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Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits.The average family in the city only earns $47,000 a year.Teachers pay only 3 percent of their health-care costs.Out of every new dollar set aside for public education in Illinois in the last five years, a full 71 cents has gone to teacher retirement costs.Just 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading.In 1987, 43% of incoming Chicago freshmen would drop out of high school without graduating.2012: Chicago's freshmen drop-out rate is 39.4%, the lowest it has ever been.Only about 60% of Chicago high school students graduate compared with national average of 75%.

It’s the question of the day, the week, and quite possibly the election.

At first, I thought we were overreacting.

Every member of the Varney & Co. staff, from Stuart on down, is still trying to get our heads around the fact that 70% of all the jobs filled since Jan. 2010 have been filled by people 55 and older.

I love statistics.

Two things you will see if you watch television: a lot of older men in suits as guests and a lot of stories about the problems with young people today.

Two things you will see if you watch television: a lot of older men in suits as guests and a lot of stories about the problems with young people today.

The Facebook IPO has been a disaster thus far and not the savior many hoped.

Josh Lafazan.

Democratic advisor Hilary Rosen suggested that Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife Ann was no economic expert because she "hasn't worked a day in her life."

We've been having this debate in our Varney editorial meetings the past few days:

It is sweeping the nation and chances are your children, your parents, your friends, co-workers and even you have it.

On the show Friday, John Tamny from RealClearMarkets.com joined us to make his case that the blockbuster new movie “The Hunger Games” contains a very strong message against big government and centrally-planned economies.

We talk a lot about “Entitlement Nation” on Varney & Co.

Your enemies come with smiles.

An IRS employee who worked in the agency’s St. Louis, MO., office pled guilty this week to charges of tax fraud. Demetria Brown netted $326,000 in a fraud in which she stole taxpayer identities and created fake tax returns to steal refunds.

American investors are not heavily exposed to Greece via their 401(k) plans but they could feel the sting from another region. 

 Buying a house requires more cash than just a down payment. 

The Internal Revenue Service may have found 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency’s Exempt Organizations Unit.

The former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt, says regulators need to take a tougher line on computerized trading in the stock market – and they need to do it quickly.