A new rule just announced by the Obama administration will, effective December 1, double the overtime-pay salary threshold and set it to automatically increase every three years. It's about time.

Where's the inflation? It is barely rising, as consumers still wait for bargains before they decide to buy. The overall Consumer Price Index in April rose just 1.1 percent, and is up 2.1 percent less food and energy prices, which have been falling this year.

This year's political campaign has forced the economics profession to reconsider the fraying orthodoxy of free trade.

What's really causing the growing gap between haves and have-nots? Is it mechanical market forces? Outsourcing? Real estate?

SHANGHAI -- "Markets with Chinese characteristics" are as volatile and hard to control as markets with American characteristics. Markets invariably take on a life of their own; they cannot be easily ordered around. To the extent that markets can be controlled, it is through setting the rules of the game in a transparent way. The policy approach China adopts will strongly influence economic performance and prospects worldwide.