by New Deal democrat Scenes from the employment report As I described in my detailed post on the April jobs report, below, almost everything moved in the right direction, and significantly so. Let me lay out a few graphs to show the longer-term stronger and weaker points. In the good news department, the U6 underemployment […]
by Barkley Rosser Messing Up Badly In Korea In many areas where many were worried that President Trump would do this that or the other crazy thing he has held back for one reason or another. But one very serious location where he has recently made a total botch of things has been in Korea, […]
by New Deal democrat April jobs report: a blowout — except (sigh) for wages HEADLINES: +211,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate down -0.1% from 4.5% to 4.4% U6 underemployment rate down 0.3% from 8.9% to 8.6% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, […]
From Wednesday postings: by New Deal democrat Holding Trump to account on manufacturing and mining jobs: setting the benchmarks Tomorrow is the April employment report, and at this point we can begin to hold Trump and the GOP Congress at least somewhat (but not fully for about 3-6 more months) accountable for the trend. For […]
by Robert Waldmann Totally twitty Chait hate I admire Jonathan Chait. In particular, I admire his denunciation of those (e.g. Barack Obama) who criticize “some in my party” without naming names. His rule is that if one criticizes an argument, position or view, one should name and quote someone. Otherwise the temptation to debate straw […]
Larry Summers on Treasury Secretary Mnuchin (via WP), to put it mildly: Last week I suggested that I felt sorry for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. He found himself forced by circumstance and his president to say and do things that undermined his and Treasury’s credibility. I wish there was an external force that could be […]
Lifted from comments by Dale Coberly… This year’s Social Security Trustees Report seems to be late as usual. But this is the LAST year that a gradual increase in the payroll tax can begin and still solve some of the less understood problems of the projected shortfall in SS funding: This is mostly that a […]
by Peter Dorman (originally published at Econospeak) Climate of Complete Incomprehension I finally got around to reading the NY Times new “responsible conservative”, Bret Stephens’, call for skepticism and moderation on climate change. He adopts an attitude that exudes reasonableness and rejection of hubris. Complicated modeling is an uncertain business and often fails; just look […]
This isn’t actually news, but it’s news to me, and it’s something you need to know. Greg LeRoy sent me an article by James Meek in London Review of Books (20 April 2017) that he’d been sent by a friend, documenting more EU-permitted job piracy by Poland that preceded the case I discuss at length […]
by Barkley Rosser Is Authoritarian Nationalism Mostly A Rural Phenomenon? Offhand it looks like maybe it is. In the US Trump won overwhelmingly in rural areas while losing all of the largest cities. Yes, he took some mid-size declining industrial ones like Youngstown, OH and Erie, Pa, while losing some rural areas in places like […]