In many of today's important "emerging markets," demographic pressures may constrain economic growth more significantly than people may think.

On Sunday, April 1st  2012 the United States will become the developed country with the highest statutory corporate tax rate.  Japan, the previous ‘champion,’ is set to lower their rates leaving America in the top spot.

U.S. House of Representatives hearing on tax policy impacts on the commercial application of renewable energy technology

The Occupy Wall Street phenomenon is perfectly understandable if we recognize it as an artifact of the conventional narrative about the financial crisis—that it was caused by Wall Street greed and insufficient regulation. If the demonstrators new the truth—that the government's housing policy caused the financial crisis and the subsequent recession—they would be on the Capitol steps.

April 1 may be a day for jokes, but on Sunday Japan ceded to the United States a distinction that is no laughing matter: the highest combined statutory corporate tax rate (state, local, and federal) in the developed world.

Everybody who pays attention to these sorts of things knows Muslim societies are almost uniquely immune to the forces that have been driving down fertility rates on every continent for decades. But everybody, it seems, fell asleep before the final act.

China's new leadership is threatening to stay content with slower economic growth, and the country's manufacturing, housing, and export sectors are experiencing problems. Nonetheless, China has an opportunity to influence economic growth in 2012 through stimulus measures to its own economy.

In less than twenty-five years, government “affordable housing” and other housing policies have turned a healthy market into a financial ruin. Until Fannie and Freddie’s market dominance and the government’s role in the housing finance system are substantially reduced or eliminated, the United States will continue to have an inferior and unstable housing market.