Younger Americans are significantly more optimistic about the direction of their personal finances than those who are older, with 73% of those aged 18 to 29 saying their financial situation is getting better, compared with 23% of those 65 and older. However, age makes relatively little difference in Americans’ views […] Read more »
Yes, money really can buy happiness
“Does money buy happiness?” is the kind of open-ended question that inspires great novels and Baz Luhrmann movies, but it also has spawned quite a research program in economics. The University of Southern California’s Richard Easterlin kicked the discussion off in 1974 when he proposed his now-famous “Easterlin paradox.” [cont.] […] Read more »
Austerity is hurting our health, say researchers
Austerity is having a devastating effect on health in Europe and North America, driving suicide, depression and infectious diseases and reducing access to medicines and care, researchers said on Monday. Detailing a decade of research, Oxford University political economist David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine and […] Read more »
Wealth Gap Among Races Widened Since Recession
Millions of Americans suffered a loss of wealth during the recession and the sluggish recovery that followed. But the last half-decade has proved far worse for black and Hispanic families than for white families, starkly widening the already large gulf in wealth between white Americans and most minority groups, according […] Read more »
Middle-class Americans still aren’t being helped by Washington
… Guns and immigration dominate the debate in Washington— issues that are worthy of attention, but neither of which speaks directly to the issues that remain at the top of most Americans’ list of concerns, which include jobs, the economy and economic security. The political system appears frozen when it […] Read more »
The Morose Middle Class
The Middle Class is in a funk, its view of the future growing dim as fear rolls in like a storm. An Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll released Thursday found that while most Americans (56 percent) hold out hope that they‘ll be in a higher class at some point, even […] Read more »