The Myth That Entitlements Destroy a Nation's Growth, Busted in 1 Chart
None of Europe's seven biggest welfare states are in a death spiral. Neither are we. More »
Advertisement
Matthew O'Brien is an associate editor at The Atlantic covering business and economics. He has previously written for The New Republic.
None of Europe's seven biggest welfare states are in a death spiral. Neither are we. More »
It's one step forward, and two steps back in Europe. More »
This is how a baby boom ends. Not with a bust, but with a lot of old workers.For the first time ever, workers over-55 are set to make up a bigger share of the workforce than workers between 25 and 34 years old. The chart below (via Conor Sen) shows the share of younger workers (blue) versus older workers (red) since 1950. It might not be long until over-55s outnumber the 25 to 34 crowd. With the Great Recession forcing so many Boomers to postpone retirement, their… More »
Congress and the Fed are far too happy with a recovery that has left 41 percent of the unemployed out of work for over six months More »
Where in the world is growth increasing? Take your time. I'll give you a minute to think about it. This is a depressingly difficult question.While you mull it over, here's where growth isn't increasing: China, Europe, or Great Britain. The central banks for all three eased policy on Thursday in response to their deteriorating outlooks. To put that in perspective, they collectively make up almost 40 percent of the global economy. If you prefer your goods news… More »
The Libor cheating scandal shows there is still something rotten in the state of banking. More »
Helping underwater borrowers could unleash a housing rebound that becomes a full-blown recovery. Here's how to do it. More »
It's one step forward and two steps back in Europe. More »
The welfare state is dead. Long live the welfare state!(Reuters) It's getting hard to keep track of which countries aren't Greece anymore. First, Ireland wasn't Greece. Then it kind of was. Then it was Portugal's turn to not be Greece. Then it was Portugal's turn to be Greece. Next, Spain wasn't Greece. But now it might be. At the very least it's Ireland. Although Uganda looks like it's in the clear. It's not Spain, which could be Greece. That's better than Cyprus… More »
Everything is a bubble nowadays. Even how many words a picture is worth. Take a look at this chart from the San Francisco Fed comparing housing prices in the U.S. and Norway over the past century. This picture is worth approximately eleventy billion words. (Note: Housing prices are inflation-adjusted and indexed to 100 from their 1985 levels).Norway has actually has had two housing bubbles the past two decades. The first looks relatively puny, but that's only… More »
We won't win the future if we wait for China to invest in it for us More »
In the land of the incompetent, the semi-competent is king. More »
But don't worry. If things get worse, the Fed will try to do its job. Kind of. Maybe. More »
Every day is the day the euro is saved. Every day the euro is doomed. More »
The anti-bailout party Syriza didn't win the most votes, but they did win the future in Greece. More »
Germany has to decide what to do with Spain -- and soon. More »
Psst, Angela. It's time to listen to Carly Rae Jepsen on the euro crisis. She's a savant about it. More »
Europe has a problem. Its firefighter doesn't have water in his buckets. He has kerosene.Just ask Spain. It only took 48 hours for Europe's €100 billion bailout of Spain's banks to backfire, massively so. Now things are getting much worse even faster.After surging on Monday, Spanish borrowing continued its vertical action on Tuesday. The chart below from Bloomberg shows the yield on Spain's 10-year bond. It briefly hit a euro-era high, before subsequently… More »
