I always find too many informative political and economic articles to share, so I’ll select a few and throw them all in to one post of important stuff you should read to get your week started:
1. Maybe we shouldn’t be blaming our leaders for not being able to lead:
A thought-provoking read from Slate.com: Down With [...]

For some reason, my dad loves the USA Today. I’ve always argued it’s a fake newspaper that doesn’t really offer any real value. It just regurgitates simple tellings from AP stories. The NY Times and Wall Street Journal provide much more insight on stories. But he also likes reading US Weekly for celebrity gossip on [...]

As if I needed an excuse to show Putin fly fishing without a shirt on, an interesting read from the Economist on a study about human evolution. Here’s the intro:
‘Why are men’s muscles so much bigger than women’s? Partly, of course, because men do the fighting and hunting. But also, perhaps, because women like men [...]

I have a minor in Economics and majors in Finance and Real Estate, so this chart is right in my wheelhouse.

For those less nerdy types, the home price-to-rent ratio is kind of like a stock’s price-to-earnings ratio (still too nerdy for you? I’m out of ideas.). It demonstrates the relative ‘bargain’ of home prices. The [...]

For the economists in the house, an interesting Op Ed in the New Yorker about why Federalism is killing our recovery. I never really bothered to take the time to think about the procyclical-countercyclical dichotomy between state and federal governments until now, but this article makes it perfectly clear — and a pretty compelling argument [...]

From the New York Times: U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 8.9%, but Pace of Losses Eases
“This is really horrible in any normal context,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. “This isn’t recovery. It’s a slowing recession. In any other time other than the recession we’re in, we’d be [...]

Science: Stop eating so damn much.
Economy: I’ve been seeing anecdotes of this with the lawyers and law school friends I know. But to read it in print, from a big time Economist, about the whole economy, is a tougher pill to swallow.
Entertainment: The new Star Trek movie opening this weekend has a near perfect rating [...]