Joe Nocera
The national implications of Scott Walker’s victory in Wisconsin
Wisconsonites voted Tuesday to keep incumbent Scott Walker in the governor’s seat. The recall election is over, but Tea Party supporters, union organizers and voters are speaking out on what the results mean for the rest of the country.
March Madness Economics
There’s a lot of money to be made off March Madness. At $122 billion, the amount of spending the NCAA’s annual basketball tournament generates is equal to Iceland’s GDP. That total includes $614 million in TV advertising, $300 million in NCAA merchandise, and $185 million in corporate sponsorship. So why aren’t the athletes paid? Joe […]
A Look at the Markets at Home and Abroad with Joe Nocera
Greece has once again narrowly avoided defaulting on their $172 billion debt by agreeing to more austerity measures and selling off profits to euro zone countries. However, it’s unlikely this development will ease the dire situation of its population: nearly 20,000 Greeks are homeless and 21 percent are unemployed. Stateside, there were signs of recovery […]
New Transportation Bill Carries Controversy
The Senate finance committee approved a $9.6 billion package of funding offsets for transportation as part of the “The Highway Investment, Job Creation, and Economic Growth Act of 2012.” Designed to cover gaps in The Highway Trust Fund, an infrastructure support project that traditionally gathered funds from the federal gas tax, this new transportation bill […]
State of the Union Address: Obama on the Economy
The theme of last night’s State of the Union was “an economy built to last.” Vowing to protect the middle class and correct economic inequality, President Obama laid out his plans for financial reform: regulating home prices, penalizing banks that participated in the housing crash, imposing the “Buffet rule,” and tightening regulations on private equity and Wall […]