Commentary / World Oct 25, 2014
World's rapidly expanding millionaire club
Time was that "being a millionaire" was a mark of unimaginable success. Not anymore.
Commentary / World Oct 20, 2014
Women joining the top '1 percent'
A study by three economists concludes that economic inequality in America is becoming more gender neutral. In the early 1980s, women comprised at least 3 percent of the top 1 percent of wage earners. Now they're approaching 20 percent.
Commentary / World Oct 14, 2014
Why the world economy continues to sputter
It's become a dreary ritual. Every six months, the International Monetary Fund forecasts the global economy, and cuts its previous forecast. What are the real causes of sluggishness?
Commentary / World Sep 29, 2014
The next nasty economic surprise for the U.S.
Without an expanding economy as a shock absorber, will racial, ethnic, religious, generational and ideological conflicts worsen in the U.S.?
Commentary / World Sep 27, 2014
The slow recovery from a calamitous slump
What does slow recovery from a calamitous slump look like? In the U.S., you see women's pay catching up with men's and steady gains in full-time employment. But middle-class incomes have dropped to levels of the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Commentary / World Sep 23, 2014
Americans feeling roughed up as incomes lag
Americans have a peculiar prosperity. Their economy is escaping the confines of the Great Recession, but people don't feel reassured. They've lost confidence in the future.
Commentary / World Sep 9, 2014
Raise U.S. defense spending now
The Obama White House and Congress are systematically reducing America's military power as if the Ukraine crisis, the expansion of the Islamic State's footprint and China's harassment of ships in disputed waters have not happened in the past year.
Commentary / World Sep 6, 2014
Will consumer confidence spur investment?
Is stronger consumer confidence and spending in the U.S. about to support a cycle of stronger business confidence and investment?
Commentary / World Aug 2, 2014
U.S. think tanks turning into message merchants
Most U.S. think tanks were once idea factories, but now many are message merchants.
Commentary / World Jul 4, 2014
Americans: born in an empire of contention
An historian reminds Americans this Fourth of July weekend that dynamic social and economic change, poisonous politics, bad policies and flawed leaders in an "empire of contention" were all there two centuries ago.