If the vote passes, investors across all income levels will see the Bush tax cuts extended by an additional two years, as well as, a one year reduction to employee Social Security taxes and an extension to unemployment benefits.

FORBES: Tax Compromise Helps Some Investors More than Others

The public discussion of social security taxes, unemployment benefits, and stimulus takes place in the language of Keynesian multipliers and stimulus counterfactuals.

FORBES: Why Don't the Republicans Play the Media Bias Game On Economic Reporting?

German social security taxes are lower than French, unemployment benefits last less long and so on.

FORBES: The Cause of the Latest German Economic Miracle

Mr Oswald finds that in many countries high levels of owner-occupation (and hence a small rental sector) are partly to blame for high rates of unemployment, on top of factors such as over-generous social-security benefits and high minimum wages.

ECONOMIST: When home is a prison