Labor Day Sentiments 2011, or, For Whom the (Job) Bell Tolls (Nov. 7, 2112 — Washington, D.C.) President Susan Wallace — riding last year’s surge in employment to 19.7% and the dollar’s continued appreciation against the Yen and Swiss Franc — easily coasted to victory at the polls yesterday in her bid for reelection to a second...Read More
Improving Consumer Sentiment Buoys “Medium Ticket” Items American consumers are finally coming out of hiding. After months of penny-pinching amid the recession, new figures “showing an improving job market, rising factory output and increased retail sales ” suggest that consumers are no longer restricting their budgets to necessities like food and medicine. They are starting...Read More
Social Stigma vs. Financial Self-Interest Across U.S., Food Stamp Use Soars and Stigma Fades –Headline, The New York Times (11/28/09) [A new academic paper] argues that far more of the estimated 15 million American homeowners who are underwater on their mortgages should stiff their lenders and take a hike. –Kenneth Harney, “The Moral Dimensions of...Read More
