U.S. economy

Use per capita growth, not GDP growth, by Dean Baker

Shallow recessions, shallow recoveries, New York Times

How to build a US recovery, by Lawrence Summers

A year that shook faith in finance, by Gillian Tett

Living standards, inequality, poverty, well-being

False accusation, by Greg Anrig and Harold Pollack

New estimates of the effects of minimum wages in the U.S. retail trade sector, by John Addison, McKinley Blackburn, and Chad Cotti

Trickle down … RIP, by Jared Bernstein

A plan to revive the American economy, by the Economic Policy Institute

What wealth-happiness paradox? A short note on the American case, by Claude Fischer

The key to happiness is freedom, not income, by Roberto Foa

Testimony on widening income inequality, by Robert Greenstein

The deluded business pundits and Obama critics who think $250,000 is a middle-class salary, by Daniel Gross

How important is Social Security?, by Paul Krugman

Obama’s challenge: the end of economics?, by Robert Kuttner

Barack Obama: a free-market loving, big-spending, fiscally conservative wealth redistributionist, by David Leonhardt

Katherine Newman on moving to the working class, by Matt Lewis

A hidden toll on employment: cut to part time, New York Times

The debt trap: home equity frenzy was a bank ad come true, New York Times

Our inequality of outcomes, by Steven Pearlstein

Parental leave policies in 21 countries, by Rebecca Ray, Janet Gornick, and John Schmitt

GDP ≠ happiness, by Louis Uchitelle

Hovering above poverty, grasping for middle class, Washington Post (via Shawn Fremstad)

America’s middle class still losing ground, by Christian Weller and Amanda Logan

Happiness inequality: part 1, part 2, part 3, by Justin Wolfers

Taxes

To spend is to tax, by Brad DeLong

The Obama tax plan, by Jason Furman and Austan Goolsbee

An updated analysis of the 2008 presidential candidates’ tax plans, by the Tax Policy Center

Statutory versus effective tax rates, by Mark Thoma

The Obama tax plan, by Matt Yglesias

Environment

How to save the planet, by Ryan Avent

Can this planet be saved?, by Paul Krugman

Economics of catastrophe, by Paul Krugman

Green roofs offer more than color for the skyline, New York Times

Education

Schools, skills, and synapses, by James Heckman

Increasing college graduates, by Ben Miller

College for all? The labor market for college-educated workers, by Paul Osterman

Urban

Trading places, by Alan Ehrenhalt

No cars go, by Ezra Klein

Streets to live by, by Transportation Alternatives (via Ezra Klein)

U.S. politics

State battlegrounds and home grounds, by Charles Franklin

Evidence that the state of the economy is crucial to voters, by Andrew Gelman

Crunch time for southern electoral votes, by J.P. Green

Democratic Party presidential nomination acceptance speech, by Barack Obama (via Josh Marshall)

Portrayal of Obama as snob hailed as step forward for blacks, The Onion (via Jeff Weintraub)

Convention bumps, by Tom Holbrook (via John Sides)

Abroad

Two great Africa maps, Chris Blattman

“We are all Georgians”? Not so fast, by Michael Dobbs

Territorial integrity norms, by Henry Farrell

Hard cash, not subsidies, seen as best help for poor, Financial Times

Refuelling UK think tanks, Financial Times

Incentives nudge Mexico’s poor in right direction, by Andrew Jack

The truth will not set you free (Darfur), by Richard Just

A revolution to repair (Cuba), by Richard Lapper

Despite flaws, rights in China have expanded, New York Times

With Flemish nationalism on the rise, Belgium teeters on the edge, New York Times

Georgia on my mind, by Michael Walzer (via Jeff Weintraub)

Updated poverty estimates for the developing world, World Bank

Miscellaneous

Sorting out coffee’s contradictions, by Jane Brody

The ideology and politics of evidence-based social policy, by Shawn Fremstad

Is coffee the elixir of life?, by Michael Haederle

Midwestern moms more likely to be working, by Barbara Kiviat

Drug makers’ push leads to cancer vaccines’ fast rise, New York Times

In a generation, minorities may be the new majority, New York Times

Men, women, and speed, New York Times

Usain Bolt: it’s just not normal, by Justin Wolfers