Despite grandiose claims from the White House regarding the strength of the U.S. economy, a flood of new data helps explain Americans' continued feelings of insecurity. While the unemployment rate (4.7%), GDP growth (2.9%) and productivity gains (2.3%)look impressive, below the surface the picture for wages and income grows bleaker still. Whether the incumbent Republicans […]

In the latest sign that Republican class warfare is alive and well in Washington, the IRS is planning draconian cuts to its team of estate tax lawyers handling the audits of the wealthiest Americans. In the next 70 days, the IRS will shed almost half of the 345 lawyers assigned to monitor the gift and […]

On Monday, billionaire financier Warren Buffett made two important contributions to the public good. First, he announced a staggering gift of $30 billion of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Perhaps more important for America's future, Buffett came out swinging in defense of the estate tax. During his press conference, Buffett offered […]

Nothing seems to frustrate the White House and the Republican leadership more than their abysmal poll numbers on the economy at a time of booming GDP and a resurgent job market. It is, they claim, all about the war. But as I wrote in the "Bush League Economy," the issue for the President and the […]

I tend to agree with Kevin Drum over at the Washington Monthly that the Dubai port deal is not necessarily the grave and gathering security risk its opponents decry. (The shocking political tone-deafness is another matter altogether.) But it certainly smells bad, in no small part because of the cronyism and close ties the Bush […]

Larry Summers may be out at Harvard, but it appears Perrspectives is in. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my recent piece, "GM and the War on Labor," was on the required reading list for Economics 1812, a class on the U.S. labor market. The class, not surprisingly called "The U.S. Labor Market," also […]

Faced with negative polls and a pessimistic American nation, President Bush's just completed 2006 State of the Union Address naturally focused on the theme of "the Hopeful Society." But like the stillborn "Ownership Society" vision before it, Bush's 2006 SOTU will be remembered not for its policy program, but for its partisan political purposes. The […]

Signs of China's rapid growth into an economic superpower are everywhere. The latest indicator comes in a report from the China National Bureau of Statistics announcing a staggering 9.9% rise in Chinese GDP in 2005. With its $2.26 trillion economy, China has leap-frogged the UK, France and Italy to become the fourth largest in the […]

The American manufacturing sector took another body blow today as Ford announced massive layoffs beginning in 2007. As many as 30,000 employees at 14 Ford plants in North America, up to 21% of the company's hourly workforce of 82,000, could be impacted by 2012. The announcement by the #2 American automaker comes within weeks of […]

To kick-off his 2006 campaign for permanent - and dangerously irresponsible - tax cuts, President Bush crowed on Friday about his economic stewardship. "The American economy," Bush boasted, "heads into 2006 with a full head of steam." New economic data released on the same day, however, suggests that the American economic locomotive may be experiencing […]