Median Income's Plunge - 3/29/13

For the first time in over a year, median annual income fell by a statistically significant amount from the previous month. The longer-run trends are even more depressing.

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Where Corporate Taxes Are Highest - 3/29/13

This week's map shows the top corporate income tax rate in each state.

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N. Dakota's Prosperity - 3/28/13

The chart above shows how North Dakota’s oil boom starting about 2007 (red line in chart) moved the state up by 32 places (from No. 38 to No. 6) in the annual ranking of US states by per-capita personal income (blue bars in chart) between 2006 and 2012.

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Choose To Be Free - 3/28/13

Americans are migrating from less-free liberal states to more-free conservative states, where they are doing better economically, according to a new study published Thursday by the George Mason University's Mercatus Center.



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Housing Bubble Is Back - 3/26/13

Some time in the near future it is very likely that credit standards for homebuyers will fall. This will allow homebuyers to make larger offers and it will allow young people to buy a home even when they lack a down payment. This rapid increase in the number of buyers and their purchasing power will likely drive home prices into a bubble.

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Bullish Texas Industrial Outlook - 3/26/13

Business activity among Texas-area manufacturers is expanding.The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallass said ts general business activity index reading was the highest in a year.

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The Actual National Minimum Wage - 3/25/13

We've calculated the percentage share of each state's population with respect to the combined population of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and multiplied each state's share of the U.S. population by the greater of either the federal minimum wage or the state's minimum wage.

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Fewer Rigs, More Gas - 3/22/13

US gas rigs have decreased by 75% since 2008 and yet gas production has increased to record high levels. Why?

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College Degrees and Good Jobs - 3/22/13

Parents Want Their Kids to Get Jobs; Academics Shocked.

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Spending On Food Declines... - 3/21/13

...as a percentage of income as prosperity rises.

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Overregulating Land Use - 3/19/13

Zoning policies and land use regulations are widespread and recent research suggests that regulations have in fact gone too far.

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Medicaid Savers Vs. Payers - 3/19/13

Medicaid expansion would provide a handful of states, mostly those with the most expensive programs, savings of $48 billion, while costing other states $38 billion between now and 2022.

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California's Fracking Bailout - 3/18/13

A report by the University of Southern California says the Golden State could reap staggering economic benefits if it allowed energy companies to use fracking to tap the enormous Monterey Shale oil deposits. Doing so would generate $4.5 billion in additional annual tax revenues by 2015, a number that would rise to an astounding $24 billion in new state and local taxes annually by 2020.

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Carriage Before Marriage - 3/18/13

A key part of the explanation for the struggles of today's working and lower middle classes in the U.S. is delayed marriage but not delayed childbearing. Fifty-eight percent of first births among mothers without college degrees are now to unmarried women.

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Taxable Returns Over Time - 3/15/13

That the number of people actually paying federal income tax has been flat for about 20 years, while federal spending has skyrocketed, explains much of our current fiscal predicament.

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Younger Generations Fall Behind - 3/15/13

Despite the Great Recession and the fragile economic recovery, the wealth of Americans has grown significantly when a longer-term view is considered. Average household wealth approximately doubled from 1983 to 2010, and average incomes rose similarly. For many, the American dream of working hard, saving more, and becoming wealthier than one’s parents holds true.Unless you’re under 40.

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Drowning In Debt - 3/14/13

The U.S. national balance sheet continues to deteriorate, with a record $56.3 trillion in gross debt outstanding relative to $15.8 trillion in national income (GDP). At 357% of GDP, gross debt continues to set records relative to the size of the economy.

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Detroit's Plight In One Chart - 3/14/13

In the last six years, Detroit's revenue estimates were off by, on average, 25% annually, and its annual spending estimates off by 33% on average.

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The Price of Daylight Savings Time - 3/12/13

Although it is unclear what benefit Americans derive from adjusting their timepieces twice a year, the costs they bear are clear.

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Biggest Export: Treasuries - 3/12/13

In 2012, the government financed its deficit spending by selling $383 billion in Treasury securities to foreign buyers.

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This Is Not Rightsizing - 3/11/13

The private sector has added jobs in every month since March 2010. During this three-year stretch, state and local governments have seen job growth during only seven months. Though 2013 began with many experts predicting good times ahead for state and local governments, hiring has not rebounded, thanks in large part to the squeeze coming from higher pension and health benefits costs and only modestly rising tax collections.... More

More Or Less Social Security? - 3/11/13

Good-government types often complain about America’s low saving rate, but what is it exactly that most people save for? Retirement. And it’s widely agreed that the expectation of future Social Security benefits displaces saving today; the only question is by how much?

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Many Minimum Wages - 3/08/13

There is more than one minimum wage in the United States. In 2013, no fewer than 19 states and the District of Columbia have set their statutory minimum wages to be higher than that set by the U.S. federal government. In these states, the higher minimum wage set by the state rules the jobs scene for employees and employers.

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Cost of Schools' Staffing Surge - 3/08/13

America’s K-12 public education system has experienced tremendous historical growth in employment, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. Between fiscal year (FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students in the United States increased by 96 percent, while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent.

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The State and Local Sales Tax Bite - 3/07/13

Voters in Los Angeles earlier this week rejected a boost in the local sales tax on top of the state's sales tax bite. Many people don't realize that in addition to state levies, localities often impose their own sales tax Here is a map of the average combined state and local sales tax rate in each state.

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The New Peak Oil Curve - 3/07/13

The theory of peak oil, the idea that global crude production may be at or near its limit, is based on the work of M. King Hubbert, a geologist working for Shell in the 1950s. Here is a look at what a peak oil chart should look like today, based on recent discoveries.

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Mixed Signals on Red-Light Cameras - 3/05/13

As red-light cameras have proliferated around the U.S. over the past two decades to hundreds of cities and towns, there is one troubling detail: They don't always make traffic intersections safer.

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Expanding Medicaid: Conflicting Incentives - 3/05/13

The decision facing individual states is complex. Setting aside the larger question of whether the ACA’s ambitious coverage expansion is good national policy, several competing factors now bear upon the states’ incentives. These include individual state budget circumstances, the 2012 Supreme Court decision, federal Medicaid financing support levels, the federal government’s own fiscal problems, and... More

Deadweight Loss of Minimum Wage - 3/04/13

Has boosting the U.S. minimum wage from $4.25 per hour in 1994 to today's $7.25 per hour helped or hurt the U.S. economy?

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Stumbling Into Austerity - 3/01/13

Discretionary cuts reduce spending too much in some areas such as defense and scientific research. Entitlement reform remains undone. The tax hikes have been of the absolute worst kind, raising marginal tax rates on labor and investment. But over all, Washington has stumbled into roughly the right kind of austerity.

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LA Stares Over Pension Cliff - 3/01/13

Recently at a forum for mayoral candidates in Los Angeles, a panelist ask the would-be mayors whether they thought that the city faced the prospect of bankruptcy. That such a question could be considered legitimate at a debate of this nature over the future of our third largest city, and California's biggest municipality, tells you a lot about how the city's finances have deteriorated.

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