Home » Economy

Economy Archive

How High Is the True U.S. Unemployment Rate?

Official unemployment rate by county, 2007-2014 The unemployment rate is back to early 2008 levels. Does that mean the economy has recovered? In the most recent U.S. jobs report, released at the end of last month, the unemployment rate remained stable at 5.1%. Taking...

In 2014, Americans spent $70 billion on the lottery. When I read this fact back in May, I thought it was one of the craziest stats I had ever seen. That’s over $630 for every household in the U.S.! It sounds absurd. Then again, the...

This interactive graphic shows how the world is divided according to six different socioeconomic variables. The land area of each country represents its share of the worldwide total. Click on a circle to reshape the map For attribution and data...

Last month the Atlantic highlighted one of the most shocking stats I had ever seen. In 2014, Americans spent $70.1 billion on the lottery. It’s hard to put that number into context, but as the article points out, that is over...

This graphic is not meant to represent a view on the wage gap debate, it is just a presentation of the data and does not account for the underlying factors that explain these differences. However, I did add a few comments at the...

Is the lottery a tax? Having been challenged on this question countless times in the last few days, two things have become clear to me. People have extremely strong feelings about how the lottery should be categorized. Most of the arguments come down to...

Economy Archive

How High Is the True U.S. Unemployment Rate?

The lottery is a tax, an inefficient, regressive, and exploitative tax

How We Share the World

The Single Largest Tax on Poor Families: the Lottery?

A Visual History of Gender and Employment

Is the Lottery a Tax?