Tag Archives: OECD

If Obama Were President

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The mammone -- a jobless man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mamma -- is an Italian tradition. But under President Obama, labor force participation rates of young men have plunged to Italian levels. [Credit: studenti.it]

The mam­mone — a job­less man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mam­ma — is an Ital­ian tra­di­tion. Under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, labor force par­tic­i­pa­tion rates of young Amer­i­can men have plunged to Ital­ian lev­els. [Cred­it: studenti.it]

In Italy, they call him a mam­mone: an unem­ployed man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who still lives with mamma.

The preva­lence of the mam­mone has long been thought to be a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Ital­ian phe­nom­e­non, with deep cul­tur­al roots.  It has grown more pro­nounced with the country’s recent eco­nom­ic dis­tress.  Since 2008, a grow­ing per­cent­age of Ital­ian men aged 25–54 have aban­doned the labor force, no longer both­er­ing even to look for work.

Italy’s work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate among men of prime work­ing age is by far Europe’s low­est.  But it is not the low­est in the devel­oped world.  Italy now shares that dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion with the U.S.

That wouldn’t hap­pen if Oba­ma were Pres­i­dent. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Can Greece Slip The Austerity Trap?

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Greek Prime Minister paid tribute to Greek patriots executed by Nazis during WWII. His message to the Germans was clear: we bailed you out, now it's our turn. [Credit: The Guardian]

Greek Prime Min­is­ter paid trib­ute to Greek patri­ots exe­cut­ed by Nazis dur­ing WWII. His mes­sage to the Ger­mans was clear: we bailed you out, now it’s our turn. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Short­ly after his elec­tion last Sun­day as Greece’s Prime Min­is­ter, Alex­is Tsipras chose not lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Sol­dier in Athens’ Syn­tag­ma Square.  Instead, he went to a war memo­r­i­al in the Athens sub­urb of Kessar­i­ani where Nazi sol­diers exe­cut­ed hun­dreds of Greek Resis­tance fight­ers dur­ing the bru­tal Ger­man occupation.

Tsipras’s mes­sage was not lost on Angela Merkel and oth­er Euro­pean lead­ers: the world for­gave most of Ger­many’s debt; now it’s Greece’s turn. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Welfare or Work: A Difficult Choice

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The choice between welfare and work is not always an easy one, according to a new study by the Cato Institute. (Credit: LA Times)

The choice between wel­fare and work is not always an easy one, accord­ing to a new study by the Cato Insti­tute. (Cred­it: LA Times)

(NOTE: This post was updat­ed on Sep­tem­ber 23 to incor­po­rate the gov­ern­men­t’s new­ly-released pover­ty rate data.)

If forced to choose between a full-time job that paid $24.40 per hour and enrolling in a pack­age of gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits that paid a com­pa­ra­ble amount, which would you choose? Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What Will The Poor Pay for Obamacare?

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Credit Huffington Post

Mil­lions of unin­sured Amer­i­cans with low incomes will find that cov­er­age under Oba­macare isn’t free. How they react to that brac­ing bit of news will help deter­mine whether the law suc­ceeds. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma promised change.  Oba­macare will bring it.  But one of its most far-reach­ing changes has noth­ing to do with health care.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Fed, the ECB and La Dolce Vita

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Fellini celebrated "La Dolce Vita" in his film classic. Today, Italians may feel as though they're living in a Fellini flick. [Credit: theworld.org]

Felli­ni cel­e­brat­ed “La Dolce Vita” in his film clas­sic.  But a strug­gling econ­o­my, wob­bly banks and frac­tious pol­i­tics threat­en to take the “dolce” out of their vita. [Cred­it: theworld.org]

Stran­gozzi is the char­ac­ter­is­tic pas­ta of Umbria, Tuscany’s hot sister.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →