If you think about thrift as a moral quality, it’s easy to understand why Republicans have gotten things so wrong in terms of macroeconomic policy over the past few years
Uncategorized
The IRS Was Wrong — But Many Political Groups Should Not Be Tax-Exempt
Let’s start with the obvious. Those IRS employees who singled out conservative groups for scrutiny over their tax-exempt status were wrong, wrong, wrong. Any whiff of politics at the agency is unacceptable, and this is far more than a whiff. In time, we shall see how far up the agency food chain the scandal goes.
But this unsavory …
John McCain Wants to Lower Your Cable Bill
In an ideal world, television viewers would only pay for those shows and channels that they actually care about. The concept, known as TV a la carte, has been a pipe dream of cord cutters and disgruntled cable subscribers for years. Thursday the movement received a significant boost from an unlikely political ally: John McCain.
The
…
New Hope for Underwater Homeowners
Given the consistently good news we’ve seen from the housing market, it can be easy to forget just how much damage the bursting of the real estate bubble has wrought on the economy and the lives of average people across the …
Apple: What’s Eating America’s Favorite Tech Company?
Since September, Apple’s stock price has declined by 40%, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder value and costing the tech giant the title of world’s largest firm by market capitalization, a distinction that …
Hoping For a Raise? How About a Gift Card, Instead?
Many a disgruntled employee has complained of working for peanuts. But is working for lattes any better?
Unemployment rates are still high and wages stagnant, but American workers are more productive than ever. That’s good news for the economy, but means that rank-and-file employees are working longer and harder.
And what are we …
We Talk a Big Game But Don’t Follow Through When It Comes to Saving For Retirement
Like the diet that always starts “tomorrow,” Americans like to say they’re going to get their finances in shape, but then fail to follow through on those good intentions. After the financial crisis gave a lot of us a harsh reality check about the inadequacy of our saving and investing plans, we promised to do better. We’re still …
The Trouble Lurking on Walmart’s Empty Shelves
And according to recent reports, Walmart has cut employee hours so deeply that it doesn’t have enough associates on hand to get stuff from back-of-the-store staging areas to the shelves.
Was Thatcherism Good (or Bad) for the Economy?
Margaret Thatcher was known as the woman who, from 1979 to 1990, brought austerity and — at least for part of her tenure — economic growth to a stagflation-riddled Britain. She’s also known as a heedless free-market …
Crowdfunding Soared to $2.7 Billion in 2012, But Equity Funding Is Still On Ice
Asking strangers for money has never seemed cooler. With stars like Kirsten Bell and Charlie Kaufman attaching their names to successful crowdfunding projects, the stigma of soliciting donations online has largely been eliminated. And now we have the numbers to prove it.
Home Price Gains Continue Increasing Nationwide
Citing “steady employment and low borrowing rates” as well as inventories that have fallen “to their lowest post-recession levels,” the S&P Dow Jones Indices released Case-Shiller housing data that showed home prices jumping 8.1% from the previous year. When charted, the data looks like it’s been hit with a booster rocket, with the past …
Obama Administration: Mobile Phone ‘Unlocking’ Should Be Legal
The Obama administration will push to reverse a new prohibition on mobile phone unlocking, after an online White House petition protesting the ban drew more than 100,000 signatures. The ban makes it a federal crime for consumers …