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December 9, 2025

Has Marriage Fallen Because Young Adults Can’t Afford Homes?

If you’ve been on social media in the past ten years, you’ve surely seen it: The lamentation that it’s impossible for young adults in America today to buy a home…

November 30, 2025

Our Economy Is Not Stagnant

Both sides of the political aisle are misleadingly bleak about the state of the American worker. A national Pew survey conducted in April of this year found that 56 percent…

November 26, 2025

How Not to Redefine Poverty

I tried to let it go. Someone mentioned the essay to me on Monday, when it was a Substack post. I tweeted out some quick thoughts as to why no…

October 15, 2025

Don’t Choose Your Own Adventure: Understanding Middle-Class Earnings Trends

What should we make of earnings trends in the United States? People can differ in their opinions about whether some reported trend is impressive or cause for concern, of course….

August 8, 2025

Revise the Messenger

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported out the latest employment numbers on Friday, August 1, finding that nonfarm establishments added just 73,000 jobs in July compared with June. That was a…

June 17, 2025

Work Requirements For Medicaid Could Increase Income and Reduce Poverty

New Congressional Budget Office figures last week indicate that the reconciliation bill passed by the House and under review in the Senate would reduce annual income among the poorest households by…

May 7, 2025

Did ‘China Shock’ Throw Millions of Americans Out of Work?

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that “3.7 million Americans lost their jobs” due to the “China Shock”—the increased import competition occurring after China was granted membership…

March 27, 2025

The Looming Debt Crisis, the Trump Tax Cuts, and Medicaid

Let’s start with a chart to understand the dire fiscal situation we are in as a nation. Figure 1. Federal Debt Held by the Public as a Share of Gross…

February 20, 2025

The American Dream Is Not a Coin Flip, and Wages Have Not Stagnated

In my last column, I showed that Americans’ assessments of the economy have tracked the official unemployment rate well over the long run. That is important because it suggests that both…

January 16, 2025

Should We Believe the Economic Data or Americans’ “Lyin’” Eyes? The Answer Is Yes.

Many Americans are convinced the economy is ailing and that life is financially tougher today than a decade—or a generation—ago. Social media posts wax nostalgic for a long-lost era when…