Commentary / World Apr 14, 2015

Have we seen the end of the U.S. tax revolt?

With only 1 percent of Americans rating taxes as the nation's top problem, it appears that the U.S. tax revolt is all but over.

Commentary / World Apr 11, 2015

Investment bust following historic pattern

Business investment has been slow to rebound during the weak economic recovery, but this is to be expected given past trends following recessions.

Commentary / World Mar 20, 2015

American-style shareholder capitalism on trial

Shareholder capitalism in the U.S. seems caught in a vicious circle as consumers spend less and save more to protect themselves against future economic shocks, thus prompting businesses buy back more of their stock and return the money to shareholders rather than launch major ...

Commentary / World Mar 17, 2015

Should we worry about robots taking away jobs?

The fear of technological job loss to robots is real, but probably exaggerated.

Commentary / World Mar 13, 2015

Distinguishing good wage increases from bad

Any acceleration of wage gains in the U.S. could be taken as evidence of greater inflationary pressures and justification for the Federal Reserve to make quicker and steeper increases in interest rates. But the risk is that this conventional interpretation is mistaken.

Commentary / World Mar 9, 2015

The 'next America' is testing U.S. governance

Both major American parties have had a hard time creating agendas that appeal across ideological, racial and ethnic lines. The fragmentation of power and purpose transcends the defects of political leaders.

Commentary / World Mar 2, 2015

Why the squeeze is on middle-class incomes

A right-wing think tank from among President Barack Obama's top economists blames the slow growth of productivity, mainly, for the squeeze on middle-class incomes.

Commentary / World Feb 20, 2015

New tech isn't paying off as much as before

We are not getting our money's worth from the "creative destruction" process that the economist Joseph Schumpeter trumpeted. For example, the technology that makes social networking possible monetizes activities that used to be outside the market's purview, while leaving us open to criminal and ...

Commentary / World Feb 16, 2015

Twisted spending priorities of a graying nation

All Americans ought to want effective and efficient government, but government is being strangled as the rising costs of baby-boomer retirees reduce the capacity of other programs to fulfill their missions.