Tag - u.s. economy

 
 

U.S. ECONOMY

COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2015
Guess what's weakening the U.S. middle class
There are roughly three main hypotheses for why American middle-class wages have been falling: robots, unions and China. Evidence may point to the least favored answer as the right one.
Japan Times
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 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.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2015
Lowering the bar for economic performance
Regardless of how much progressives try to play up the U.S. economic recovery by lowering the bar for perfornance, the lingering anemia is astonishing, given the plummeting energy prices.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2015
Other nations' troubles could slow U.S. growth
President Barack Obama has declared America's economic crisis over, but will global weakness infect the U.S. expansion?
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2015
U.S. wages lagging and no one knows why
The U.S. unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 to 5.6 percent at the end of 2014. Yet, hourly wage gains haven't accelerated. Economists are baffled.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 8, 2015
Fed looks past a world in turmoil, confident in U.S. recovery
U.S. central bankers have looked beyond a global deflation threat, fear of energy-sector bond defaults, and a surge of oil patch layoffs to reach what appears to be a firm conclusion: the U.S. recovery is here to stay.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2015
Five top economic stories to watch in 2015
Economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson describes five issues to watch in 2015: oil prices, European debt, U.S. interest rates, wages vs. prices, and China's economy.
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2014
What the revised jump in U.S. growth means
The strength of the U.S. economy stands in stark contrast to what is happening in the eurozone and Japan, and the resulting divergence will be accompanied by opposing monetary-policy responses.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2014
Can U.S. prosperity be maintained when the majority are left out?
While the rise and rise of stock markets has exacerbated the yawning gulf between rich and poor Americans this Christmas, workers in New York are being driven farther and farther into the suburbs.
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 20, 2014
U.S. can cope with the next China slowdown
The U.S. economic boom in the 1990s even after the Japanese economy slowed dramatically suggests that the U.S. will cope with the next slowdown in China.
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2014
A resurgent U.S. economy
The U.S. economy is posting the strongest growth since the end of 2011, outpacing the forecasts and confounding experts who saw a country that had lost its vitality.
Japan Times
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.
Japan Times
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 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
Jul 1, 2014
Time to say goodbye to the business cycle?
The many failures of economics before, during and after the recent financial crisis have left an intellectual vacuum. It seems that governments' past success in stabilizing the economy in the short run encouraged too much debt and instability in the long term.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2014
Bewildering take on the American job market
With the U.S. government's latest monthly employment report, the American job market has entered a bewildering phase. The U.S. may be closer to 'full employment' than is commonly supposed, but the weak recovery since 2009 is hardly typical of economic cycles since World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2014
China plays down GDP size
China's government does not sound comfortable with new World Bank figures indicating that China will overtake the U.S. this year and become the No. 1 economy.

Longform

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