Wage growth: is the dam finally breaking? [Apologies for the light posting: I’ve been traveling, and there isn’t a lot of news this week.] A couple of months ago I wrote that raising wages may have become a “taboo,” i.e., that in some cases employers may be refusing to raising wages, even though it may be […]
By Steve Roth (originally published at Evonomics) The shares of income going to “capital” and “labor” are vexed issues. How much is received for doing work, and how much is unearned “property income”— interest, dividends, etc.? For a long time, economists thought these relative shares stayed roughly unchanged over time. But since the 70s, and especially sincely […]
May jobs report: excellent news on unemployment, underemployment, and wages HEADLINES: +223,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate fell -0.1% from 3.9% to 3.8% U6 underemployment rate fell -0.2% from 7.8% to 7.6% Here are the headlines on wages and the braoder measures of underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a […]
Rejoinder To Rauch’s Response To Me On The Happiness Curve Overhyped On May 15 I posted here on “Overhyping the Happiness Curve,” a critique of the recent book by Jonathan Rauch, The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50. After it was linked to on Marginal Revolution, author Jonathan Rauch wrote a Response to my post on May 25, […]
More evidence of increasing deflationary pressure on wages One of my pet peeves is that economics as a discipline needs to import the entirety of learning theory from psychology, not just parlor tricks like the endowment effect. For example, learning from models. To wit, once Jack Welch was successful in using a pay scheme at […]
My plan for Europe. In comments, JackD asked me what I thought of Italy leaving the Eurobloc. The problem is that it is easier said than done—the instant it becomes a serious possibility there will either be the mother of all bank runs or a banking holiday. Everyone (including your humble blogger) will want to […]
The extreme conflict between the establishment and the new natonal populist majority in Parliament has spooked investors. The difference between the Italian and German 10 year treasury rates just jumped up about 100 basis points. This isn’t a crisis yet. I recall back when Italia caught a bit of Greek contagion (before ECB president Mario […]
Updated, also fixed last link This past weekend, I was in North Adams, Ma. We did some exploring of the area and came across a company started in 1837 that still exists today in Buckland. It no longer produces there, as it has moved to Westfield, Ma. It’s only move in 178 years. […]
Carlo Cottarelli was asked to try to form an Italian government by President Sergio Mattarella. There is no chance that Cottarelli will obtain the confidence of Parliament (parties including a majority of deputies have brought up the possibility of impeaching Mattarella for nominating Cottarelli). Mattarella is using his extraordinary powers to fight populist nationalists who […]
(literally the surrender of Conte but a reference to The Big Gundown). updated to comply with the Italian criminal code (which forbids vilifying the President of the Republic) I have to write about Italian politics, because everyone is (and I live in Rome) but you don’t have to read it. I will try one paragraph […]