Joe Mihalic is a recent graduate from the Harvard Business School (HBS) who managed to pay off $91,000 in student debt in seven months.  He is currently enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame because he documented the details of his journey in a blog.  His story is one of determination and commitment to a goal. … Read more

The Federal Reserve puts out two publications that address the level, change and composition of household net worth.  The most widely known is the Household Balance Sheet table in the quarterly Flow of Funds (FOF) report.  This report is released about two months after the end of a quarter.  The FOF for the first quarter… Read more

Tyler Cowen is a creative economist.  Here, he proposes a novel approach to Europe.  The key paragraph: Just to make the comparison biting, what if we postponed the costly benefits part of ACA for a year (it may be struck down anyway) and send $200 billion directly to Spain and its banks?  Is more money… Read more

The Obama Administration has seized upon a recent article in MarketWatch by Rex Nutting (here) that purports to show that federal spending growth under President Obama is the lowest of any Administration since Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Press Secretary Carney and the President have glommed onto this story with abandon, arguing that the President is, by… Read more

A major event in the financial markets last month was the initial public offering of FaceBook (ticker symbol FB).  Despite the subsequent decline in price, the financial press reported that this IPO “instantly” created many new millionaires and billionaires.  By doing so, the IPO has worsened economic inequality in the U.S.  This is because inequality… Read more