Fewer Americans form households after recession, hampering economic recovery - The Washington Post

More than one in five adults between ages 25 and 34 live with their parents or in other "multi-generational" living arrangements, the highest level since the 1950s, according to the Pew Research Center. Analysts estimate that there are more than 2 million fewer occupied homes th …

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Is Romney the Wrong Kind of Rich? | Business | TIME.com

There is no question that the United States is an (economic) unequal society - and one that's getting more unequal by the day. Current levels of inequality are nearly high as they were in the days just before the stock market crash of 1929.  Research by economist …

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Education Slowdown Threatens U.S. - WSJ.com

Those with a high school-diploma had an 8% unemployment rate in March (2012), roughly double that of college graduates, who had a 4.2% unemployment rate. Workers with bachelors degrees earn 45% more in wages on averages those of demographically similar high-school graduates.&nbs …

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Bloomberg View: Raise the Minimum Wage - Businessweek

About 10 states are considering raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9.80 an hour in 3 increments by 2014.  In many instances, minimum-wage work is all that's available, which may explain why such workers are older and better educated than they were t …

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Mandatory Health Insurance: The Case For, and Against - Businessweek

The Case "For" Mandatory Health Insurance ...because virtually everyone will, at some point, need health services, no one is truly inactive. ...Congress found those who do not purchase health insurance, and instead self-insure, almost inevitably take health care services they ca …

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Bloomberg View: Millionaire Taxes Aren't the Answer; Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan Gets Better - Businessweek

There is no single answer to fixing the tax systems of all developed economies, as their tax structures and cultures differ widely. Yet governments should clearly avoid focus on the superrich alone and instead reach down to touch the upper-middle class as well. Doing so would  …

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Vitals - Health care overhaul, year 2: What's here, what's coming

Beginning in 2014, most people will have to have health insurance or pay a fine. For individuals, the penalty would start at $95 a year, or up to 1% of income, whichever is greater, and rise to $695, or 2.5% of income, by 2016. For families the penalty would be $2,085 or 2.5% of …

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Companies Get Caught in the Pension Vise - Businessweek

Under the Federal Pension Protection Act, which passed in 2006 and mostly took effect in 2008, tighter accounting rules gave employers 7 years to fully fund their retirement plans and required them to use a specified, market-based rate of return to compute liabilities instead of  …

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Housing Still Drowning in Underwater Mortgages - Real Time Economics - WSJ

$715 billion is the estimated amount of "underwaterness" hobbling the housing sector in 2011 fourth quarter.  The more negative equity a homeowner has, the more likely the owner will default. According to mortgage-data firm CoreLogic, 11.1 million of homeowners had an  …

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Housing prices fell in December, continue to hurt economic recovery - The Washington Post

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The Hidden Burden of Ultra-Low Interest Rates - Businessweek

Traditionally, pension funds followed a simple allocation rule of thumb, investing 60% of their money in stocks and 40% in bonds, according to John W. Ehrhardt.

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Unemployment Scars Likely to Last for Years

Economists and academicians believe long-term unemployment may be a bigger problem than high unemployment. Unprecented rates of long-term unemployment could threaten the economy's recent gains.

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Washington's year of drama leaves little done regarding debt

The portion of the debt held by outside investors stands at nearly 70 percent of the economy - more than at any time in U.S.

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Where Greece Is Right and Germany Is Wrong - Businessweek

Europe’s economy is already so weak that Teutonic belt-tightening, however meritorious in ordinary times, threatens to push the Continent into a deep and long-lasting recession.

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China vs. the U.S.: The Case for Second Place - Businessweek

It is now a forgone conclusion that China's economy will become the biggest in the world sometime very soon. Over the past 10 years, the annual real growth of China's gross domestic product averaged 10.5%, compared with 1.7% in the U.S. On the bright side, the U.S.

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U.S. deficit panel weighs Medicare doctor payments | Reuters

If Congress fails to act by the end of the year (2011), doctors treating patients enrolled in Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled will be hit with a 30 percent pay cut in January (2012). The pay cut is rooted in a 14-year-old deficit-reduction law aimed …

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No Jobs Bill, and No Ideas - NYTimes.com

There are 14 million people out of work, wages are falling, poverty is rising, and a second recession may be blowing in, but not a single Republican would even allow debate on a sound plan to cut middle-class taxes and increase public-works spending.

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Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine: Small Isn't Beautiful

The notion that small business is the force behind prosperity is not true. The longer the U.S.

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FDIC's Latest Closing: Its Own Offices - WSJ.com

About 1,000 banks and savings institutions have disappeared since the end of 2007, leaving 7,513 FDIC-insured institutions as of June 30.

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Home Forecast Calls for Pain

Economists, builders and mortgage analysts are predicting the weakened U.S.

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In Hungary, the Jobless Go to Labor Camp - BusinessWeek

Coming to America soon? Under Hungary's plan approved by Parliament in July, by 2012 some 300,000 people will be working in community service jobs - doing everything from picking up trash to building stadiums - instead of drawing welfare or unemployment benefits. Hungary nee …

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Obama sends jobs bill to Congress, urges

President Obama unveiled his "American Jobs Act" bill last week. The bill includes various tax cuts for businesses, including a payroll tax cut and tax credits for companies that hire "veterans" or who've been unemployed for more than six months. The legislation also includes a …

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Stimulus package: How Obama will pay for it - Sep. 12, 2011

President Obama proposed to pay for his $447 billion stimulus package largely by taxing the rich more. Obama's largest proposed pay-for -- which the White House estimates would raise roughly $400 billlion over 10 years -- would limit itemized deductions and certain other exempti …

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Analysis: Payroll tax cuts seen doable, but boost modest | Reuters

Under President Obama's tax plan, businesses would get a holiday from payroll taxes for new hires and lower rates for existing employees, while workers would be spared the expiration of prior tax cuts at year-end and receive a 1.1% point reduction from current levels th …

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Help Displaced Workers - NYTimes.com

New York Times Op-Ed : Job Creation (1) Private employers who increase employment would get a tax credit to cover a substantial share (say 40%) of the payroll costs of new hires; they would get a check even if they didn't owe any taxes. (2) Recent research shows that investments  …

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