Economy

Nate Silver gained national attention with a forecasting system he developed in 2003 called PECOTA. He used baseball data to forecast the performance of major league baseball players. It was very successful and the attention he got allowed him the time and money to expand his interests into other areas and write us a thoughtful […]

The Obama Administration recently proposed an increase in the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. The current minimum continues at $7.25 an hour where it has been since July 24th 2009, the date of the last of three planned increases passed by Congress. The proposed increase is a little over 24 percent over the three […]

A Washington Post article (“N.C. looks to cut jobless benefits” 2/13/13) describes cuts in unemployment benefits as a drastic proposal from North Carolina lawmakers. Under the new plan, benefits would drop from 26 weeks to 20 and the maximum benefits from $535 a week to $350. The governor believes they have little choice because they have […]

During the Presidential campaign, candidate Mitt Romney had a speech secretly recorded where he told listeners that he could not expect to get votes from the 47 percent of tax payers who do not pay federal income taxes. In the speech, Romney characterized that group of income-tax-free Americans as being “dependent on the government” and […]

Many years ago, before banks, gold circulated as a medium of exchange, but it was heavy and inconvenient from the beginning. Enterprising entrepreneurs opened gold depositories where people could store their gold safely. Depositors received a paper certificate as proof of their deposit. If a depositor decided to buy a horse and wagon, he would […]

When I see articles about the new health care law, it almost always cites 30 million uninsured Americans, with the intent of the new law to extend affordable care to this group. The millions who have affordable care through their employer receive an immense subsidy. The employer health care subsidy is better than income. If […]