Aaron Nathans

There is a wealth of important news going unreported just beneath the surface of the income inequality debate, a reporter for the public radio program “Marketplace” wrote in his newly award winning essay.

The economy has been sending mixed messages this week.

As we mentioned last week, The New York Times today highlighted that lower energy prices aren’t necessarily providing American households with as much relief as they would like. In today’s story in The Upshot, David Leonhardt reminds Americans that, at an average price of $2.03 per gallon, they have seen gasoline for far less money. From…

Housing data released last week showed further improvement. Existing home sales were up 2.4 percent from November, and it was announced earlier in the week that housing starts were up 4.4 percent.

The drop in gas prices has a big psychological impact on consumer confidence, but as a practical matter, doesn’t have much of an impact on consumer spending, says our senior research analyst, Bob Hughes.

Times were very different when the U.S. banned exporting unrefined crude oil four decades ago: In the wake of an oil embargo, world oil prices quadrulpled.

Here’s an interesting story in today’s Wall Street Journal, on the occasion of President Obama’s State of the Union address.

Consumers are enjoying a tangible break on their cost of living through lower energy prices, effectively handing them the money they’re not getting in pay increases at work. But the savings may not help as much as you think.

The National Endowment for the Arts released a study on Monday showing that people who perceive they are in a higher income bracket are more likely to have attended an artistic presentation in the last year, The Wall Street Journal reported.