Job-search site Juju.com compiled a ranking of the best cities in the U.S. to find a job. The researchers compared the number of job seekers in each of the largest 50 cities in the country, provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), with the number of job openings per city from its comprehensive database. The result? A pocket guide to an increasingly complicated market.

Obligations for federal domestic spending rose 16 percent in fiscal year 2009 to $3.2 trillion. That comes out to $10,548 per person living in the United States. Alaska received nearly twice the national average. The District of Columbia, however, received an even higher amount per capita.

Pessimism is rampant, and most of the articles and commentaries I see have some doom-and-gloom flavor to them; indeed, many pundits are already claiming to see a double-dip recession either in progress or as imminent. I think the "conservative" bull case—that the economy is growing at a sub-par trend rate of 3-4%, which will leave the unemployment rate uncomfortably high for some time to come—is not getting its... More

The end of lucrative tax credits in April took their toll on housing, sending existing-home sales in July to their lowest level in more than a decade.

If you are a new college graduate, what kind of job can you expect to get?  That’s obviously a tough question in this economic environment, so I first decided to see where young college grads are working today.  The tables here look at the top occupational groups for young (aged 25-34) holders of bachelor’s degrees and associate degrees.

Since 1973,  inflation-adjusted returns for the S&P 500 were a fabulous 15.3 percent gain in “gridlock” years, and a horrible 9.9 percent loss in years with unified government (see chart).

We can use average unemployment insurance tax rates to get a sense of which states' politicians and bureaucrats expected that the conditions they created for economic growth in their states were such that they would have to deal with the consequences of significantly higher unemployment thanks to their insider knowledge of the likely effects of their economic policies.

Poland was the only European country to avoid a recession, as shown by this chart.

The pace of new trial modifications has slowed sharply from over 150,000 in September to under 17,00 in July. The program is winding down.

Our state of knowledge about what works to improve student success in college is pathetic and the federal government, which makes a huge investment in student success, especially through Pell Grants, has not stepped up to the plate.But we do know that students, who spend an incredible amount of time applying for college, are often unprepared for what happens when they enroll.

A more comprehensive view of monthly international trade activity would recognize that exports and imports are equally important to the U.S. economy, and therefore the overall total amount of international trade taking place by American buyers and sellers should be just as important as, or maybe even more important than, the net difference between exports and imports.

An analysis by the Tax Foundation estimates the average increase an average middle income taxpayer will pay in each of the country's congressional districts if the Bush tax cuts expire. Above are the districts by state and representative whose taxpayers would on average pay the most if the cuts expire, according to study.

A year and a half after Congress passed the economic-stimulus plan, the state aid and tax cuts in the package have nearly ended. Infrastructure spending has been slower to flow out, and some big projects the Obama administration touted are still months from visible developments. Here is a breakdown of appropriated funds and where they stand today.

Many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit. Let me make clear why, in today's economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit-why reducing taxes is the... More

How well do the White House's Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office forecast where the U.S. budget deficit will go?

Revenues today remain near their historic norms despite changes in particular tax policies over the last several decades.  Revenues have fluctuated over the last 50 years between 14.8% of GDP (during the crisis in 2009) and 20.6% of GDP (most recently in 2000) but have never approached the whopping 23.3% estimated for 2035.

While the federal mortgage modification program has helped stabilize house prices in recent months, it’s done so by building up shadow inventory and delaying additional defaults, the numbers suggest.

Many people do not not really understand the Laffer curve. They think as long as we are to the left of the revenue maximizing point, everything is fine. But getting close to the top of the Laffer curve means that we are exponentionally getting closer to an infinite marginal cost of government activity.

Once again the key problem is lack of demand.

Since the recession started in the fourth quarter of 2007, the common theme has been about Americans cutting back on their spending. But the latest numbers from the BEA show aggregate personal consumption expenditures are up 2.9%, or $285 billion.  So here is a table of winners.

We're becoming increasingly concerned by the media's repetitive use of the word "unexpected" with respect to the number of new claims being each week for unemployment insurance. It's as if the "professional" media just doesn't have a collective clue as to what kind of numbers they ought to expect!

The tide has turned after the Great Recession and Americans have recently been saving the highest share of income in about 20 years, as the chart above shows. Is that good news? Perhaps, although it comes with caveats.

Debates over tax policy - such as the question of whether or not the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire - tend to be waged on the basis of class grounds.New data from the IRS provides us some insights on the composition of tax filers by age and how much of the nation's tax burden they pay. While the data does not break down the income levels of taxpayers by age, the data can still give lawmakers a new perspective on... More

Employers now have a surprising number of job openings available, despite the persistently high unemployment rate. Public policy may be to blame.

States are taking on more debt. Here’s your state’s burden per capita.

The usual development conversation about determinants of per capita income revolves around modern choices of institutions or economic policies. But what if history is the main determinant of development today?

The changes in the income tax rates that took effect in 2001 and 2003 are referred to as the "Bush tax cuts," and you'll find more than one million results for a Google search of the phrase 'Bush Tax Cuts.'  Certainly, compared to the "Clinton tax hikes" that took effect in 1993 and raised the top marginal income rate to 39.6%, the reductions of the ... More