Jul 10 U.S. teens rank between Latvia and Russia on financial literacy, far below Shanghai By Simone Pathe American teens may work summer jobs and manage money on their smartphones, but their financial literacy places them between Latvia and Russia, and far below 15-year-olds in Shanghai, who achieved the highest average score on the largest youth financial literacy… Continue reading
Jul 10 The key to England's economic growth: The rich outlived the poor By Gregory Clark England's economic success, beginning with the takeoff of the Industrial Revolution, can be explained by the "survival of the richest," argues economic historian Gregory Clark in the third installment of his never-before published interview with Paul Solman about his 2007… Continue reading
Jul 09 How learning to pass the marshmallow test explains global economic evolution By Gregory Clark Why did the Industrial Revolution happen in England, setting them economically apart from the rest of the world? Contrary to popular economic theory, economic historian Gregory Clark says the existence of market and political institutions had nothing to do with… Continue reading
Jul 08 Hobby Lobby hobbles worker voice By Christopher Mackin Worker-ownership adviser Christopher Mackin sees the American workplace lagging behind our political democracy, where "one person, one vote" is the law of the land. But he's hopeful that anger about the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby decision will fuel a… Continue reading
Jul 07 Deciding when to take Social Security widows benefits can't get more complicated By Laurence Kotlikoff How do you know when you should take any of your Social Security benefits? As Larry Kotilikoff's column often reveals, it's complicated. But figuring out the best time to collect your widow(er)s benefits in relation to your retirement benefit is… Continue reading
Jul 07 A world of woe: Why Malthus was right By Gregory Clark If you had to choose between living in a hunter-gatherer society and pre-industrial England, which would you pick? The more violent hunter-gatherer society was better: you’d live just as long, with more dietary variety and fewer working hours. Economic historian… Continue reading
Jul 04 After the World Cup, what shapes well-being for your country? By Simone Pathe On this Fourth of July, when America has already been knocked out of the World Cup, what factors are most important to your well-being? The OECD is asking citizens to consider what it is they really care about after the… Continue reading
Jul 03 Watch What's driving the good jobs news for the month of June? By PBS News Hour he unemployment rate in the U.S. dropped to 6.1 percent in June, its lowest point since just before the financial crisis of 2008. Moreover, a strong hiring report is lifting hopes that momentum is building in the jobs market. Economics… Continue watching
Jul 03 A better-than-expected birthday present for U.S. in June jobs report By Simone Pathe Despite concerns about sluggish growth in the first quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and the economy added more than 200,000 jobs for the fifth straight month… Continue reading
Jul 03 Unemployment hits lowest level since Lehman's collapse By Simone Pathe The American economy added 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent, the lowest since September 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis began. Despite weak economic growth during the first quarter of 2014,… Continue reading