up paying.

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State Tax Revenues - 4/13/12

The nearly 9 percent gain in state tax collections for 2011 is being greeted as evidence that the economy and the fiscal shape of states are both improving substantially. But some context is needed. As the chart  shows, despite the gain, state tax revenues remain below their peak in 2008. That alone is sobering because costs have continued to rise.

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Minimum Wage Earners - 4/12/12

According to a new BLS study, half of all minimum wage earners in the United States for each year from 2006 through 2011 may be found between the ages of 16 and 24, with just under 25% in the Age 16-19 bracket and just over 25% in the Age 20-24 bracket on average.

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Booming 'App' Economy - 4/12/12

The number of people working in computer and mathematical occupations is up by 7.5% over the past year, compared to a 1.1% gain for all other management and professional occupations.

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Small Biz Losing Confidence - 4/11/12

After a promising start to the year, small businesses survyed by the National Federation of Independent Business showed less confidence, most notably in hiring plans and expected real sales growth.

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College Textbook Bubble - 4/11/12

It's hard to see how the traditional cartel-style textbook model can survive, and that giant hissing sound you might be hearing is the "college textbook bubble" starting to deflate.

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Behind the Jobs Numbers - 4/09/12

The March 2012 jobs data would seem to confirm that the U.S. economy has indeed begun to decelerate after growing strongly. We would be seeing a very different picture for jobs in the U.S. if the economy were genuinely gaining steam across the board.

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Why Productivity Matters - 4/09/12

What’s a reasonable expectation for future U.S. economic growth? It’s an important question. Higher growth is critical to avoiding a debt crisis, not to mention improving the American standard of living. Advances in genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology could bring about another Industrial Revolution.

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Insolvent LA? - 4/09/12

The 'b' word, or 'bankruptcy,' was first used provocatively in association with Los Angeles by former mayor Richard Riordan in a controversial Wall Street Journal opinion piece in May of 2010. But now the city's own Chief Administrative Officer, Miguel Santana, in a stunning new report has raised the prospect that the City of Angles could indeed be heading for insolvency unless it does something to grab control of employee... More

State Tax Freedom - 4/05/12

Americans will work 107 days into the year, from January 1 to April 17, to earn enough money to pay this year’s combined 29.2% federal, state, and local tax bill. But residents of each state must work shorter, or longer, depending on the impact of state taxes.

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Has Welfare Reform Been Reversed? - 4/05/12

Although the welfare program per se has not changed much since 2007, a number of safety-net programs have changed, and changed in the direction of significantly reducing the reward for working among unmarried women who are heads of households. In this sense, the 1996 welfare reform was reversed over the last couple of years; while the 1996 law increased the reward for working, the recent expansions have reduced it.

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Long Payoff for Fuel-Efficient Cars - 4/05/12

Opting for models that promise better mileage through new technologies does not necessarily save money, data show.

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Auto Bailout Math - 4/04/12

The nearby chart, drawn from information released by the Treasury, shows the current status of the financial assistance that the automotive industry has received through TARP. Out of the total $80 billion that has been paid out, only $35 billion has been repaid, some $7 billion has been written off, and $37 billion is still outstanding.

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Entitlements and Tax Revenues - 4/04/12

If future taxes are held at historical levels, spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will consume all revenues by 2052.

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GDP and Energy Efficiency - 4/02/12

The Energy Information Administration reports that it took only 7.32 thousand BTUs of energy to produce each dollar of real GDP in 2011, making last year's economy the most energy-efficient in history.

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Who Really Owns US Debt? - 4/02/12

We see a large decrease in debt appearing to be held by the United Kingdom, but large increases in debt actually held by other foreign entities.

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European Pursuit of Riches - 4/02/12


Attitudes toward pursuing wealth vary greatly across Europe, according to a new survey. Those most keen on being rich are in poorer former Communist countries such as Russia and Ukraine.

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State Lottery Tax Rates - 4/02/12

Everyone knows that winners of state lotteries like Mega Millions must choose between a lump sum payment and installment payments, but where you purchase your winning ticket also matters, due to state income and withholding taxes.

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