The Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service's annual survey of households with $1 million or more in investable or liquid  asssets found the number of millionaires in the U.S. has declined sharply over the past two years.

It's pretty easy to find articles in the media and in various food blogs complaining (or worse, whining) about how expensive food is these days. But the chart  tells quite a different story.

Recent poll data show that seniors, who are covered by Medicare, are much less interested in health reform.

The U.S. economy has never been more energy efficient than it is today, and it just keeps getting more and more efficient every year as we find ways to produce more and more output with less and less energy.

The same factors driving health care spending for humans are also impacting healthcare services for our pets. And unlike human healthcare, veterinary care has almost no government provision and very little insurance. In other words, almost all health spending on Fido is paid out of pocket. And yet we continue to spend more.

The unemployment rate in June for American teenagers was 24% (see chart above), for black teens it was 38%, and even White House economists are predicting more job losses. So how about raising the cost of that teenage labor?

A detailed look, via BLS statistics, at how the average U.S. consumer spends a paycheck.

Throughout last year's presidential campaign and continuing through President Obama's first two quarters in office, income redistribution has been a hot-button topic among policymakers, the media, and the general public. A new study by the Tax Foundation estimates by 2012 how much income will be redistributed, and where along the income spectrum, by the President's proposed budget.

The biggest U.S. cities have seen their growth rates increase in recent quarters as unemployment and the real-estate slump have slowed migration to the suburbs. Below, see population growth rates for top U.S. cities and the increase in their growth rates since the year 2001.