middle class

The U.S. middle class is caught in a vice with falling wages on one side and rising costs on the other. Robert S. Kaplan, author of the business leadership book What to Ask the Person in the Mirror suggests five ways that politicians should be responding -- not specific policies, but mindsets that could lead to better ones.

During the depths of the recession in 2009, as millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes and life savings, the highest-paid earners in the United States saw their average incomes increase from $91.8 million in 2008 to a mind-boggling $518.8 million. That's $10 million per week.

In an academic study, the vast majority of Americans across the political, gender and wealth spectrum displayed a markedly skewed understanding of how America's money is divided.

In American public life, it's hard to escape popular appeals about the virtues of the middle class. Yet a growing cadre of analysts are concerned about the steady erosion of the middle class and the industrial base that created it.

The federal government today passed a bill designed to spur small-business lending by providing financial incentives to banks that make loans to smaller companies, marking a victory for President Barack Obama and his attempt to cut unemployment.

We all know something's not right. That despite the promises made to us since childhood, we do not, in fact, have it better than our parents did. Home values have tanked. Gasoline is up, food is up, healthcare, college tuition, even heating fuel, all up, up, up. Meanwhile, unemployment is at 10%...

On the day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address, there is some good news to be had: The Dow is up. The NASDAQ is up. The S&P is up. Even the dollar is up. But those indicators mask a much grimmer reality: Unemployment remains high. The housing market is down. And...

As reports about record payouts for Wall Street and record deficits trade off on the front page, millions of Americans are wondering what's going on with their economy and their political system. Many of the nearly 200 reader comments made in response to my recent piece, Middle class squeeze: The...

Today is Patriot Day and I feel much safer now that George W. Bush is no longer in the Oval Office to use it for his political purposes. But he achieved a great victory for his base while in office -- creating a lost decade for the middle class while enriching the 400 most highly paid taxpayers. Of...

Dear Mrs. Madoff:I understand that with your husband in jail for the rest of his life and you losing claim to millions of dollars worth of real estate and other assets in the bargain, you are being left with only $2.5 million to your name. That gives you an income of about $125,000 a year.Keep this...