No country is free of corruption. It is a severe problem in more than two-thirds of countries globally, some of which are major global economic powers, according to Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index.…
Money is the single largest cause of stress in the United States, the richest country in the world. And while the economy is still recovering from the Great Recession, with aggregate income on the rise,…
During the 2012 tax season, Americans paid an average of roughly $1 for every $10 they earned in state and local taxes — on top of taxes paid to the federal government. This is…
During the 2012 tax season, Americans paid an average of roughly $1 for every $10 they earned in state and local taxes — on top of taxes paid to the federal government. This is…
ThinkstockDriven largely by baby boomers, who started turning 65 in 2011, the U.S. elderly population is expanding at a record pace. The number of Americans 65 and older is estimated to reach 83.7 million…
The controversial education law No Child Left Behind has been recently revised for the first time since its introduction in 2001. The revisions are expected to return a degree of control over education policy…
The development of a nation is often conflated with economic growth. However, while economic strength is certainly a country’s means of development, is it what ultimately determines how developed that country is? According to…
Americans tend to work longer hours than in European countries and take very little time off — earning the country the nickname “no-vacation nation.” In fact, the United States is the only advanced economy…
More than 1.1 million violent crimes were reported in the United States in 2014, or 366 incidents per 100,000 Americans. Compared with 2013, the U.S. violent crime rate fell by 1%. The 2014 violent…
Life satisfaction in a given state is often based on highly subjective measures — whether the climate is nice, whether friends and family are present, and other factors. While a connection to a place…
U.S. home prices have recovered substantially since the housing crisis. The improvement, however, has been uneven, and in many U.S. cities housing markets continue to struggle. In others, property values and foreclosure rates have…
Most entrepreneurs start their businesses locally, and while in some countries conditions are favorable to do business, in others conditions are difficult. According to a recently released World Bank report, it takes roughly 20…
thinkstock.com A little more than 30% of American adults are college educated, a slight increase from a year ago when 29.6% of adults had at least a bachelor’s degree. Education levels in the United…
ThinkstockThis October, California passed a pay equity law — one of the first of its kind — that expands the grounds on which women can challenge gender discrimination in the workplace. Similar legislation at…
Wages for the wealthiest 1% of Americans more than doubled between 1979 and 2011. Wages for the median U.S. worker, by contrast, increased just 6% over that period. The gap between the rich and…
ThinkstockThe United States added 3.2 million jobs in 2014, a greater addition to the workforce than in 2013, when 2.3 million jobs were added. At the end of last year, there were 139 million…
Thinkstock Urban commuters collectively lost 6.9 billion hours, and 3.1 billion gallons of fuel to traffic delays last year. Excess fuel and lost productivity cost American commuters $160 billion in 2014, up from $114 billion…
thinkstock.com Life-threatening heat engulfed much of the Western United States this past weekend. Above-average, triple-digit temperatures struck Phoenix, Tuscon, Los Angeles and other cities on Saturday, breaking records and prompting warnings from local officials. More than 200 all-time high…
The U.S. labor market has improved considerably since the depths of the recession in 2009. However, traditional measures of the labor market may not always tell the full story. Despite the recovery, for example,…
thinkstock.comAlthough the U.S. unemployment rate has been steadily declining for some time, jobs remain scarce for many Americans. While some trades and skills remain in demand or carry the promise of strong job security,…
