Shale formations are a crucial component of the nation’s oil and natural gas supplies.

The other day I asked a kid how school was goin’. He said that it was goin’ OK. I then asked if he had found a new girlfriend. He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.

I have been noticin' here lately that young parents are havin' a little more difficulty makin' their kids mind.

Shortly before Christmas, you may have seen a depressing headline indicating almost half of all Americans are living in poverty or close to it. The Associated Press article appeared in hundreds of online and print outlets as well as being covered in television and radio news reports. While the past few years have seen a flurry of articles related to the shrinking middle class, the thought that half of all families are poor took things to a new low.

The year 2011 has faded into history.

We have recently completed our annual short-term outlook for the United States, Texas, and the state’s metropolitan areas. While I don’t expect things to smooth out entirely quite yet, on balance, I think our big cities will see notable growth over the next five years. Here is a look at The Perryman Group’s latest short-term (2011-2016) forecast for Texas’ largest cities.

Unfortunately, you’re probably not overly surprised by the failure of the congressional “super committee” charged with working out a deficit (and therefore ultimately debt) reduction plan. Formed in the wake of debt ceiling brinksmanship earlier this year, the 12-member group (six Democrats and six Republicans) faced a tall order. Even so, it is disheartening that even this smaller subset of lawmakers was unable to make much progress.

Last week, the US Department of State and President Obama put off a final decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline connecting oil supply regions in Canada with U.S. refineries and distribution networks. The project was announced in July 2008 and was scheduled for approval a year ago, but the latest announcement pushes out the date until at least early 2013.

Global population just topped seven billion last week (or is about to do so, depending on which estimate you believe).

It was recently my honor and privilege to give a speech at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Texas Economic Development Council.

In 1968, the central bank of Sweden instituted the Nobel Prize in Economics. Formally “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel,” the prize has been awarded every year since that time by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The $1.5 million prizes have been given for work in economics areas ranging from general equilibrium theory (how everything hangs together) to traditional micro and macroeconomics to bargaining theory to economic history. Economists who have expanded the field of economics into other arenas such as political science, sociology, and law have also been recognized.

In July 2008, TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP Ltd., announced Keystone XL, an approximately $7 billion pipeline project which would almost double the size and capacity of the company’s pipeline system connecting oil supply regions in Canada with US refineries and distribution networks.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released its global economic outlook. The chosen title reflects that organization’s read on current conditions: “Slowing Growth, Rising Risks.” Without a doubt, there is some validity to this view. The IMF’s outlook notes that activity has weakened, with US private-sector demand slow to increase and euro area problems with sovereign debt and banking persisting. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) also recently released its interim assessment of global economic conditions with the headline proclaiming “Economic growth perspectives weakening as recovery slows.”

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its 2010 report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance coverage. For the United States, 2010 real (inflation-adjusted) median income per household was $49,445, some 2.3 percent below the 2009 median. This was the third year in a row the median household income level decreased and the first time since 1996 that the figure was below $50,000. (The median is the level at which half of households have incomes higher and half lower.) Recent peaks in real median household income occurred in 1999 and 2000, topping $53,000 both years.