What An Unemployment Rate Does Not Tell You

A single statistic like the unemployment rate for Japan, the European Union and the U.S. can be misleading until we look more closely at what it represents.

The Facts Behind the Gender Pay Gap

Although the gender pay gap can be women earning 78 cents for every dollar a male earns, the data, depending on so many variables, is more complicated.

Why the GDP is Much More Than a Number

Seemingly just a statistic, how we calculate the GDP and how it is used can be controversial and affect the lives of millions of people.

Surprising Hand-To-Mouth Households

Close to one third of all households (38 million) in the US live hand-to-mouth. Like me, perhaps you have always assumed that a hand-to-mouth (HtM) household is low income. Spending all disposable income each week, the hand-to-mouth household is unable…

A New Cause of the Housing Bubble

In the 663 page report from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (remember them???), the 2000-2011 real estate boom and bust is blamed on relatively predictable conditions. Just glancing at their chapter titles and conclusions, you can see that they blame…

Income Inequality Questions

Seeing economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty’s favorite graph of the year at Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog, I thought of Benoit Mandelbrot. The father of fractal geometry, Dr. Mandelbrot told us that the closer you look, the more you see. From a…