It can be hard to separate fact from fiction in the economic statements being tossed around lately. Which of the following are true? Social Security A) The average income of people receiving Social Security benefits is higher than the average…
Effects of U.S. default unknown even to economists
Nobody knows exactly what political toying with a possible U.S. Treasury default is doing to interest rates, to bond prices, to the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies or to the general growth of the economy and…
Cost of living changes put spotlight on CPI
No index is perfect, even of consumer prices. All give useful information, but none gives a perfect indication of changes in the prices faced by any specific household. And given human nature, some people always will argue that such indexes…
Some government growth isn’t growth at all
I learned a lot about government finance from my mother. Once, when I was 8, on hearing that a prosperous local farmer was tooling around in a new Buick, she sniffed, “Yes, and the county pays his mother’s nursing home…