Pessimism has a strong intellectual hold among many political activists, and 60% of the respondents in the Huffington Post poll about my book "Rebound: Why America Will Emerge Stronger from the Financial Crisis" think I must have my head in the sand if I think that our economy is going...

A million bucks isn't what it used to be, but it is still a nice chunk of change.

So how many people can expect to have a net worth over their lifetimes?

The key phrase here is "over their lifetimes." Wealth accumulation is very much associated with age....

In my last blog, I showed that average credit card debt was much less than the ballyhooed number of $9,300 per household. Many researchers (Elizabeth Warren, Economic Policy Institute, and Center for American Progress to name a few) cite the growth of debt in relation to disposable income --...

In my last blog, I showed that average credit card debt was much less than the ballyhooed number of $9,300 per household. Many researchers (Elizabeth Warren, Economic Policy Institute, and Center for American Progress to name a few) cite the growth of debt in relation to disposable income --...

CreditCards.com recently released a report saying that the average American household held $9,300 in credit card debt in 2004. This is a big number that would cause great pain for most families if it were anywhere near the real number.

There already have been a few comments...

The common wisdom among progressives is that people think the economy is in the toilet and are ready to vote for Democrats on that basis. Not so fast! Polling results are actually quite mixed with people expressing confidence about own their economic situation but not about the economy as a...

What's the income of the typical American?

Such a simple question, yet the most commonly used number to answer this question gives a misleading impression of how people live -- the last census survey reports that median household income was $46,326 in 2005. [Note: The median is used because...