During the ups and downs of this U.S. recession, Americans' faith in small business has grown, while their faith in big business has not. Three times more Americans now say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in small business (66%) than say this about big business (19%). And this gap has grown since the global financial collapse.

"If we do nothing to slow these skyrocketing costs, we will eventually be spending more on Medicare and Medicaid than every other government program combined.  Put simply, our health care problem is our deficit problem."  More

Study: New firms add an average of 3 million net jobs in their first year, while older companies combined lose 1 million net jobs annually.

Since the first half of 2007, the number of employed engineers is down 12%, while the number of employed scientists is up 3%.  Perhaps a sign that we are keeping the R in R&D, while losing the D. A decline in the number of engineers is not a good thing.

Because a Value Added Tax (VAT) has been floated as a solution to the government's budget problems, we did a back of the envelope estimate of the VAT rates that would be needed to raise enough money to cut Obama's deficits to zero.

Going by Census data available through 2008, an individual with a bachelor's degree would earn about three times as much money over their life than an individual who dropped out of high school, and a bit under twice what a high school graduate might earn. Meanwhile, an individual with just some college or an associates degree would earn double the lifetime income of a high school dropout.

The combination of the rising cost of a legal education and the realities of the legal job market mean that going to law school may not pay off for a large number of law students. Dean David Van Zandt of Northwestern Law School estimates that to make a positive return on the investment of going to law school, given the current costs, the average law student must earn an average annual salary of at least $65,315.

The Tax Foundation has launched a "Bush tax cuts" calculator which allows taxpayers to compare their 2011 federal income tax liabilities under three scenarios: if all the Bush tax cuts expire completely at the end of this year, if they're all extended into 2011 or made permanent, and if President Obama's budget is adopted, which includes a combination of expirations and extensions.

Tuition has been increasing at such an alarming rate that some say we're witnessing yet another bubble in America - this time not in the stock market or in housing, but in college tuition.

We’ve just had the biggest boom and bust in real history in recent history.  Nevertheless, real estate has still greatly outperformed the stock market over the past ten years.

The jobless rate in 39 states and Washington, D.C. fell in June compared to the prior month, as the nation’s unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 9.5%, the Labor Department said. Meanwhile, five states saw unemployment rate increases, while the rate was unchanged in six other states.Despite the improvements in the jobless rates, 27 states posted a decline in payroll employment, while 21 notched... More

This recession looks very different, and much more troubling, than those in the recent past.  I wonder how this dramatic change in the nature of unemployment will alter traditional macroeconomic relationships?

The National Federation of Independent Business Index of Small Business Optimism  grew weaker. Seventy percent of the decline this month resulted from deterioration in the outlook for business conditions and expected real sales gains.  Owners have no confidence that economic policies will fix the economy.“The U.S. economy faces hurricane force headwinds and the government is at the center of the storm, making... More

U.S. Manufacturing output has more than doubled since 1975 while manufacturing employment has decreased by about 8 million jobs, resulting in more than a three-fold increase in worker productivity (output per worker) since the 1970s. Therefore, it's the dramatic increase in the productivity of American workers that helps explain the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs.

The level of public debt in many industrial countries is on an unsustainable path.  Current budget deficits, partly cyclical but also swollen by policy responses to the crisis, are large in relation to GDP.

The regional variation in economic performance during this Great Recession has been fascinating to watch, especially here from Texas where the economic slowdown has been relatively mild.

The IRS recently released some interesting new tax return data by age group for 2008. One set of numbers on taxpayers with dividend income sheds light on how seniors will be impacted if the current 15 percent tax rate on dividend income is allowed to expire at the end of 2010 and dividends revert to being taxed at the personal income tax rate, which could go as high as 39.6 percent. 

Most upper-income Americans believe their living standards are improving, according to Galllup. The percentage of people saying their living standards were getting better was also higher for younger Americans.

Employment rose by 93,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.2 percentage points to 7.9%. These gains offset nearly all the employment losses observed during the labour market downturn which began in the fall of 2008.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan recently announced that he plans to cut the country's top corporate tax rate in increments and expand the tax base. Currently, the country imposes the highest corporate tax among industrialized nations, an "honor" which it now seems the United States will soon have.

With the typical college degree from the schools in this report, a graduate will earn about $1.95 million over a 30-year career, netting about $670,000 more than a high-school graduate. Not all schools are created equal, though.

Per pupil school spending has increased nearly three-fold in the United States, adjusted for inflation, since 1970. And test scores?

We follow the teen jobs scene for one major reason: teens are the most marginal of workers in the U.S. economy.Which brings us to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' June employment situation report, which suggests that things will be taking a rather dramatic turn for the worst in the latter half of 2011.

In the cut-throat world of business it means a lot to be admired by your peers; here's the companies that have managed it.

The USDA recently updated its report on "Food expenditures as a share of disposable personal income," and reported that in 2009, Americans spent 9.47% of their disposable income on food (5.55% on food at home and 3.93% on food away from home).  The share of income spent on food last year was just slightly higher than the 9.42% in 2008, which is... More

While 15 of the 49 largest cities in the U.S. saw year-over-year declines in their unemployment rates in May,  22 of the 49 cities with populations over one million posted unemployment rates in excess of 9.3%. The highest rate in the nation among large cities was 14.1% for Las Vegas, which has been particularly hard hit following the housing bust. On the other end of the spectrum Washington had the lowest rate at... More

In the first five months of 2010, an amazing 43% of women workers were employed in health, education, or government.  This percentage is up from 37% in 2000. These sectors have done better than the rest of the economy, leading to a much higher unemployment rate for men.

Change in federal government spending since 2007:  +24%. Change in federal revenues since 2007:  -14%