A New York Time article called More Men Marrying Wealthier Women has attracted some fascinating comments on the paper’s web site. First, from the article: An analysis of census data to be released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center found that she and countless women like her are victims of a role reversal that is [...]

The Boston Globe is running an interactive feature through which Bay Staters can report what the turnout looks like at their particular polling stations.

The Real-World Economics Review blog has nominated the following people for its Ignoble Prize for Economics, which will be awarded to three econoists “who contributed most to enabling the Global Financial Collapse.” Click on each name to read evidence of their culpability: * Alan Greenspan * Andre Zylberberg * Art Laffer * Assar Lindbeck * [...]

“For 10 years, I’ve been watching a trend to manipulate elections through premature ‘call’ of the race by a media outlet.” That from a post by Bev Harris of Black Box Voting, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting fair elections in the U.S. The group, which was featured in the HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy,” [...]

Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) answers questions on the economy, jobs, health care, and other topics, asked via the Web today on the “Ask Your Lawmaker“ podcast. Here’s how it works, from the FAQ page.

Because health care is so critical to anyone’s financial planning, we’ve been covering both the debate and the legislative twists and turns since this blog launched. From the town hall tantrums to the tortured negotiations in the House and Senate to the eruptions of potentially deal-breaking issues like abortion — commentators and reporters have devoted [...]

The top 10 plus a full list, from the compensation data company PayScale. Different types of engineering occupy seven of the top 10 slots. Spanish, music, theology, elementary education, and lastly social work are at the bottom. One surprise: Philosophy majors start at higher salaries than those majoring in biology, health sciences, nursing, public relations, [...]

In response to our post yesterday about long-term housing prices in the U.S., Carlos on Facebook points us to this post from the blog casaCara – Old Houses for Fun and profit, called “The rise & fall & rise & fall of Amsterdam real estate.” The post references a 2006 New York Times Magazine article about the fluctuations in value since 1628 of a single house in the Dutch capital.

* Home prices doubled in five years (1628-1633) as the city boomed on trade with the Far East, and the establishment of the world’s first stock exchange

* 1635-1637. The bottom dropped out of the real-estate market in the wake of ‘Tulip Mania’ (out-of-control speculation on, of all things, tulip bulbs, which were then a great novelty) and the Plague, which killed 14% of the city’s population. Home prices fell 36%.

* Following those twin calamities, the housing market “quickly stabilized; by the early 1640’s, prices had surpassed their previous heights.”

For the scoop on donating to Haiti earthquake relief, check out yesterday’s EconomyStory.org post. Plus the Network for Good is providing an easy way to give to any one or all of several dozen organizations. Of course, always be cognizant of online scams.

From the research and consulting firm Emergent Technology, a post on small business trends this year: Economic Trends 1. The Shift to Contingent Workers Turns Employees into Entrepreneurs: Employers large and small are shifting from full-time employees to part-timers, freelancers, outsourced services, partnership arrangements and other forms of contingent workers. They are doing this to [...]