Since the dawn of the New Millennium, the portion of 25 and 30 year olds living with their parents has followed an unbroken, almost linear upward trajectory. A national survey found that 38 percent of 18 to 29-year olds are living in their childhood rooms. As parents across the country wonder when their recent graduates … Continue reading
Category Archives: Economy
The Marijuana Revolution
Recently the legalization of marijuana made traction in two states: New York legalized medical marijuana and Washington issued business licenses to jumpstart the sale of recreational marijuana. On July 9, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Compassionate Care Act and New York became the 23rd state along with the District of Columbia to legalize medical marijuana. … Continue reading
Validity of the ExIm Bank: Why Market Radicals Fail to Understand the Modern Economy
Recent political proceedings on Capitol Hill regarding the reauthorization of the Export Import Bank have revealed a deficit in economic competence on the part of market fundamentalists who believe that the Ex-Im Bank should be shuttered. Founded in 1934 under the FDR administration, the Ex-Im bank has been one of the primary establishments within … Continue reading
Why Is The EU Running Off With Our Chianti And Parmesan?
Ladies and gentlemen, our champagne and charcuterie are in danger. Bubbling to the forefront of the upcoming round of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations is the controversial U.S. usage of regional European names for food and drinks manufactured by U.S. companies. Many EU members demand that U.S. wine, spirits and food companies … Continue reading
America Doesn’t Need Another Tax Hike
Hillary Clinton is not the only feature of Washington that is “dead broke”: the Highway Trust Fund is set to run out of money by late August, and members of Congress are scrambling to find ways to raise revenue. One solution, proposed by Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), is to raise the … Continue reading
Increasing Minimum Wage Leads to Decreasing Economy
The hike in minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 could negatively impact the economy as seen in the American Action Forum’s analysis of a $1 increase in minimum wage from 2013, which shows a “1.48 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, a 0.18 percentage point decrease in the net job growth rate, a 4.67 … Continue reading
Pay As You Earn: Not the Solution to Student Debt Crisis
President Obama’s expansion of the Pay As You Earn program for student loan payment while earning support still fails to fix the root of the student debt problem. The expansion allows for more people to become eligible for their student loan payments to be capped at 10 percent of their monthly income, which is based … Continue reading
Volcker and The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Enforcing Ineffective Regulation Since 2013?
One fundamental principle of financial markets is the relationship between risk and return. This tenet is reflected in the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the workhorse of security pricing, where the return required by investors is measured by adding the risk free rate (such as a treasury bond) to a market risk premium, adjusted for … Continue reading
Playing Politics With America’s Retirement
Social Security is both the largest program in the federal budget and one of the most fiscally unsustainable. The program has already begun paying out more in benefits than it is taking in through payroll taxes. By 2033, the Social Security Trust Fund will be drained and the benefits paid out will decline by 25 … Continue reading
Discharge Petition Irrelevant, Let’s Get Back to the Facts
Two weeks ago, in the midst of immigration “deadlock,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) submitted a discharge petition in order to retrieve HB-15 from committee and bring it to a floor vote. HB-15 is the House version of the “Gang of 8” immigration reform bill passed in the Senate last spring. The media focus … Continue reading
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