Japan's Nikkei share average plunged 10.6 percent on Tuesday, posting the worst two-day rout since 1987, as hedge funds bailed out after reports of rising radiation near Tokyo. ~ Reuters, March 15, 2011

While it's far too early to assess the full impact of the Japanese disaster on...

The February unemployment rate is 8.9 percent. The broader Bureau of Labor Statistics U6 jobless rate is 15.9 percent. The report shows a net increase of 192,000 jobs. However, we need 127,000 new jobs every month to keep up with population growth. At this rate it will take 11.2 years...

Maybe it's something in the water. Some potent little parasite has wormed its way into Washington, and now everyone's coming down with the disease: certifiable deficit hysteria. Politicians and pundits are all marching in lockstep chanting "Cut, Cut, Cut," fearing that if they don't they'll be assaulted by the right-wing...

January's reported unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 9.0 percent with the economy only adding 36,000 new jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' U6 jobless rate, which stands at 16.1 percent, is more accurate, since it counts "discouraged workers" who've given up looking for a job. Right now, more than...

More than 70 percent of Americans say big bonuses should be banned this year at Wall Street firms that took taxpayer bailouts, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.

An additional one in six favors slapping a 50 percent tax on bonuses exceeding $400,000. Just 7 percent of U.S. adults...

According to the Associated Press: "The nation's unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent last month, its lowest level in 19 months. That was because more people found jobs, but also because some people gave up on their job searches."

It's time to stop kidding ourselves. Despite the rise...

What a great year for Wall Street: profits up, bonuses up and, best of all, criticism down, especially from Washington. Somehow Wall Street has much of America believing its lies and rationalizations. We're even beginning to forget that Wall Street is largely responsible for the economic mess we're in.

"In a remarkable show of bipartisanship, the House gave final approval to the measure just before midnight Thursday, overcoming an attempt by rebellious Democrats who wanted to impose a higher estate tax than the one Obama agreed to." ~ Associated Press

This tax "reform" bill is as stunning for what...

Let me get this straight. First, a bunch of financial barons, in their wild pursuit of profits from reckless financial bets (affectionately called "financial innovation"), crash our entire economy. Then we, the taxpayers, fearing another Great Depression, bail them out with trillions of dollars in cash, asset guarantees and market...

"Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them." ~ "The Great Thanksgiving Host," The Ludwig Von...

If future job creation reaches about 208,000 jobs per month, the average monthly job creation for the best year for job creation in the 2000s, it will take almost 140 months (about 11.5 years) to reach pre-recession employment levels. In a more optimistic scenario with 321,000 jobs created per month,...

Please, dear fingers, don't let me type a blog that knocks the Democrats -- at least not now, with so much at stake. We can flail away after next Tuesday. This is the time to type the obvious: No matter how bad the Democrats are, the Republicans are worse, far...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week (Oct 14, 2010).

Let's be honest. Wouldn't you like to rake in a cool $900,000 for one hour's work? No? Still have hippie ideals, perhaps? You could work for just 10 minutes and walk off with $150,000. Push...

As thousands of demonstrators marched in European capitals on Wednesday to protest recent austerity measures, officials in Brussels proposed stiffening sanctions for governments that fail to cut their budget deficits and debt swiftly enough. ("Workers In Europe Protest Austerity Measures", New York Times, 9/30/2010)

Oh, do the...

The ranks of the working-age poor in the United States climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty. The overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3 per cent, or 43.6 million people,...

The August unemployment numbers are ugly, yet again. Nearly 30 million Americans are still jobless or forced into part-time jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics official unemployment rate is 9.6%. It's broader and more telling jobless rate (U6) of 16.7% confirms that we're stuck in our own version...

"Slowly but surely we are moving in the right direction. We're on the right track." ~ Barack Obama, Aug. 18, 2010

President Obama's pollyanish comments coupled with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' outburst against "the professional left" reveal just how out of touch the Obama Administration is with the tens of...

My wife, a labor economist, is upset with NPR's "The Take Away" (and many other news programs) for reinforcing the myth that somehow the unemployed are to blame for not having a job. We all should be angry as well because the jobs just aren't there. In fact, the latest...

Take a hard, cold look at June's tragic unemployment numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics rate is 9.5 percent, roughly where it's been for more than a year. The BLS jobless rate (U6) is 16.5 percent -- nearly 30 million people are without jobs or forced into part-time work. More...

"In reality, credit pollutants pose the same kind of threat to our economy as chemical toxins do to our environment. Like their chemical counterparts, they tend to concentrate in the weakest and most vulnerable parts of the financial system, and that's where the toxic effects show up first: the subprime...