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The conversative blogosphere exploded last week with reports that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program(SNAP, a.k.a food stamps) usage had grown by 7,223,000 during Obama's first term.

The Peter Peterson Foundation has released its second monthly " Fiscal Confidence Index." It's worth looking at closely as a case study in how polling data can be used selectively and manipulatively -- and as a broader example of what's wrong with today's narrow, ill-informed debate over fiscal

Just over a year ago, The Economist published a lovely essay on the euphemism and its generally pernicious effect on civilization -- in the bedroom, the boardroom, in politics, and so on. It's been firmly in the back of my mind lately as Whole Foods CEO John Mackey tours to promote Conscious

This Explainer explores how the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is used in measuring our economic growth and whether alternative measures are also needed to provide a more comprehensive outlook of economic progress.  

Tomorrow’s fourth quarter GDP release will likely show a growth rate of around 1.1. percent, a substantial slowdown from the third quarter rate of 3.1 percent. Economists will report that this means the economic growth is slowing. Yet, as we ask continually, what is actually being measured by GDP?

The Department of Labor (DOL) is starting to catch up with restaurants for stealing the tips their servers make. Most anyone with exposure to the service end of the restaurant industry will concur that it’s about time.

Even if you believe the U.S. should be running big deficits right now to stimulate growth, as I do, it is easy to grow deeply disturbed by projections of rising interest payments on the national debt in the coming years.

I don't generally worry too much about deficits or about U.S. debt held by foreigners. But in writing a post earlier today about interest on the debt, it occurred to me to investigate just how much money the United States pays out to China and Japan (our biggest economic competitors) every year in

It falls into the good-luck-with-that category, but nevertheless the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group and nine other organizations have announced they’re forming a coalition aimed at getting the Wisconsin Legislature to put an advisory referendum on the ballot about the growing problem of

Using political power to keep employees from organizing unions can be highly effective. That’s one forceful lesson to draw from the new figures on union membership.