Minnesota Raises Minimum Wage
ThinkstockYet one more state is about to raise the minimum wage. At the current rate at which states are taking this action, the move by some members of Congress to push the national hourly…
Economy
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Newest first · Page 302Treasury Deficit at Decade Low in March
The U.S. Treasury may have had a successful 30-year Treasury Bond auction, but the Treasury budget deficit is alive and well. That means more deficits ahead. The Treasury’s budget deficit for the first half…
Chicago Fed Evans – Fed Still Missing Employment and Inflation Targets
ThinkstockCharles Evans, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, was speaking on Wednesday afternoon regarding the Fed’s monetary goals and strategy. Evans has been a known backer of easing measures, and…
FOMC Minutes Less Hawkish Than Yellen Comments
ThinkstockThe Federal Reserve has released its minutes of the FOMC’s March 18 to 19 meeting. These comments should, in theory, not really move the market when you consider that the data is now out…
Wholesale Trade Rises in February
ThinkstockThe U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday morning that U.S. wholesale trade rose 0.7% in February to $436.1 billion from a downwardly revised January total and up 3.1% compared with February 2013. Economists polled by…
Is the Corporate Tax Rate Really Hurting the Economy at 35%?
ThinkstockThis is a million-dollar question, literally. Maybe even a billion-dollar question, given all the lobbying money being spent on the debate. The United States has a top corporate income tax rate of 35%. Add…
Greek Long-Term Bond Sale: Is It Too Soon?
ThinkstockGreece reportedly will announce a long-term bond sale as soon as Wednesday, the first time it has had access to capital markets since March 2010. But the question to ask is, is it too…
Fed’s Kocherlakota: FOMC Missing Inflation and Employment Targets
ThinkstockNarayana Kocherlakota, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, was speaking on Tuesday in a monetary policy report at the Rochester, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. The first topic is on the Fed falling…
IMF Looks for Better 2014 to 2015 Growth
By International Monetary Fund , via Wikimedia CommonsThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released its updated 2014 to 2015 economic outlook. The good news is that the group has increased its expectations moderately. The…
Small Business Optimism Rises
ThinkstockThe National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Tuesday morning reported that its small business optimism index for March rose two points from 91.4 in February to come in at 93.4. The index has yet…
Big Pop in Consumer Credit, but Not From Credit Card Use
ThinkstockThe Federal Reserve has released its report on consumer credit for the month of February. In February, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.5%. Revolving credit, effectively credit cards and…
Five Big Tax Myths
ThinkstockApril 15 is coming. That means it is tax crunch time. Everybody, short of accountants and CPAs, just loves to hate the U.S tax code. There are many myths about taxes, many of which are…
Labor Department Has Unexpected Score on Unemployment and Payrolls
Ed Brown, via Wikimedia CommonsThe U.S. Labor Department has issued its key unemployment and payrolls data for the month of March. With stocks at an all-time high, the trader and market participation interest was…
New Zealand Ranks as Best Place to Live
ThinkstockNew Zealand ranked in first place in a new survey of 132 nations, based on measurements that include fulfillment of needs and basic quality of life. The research, called the Social Progress Index, was…
Does a Wider Trade Deficit Even Matter?
ThinkstockThe trade balance has begun to matter again. After all, lower energy imports and higher energy exports have been a game changer in America. That being said, should we be concerned that one month’s…