Simone’s Recent Stories
Politics Jan 13
2016 here we come!The jockeying for the White House in 2016 kicked into a second gear with former candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum making headlines.
Politics Jan 12
Who blinks first between Obama, Republicans?On Tuesday, President Barack Obama meets with congressional leaders for the first time since Republicans took control of the new Congress. So far, both sides are taking hard-line postures.
Nation Jan 09
We’re adding jobs like it’s 1999, but American workers just can’t get a raiseThe final unemployment report of 2014, released Friday morning, ended a solid year of payroll gains. But despite December's additional 252,000 jobs and the lowest unemployment rate since 2008, wages aren't rising. In fact, average hourly earnings fell in December,…
Nation Jan 08
This South Bronx kid would have failed the marshmallow test. So how did he get into Yale?The marshmallow test is famous: Give a kid a marshmallow and see if he or she can show enough self-control to hold off eating it and, as a reward, enjoy a second. Its results have often be viewed as fatalistic…
Politics Jan 08
5 things you might not have known about Mitch McConnellToday in the Morning Line: McConnell wrote his thesis on “The Great Compromiser” His real name’s not Mitch He once sought the support of Democratic-leaning groups like major unions Obama heads to Phoenix to talk housing Immigration action in the…
Politics Jan 07
Split power is the new normal in American politicsToday in the Morning Line: Just two presidents in the last 50 years have not experienced a Congress fully controlled by the opposition party 16 of the 24 times the opposition party has fully controlled Congress have been in just…
Politics Jan 06
What to watch on Congress’ first day backWelcome to the 114th Congress. Both the House and Senate, which will have a new majority leader in Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, will gavel in for the new Congress at noon today. The chambers each begin with a prayer, but…
Nation Jan 02
Who benefits from state corporate tax cuts?States lower their corporate tax rates to attract new businesses. But who actually sees the economic benefits of lower corporate tax rates -- the firm owners and their shareholders, the workers or the land owners in that state? A new…
Economy Jan 01
Undisputed facts about the minimum wageThe minimum wage is increasing in 29 states this year. Who are minimum wage workers? And what do they look like? We boil down the facts behind the minimum wage debate.
Nation Dec 30
Think you know how oil prices work?A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research remodels the relationship between oil prices and production, suggesting that the actual pressure inside the wells dictates the pace of extraction more than price swings.