Barbara Kiviat

Articles from Contributor

Job-less re-cov-er-y

The U.S. gained 431,000 jobs in May, according to this morning’s release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That sounds great—until you take into account that 411,000 of those positions were for temporary Census workers. The private sector added only 41,000 jobs, which is a drop in the bucket.

The employment rate edged down to …

Getting paid $50,000 to raise the savings rate

In April, the personal savings rate—the percentage of disposable income that people don’t spend—went up to 3.6%. That’s higher than it was in March (3.1%), but still far lower than many economist types were predicting this time last year. Back in early 2009, there was talk that thanks to the Great Recession Americans were embarking …

Does more immigration mean less crime?

Brace yourself for the backlash. University of Colorado sociologist Tim Wadsworth has a study out in Social Science Quarterly suggesting that more immigration leads to less crime. During the 1990s, the incidence of serious crime dropped in many places in the U.S.—but fastest in the cities with the largest increase in immigrants. That …

The hidden changes in financial reform

The Senate passed its financial reform bill. Huzzah! What did the Senate wind up with after three weeks of such intense lobbying and debate? First, I’ll run through the big, headline-grabbing changes. Then the real fun begins: the changes that are coming which you probably haven’t been hearing as much about. Just remember that Congress …

Should we get rid of deposit insurance?

The other day I spoke with University of Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan. Rajan made a big splash at Jackson Hole back in 2005 when he stood up in front of a room full of prominent economic policy makers and gave a speech about all the risk that was building up in the financial system. He said we could be headed for serious problems. …

Congress mans up on rating agency reform

[Editor’s note: I wrote a story for Time.com, which is now being funneled here, to the Curious Capitalist. I might have assumed a bit more knowledge had I known it was going to wind up with you, dear readers.]

Credit ratings companies played a key role in the financial crisis by blessing the packages of sliced-and-diced mortgages that …

Are taxes at a 60-year low?

This USA Today article, which talks about the average personal tax rate being at a 60-year low, is getting a lot of attention. The conclusion is pretty fascinating:

Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman’s presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data found. Federal, state and local taxes — including

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