In a recent discussion about the middle class, author Jacob Hacker explained to Charlie Rose that policy changes over the last half-century—and not technological advances, as many would claim—are responsible for the United States' income disparity. Watch inside.

So hot-shot MIT economist Peter Diamond won a Nobel Prize in Economics today, remember? Good for him. Now can the single senator who's blocked Diamond's confirmation to the Federal Reserve board for months, over a lack of qualifications, maybe reconsider that?

According to an analysis of census data, young Americans are marrying later and less frequently than ever. Not surprising, but some experts say this is in part due to our crappy economy. Young people are too poor to get hitched.

Scottsdale, Arizona's raunchiest porn scribe, Ben Quayle—spawn of America's greatest vice president—has resurfaced with his latest congressional campaign ad. Get your paper and pencil ready now, because young Master Quayle has some important numbers to share.

Yesterday, President Obama held a town hall meeting and was blindsided by an "exhausted" woman. Tonight, Jon Stewart revisited the unexpected smackdown. Then, Stewart gave one of his own when he pointed out all of Obama's failed promises. Video inside.

Tonight, Jon Stewart had some fun with Vice President Joe Biden and the fact that Biden had promised that this would be the "summer of recovery" when it came to America's economy. Well, that didn't quite work out. Video inside.

What is going on with Fidel Castro? The former Cuban President has been rather... candid, lately, admitting gay persecution was his fault and condemning anti-Semitism. Most recently? He told a reporter that the Cuban model of economics "doesn't even work."

China has passed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy after Justin Bieber.

Recession? What recession? New York is home to 667,200 millionaires! And 14,771,188 other people ("losers").

[Anyone in Scotland need a cheap sign? Pic via Reddit.]

The New York job market shrank in June, but the overall unemployment rate's been improving thanks to the city's bar and restaurant industries. Where's the growth coming from? You can credit cupcake bakeries, reports the WSJ. Thanks, Carrie Bradshaw.

The death of the mall has been a meme long enough to have inspired an eponymous website, a documentary, and, with the onset of the recession, a slew of mall deathwatch trend stories. So...how much longer do these monstrosities have?

Delightfully insane congresswoman Michele Bachmann has found more incontrovertible proof that Barack Obama is the Worst President of All Time: he is creating a so-called "global economy" where countries are "bound" to each other, economically. Who will stop this madman?

Horst Köhler, Germany's center-right president, resigned after pointing out that Germany will deploy troops to protect its economic interests.

Science: Women work like this (mostly during regular 9-5 hours), but men work like this (far more likely to work off-hour shifts). Economic-centric gender theoreticians postulate this may be due to the fact that women be shoppin. [NYT]

Studies and conventional wisdom tell us that the suburbs are the new slums. But that is not stopping developers from building thousands of brand new houses—with elevators!—among the empty shells of foreclosed suburban homes. And people are buying.

We all have jobs now! Let's spend beyond our means. Although, actually, before you go out and buy an iPad in celebration of the inevitable boom — unemployment still climbed from 9.7 to 9.9 per cent. [USA Today]

There's a new study by the Yankee Group that says an average of one in eight Americans will decide to stop paying for their cable or satellite television service in the next year.

Message from the economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: although the recession is mostly over here in New York, our economy won't recover until Wall Street starts hiring again. So fuck everyone except Wall Street, as usual.

The economy crashed. People tipped less. So workers began placing tip jars on every possible surface to remind us. Then people got annoyed with the jars and their witty slogans. What's next? We predict wrestling for ones. [NYP, pic via]