According to a new poll published in the New England Journal of Medicine:  

• 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be... More

The table here  compares the profit margins for all of the sixteen separate industries in the health care sector, and shows that Health Care Plans (health insurance companies) ranks #10 out of 16, behind nine other more profitable health care industries, including four drug industries, medical... More

Tax Day, April 15, is looming for the nearly 142 million Americans who will file a tax return for income earned in 2009. While most taxpayers worry about paying the correct amount and even pay for professional assistance to make sure they do, many millions of tax filers will be "nonpayers," according to a new Tax Foundation study. A nonpaying tax return is one filed by an individual or couple who, thanks to legal credits... More

Early retirement programs in many European nations have led to low levels of employment for  those 55-and-over. The problem is most acute in some nations currently struggling with steep fiscal problems because pension costs eat up much of gross domestic product. This chart traces the European countries with the lowest levels of employment among those 55-and-older and compares that to the European average and the rate in the... More

The stores and malls seem busier, as the slowly recovering economy may be returning consumers — and their pent up demand — back to some of the prior consumption. At least, that is what the data seems to be showing.

Is Internet use another reliable indicator of national wealth? Looking at this map by the BBC which charts Internet penetration by country since 1998 certainly suggests a high correlation between wealth and online use.

A sizable minority of children in rich countries live with just one parent — a parent who is likely to be female, and also likely to be working.Those are some of the takeaways from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent coverage this week of women in the world.

The CBO has now estimated the budget effects of the President's proposed policies, and indeed the CBO forecasts larger budget deficits. The CBO's total deficit projected over the decade-long budget window is $1.2 trillion larger than the administration's estimate.

Global industrial production now shows clear signs of recovering. This is a sharp divergence from experience in the Great Depression, when the decline in industrial production continued fully for three years. The question now is whether final demand for this increased production will materialise or whether consumer spending, especially in the US, will remain weak, causing the increase in production to go into inventories,... More

Local government may be shedding workers, but the federal government is growing.