The law-firm bonus indicator: a big decrease from 2008.

Barry Ritholtz on the dismal "science" of the dismal science.

And The American Scholar has a fascinating look at the personal finances of F. Scott Fitzgerald. As the author notes, when comparing income levels from different decades, a CPI-based adjustment doesn't yield an accurate result, as it ignores effective income tax rates. Fitzgerald was in the 1% of wage earners for most of his working life, yet paid an effective tax rate of just 5.5%. While Fitzgerald's $24,000 annual income translates into $500,000 in today's dollars, he could afford a better lifestyle than someone earning that salary today.   

Most finance professors prefer to index.

Dan Drezner sees politics in some coverage of the falling U.S. dollar.

Not a neutral party: AT&T asks its managers to send e-mails opposing net neutrality. (In 1992, I worked for a pharmaceutical company. Any guesses as to who we were "strongly encouraged" to vote for in that year's presidential election?)

And would it be hypocritical of me to put this book on my Amazon.com wish list? A WSJ Q&A with the author, economist Joel Waldfogel, is here.   

Deflation and the cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients.

A Q&A with Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF.

Is there any truth to Calvin Trillin's theory about the financial crisis?

And we might have lost our bid for the 2016 Olympics, but Chicago takes the gold in business innovation: Felony Franks and zombie strippers.   

Why AT&T should introduce "congestion pricing" for iPhone users.

Greg Mankiw on the logistical problems of giving companies tax credit for new jobs.

One quirk of movie economics--there's no correlation between the cost of making a film and the cost to see it.

And Ithaca College is paying some students $10,000 to take a year off.   

More economists on the (lack of) benefits from hosting an Olympics.

Casey Mulligan on the "mancession."

Morningstar's Dan Culloton has some interesting Vanguard stats.

James Surowiecki interviews economist Joseph Stiglitz.

And here's one way to exploit a niche--buy stuff in bulk from Costco, then sell it in Manhattan.