Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
A Plan B for Obama; Education Bubble
(1) What we would like Obama to do: From Thomas Palley’s contribution to Martin Wolf’s Economists’ Forum at FT.com: Plan B for Obama on the economy September 6, 2010 4:54pm By Thomas I. Palley TO: President Obama FROM: Thomas I. Palley RE: How to avoid stagnation and restore shared prosperity DATE: Labor Day, 2010 Mr ...Read more.
New Issue, Lump of Labor, etc.
(1) 2010 Annual Labor Issue: This year’s annual labor issue has printed and will ship out today or tomorrow (so subscribers may actually get it just after Labor Day–first time in years!). Yesterday I posted the table of contents (note the fabulous cover, designed by our intern Lauren Price, with Chinese translation help from our ...Read more.
Unemployment, Austerity, Stimulus
[N.B.: First three items by our fabulous summer intern Elizabeth Murphy, who also chose this post's Possibly Irrelevant Image. Sorry for the delay posting these!] (1) The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July unemployment numbers last Friday (Aug.6) and they do not look pretty. Unemployment remains exactly where it was at the end of ...Read more.
The Buyout of America
On vacation in Colorado, we drive through the Littleton shopping mall. There it is, a two-story building, black and empty behind its glass facade. Mervyn’s Department Store. Founded in 1949, Mervyn’s grew to a chain of 189 stores in 10 Western states. But in 2008, Mervyn’s went bankrupt , laying off 18,000 employees without severance ...Read more.
Wages Up or Down?
(1) Possibly Irrelevant Image: Which New York Times article are we to believe? (2) Bernanke Says Rising Wages Will Lift Spending, from yesterday’s New York Times (check out the goofy pic of Geithner): Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said rising wages would probably spur household spending in the next few quarters, even as weak ...Read more.
The Root of Economic Fragility (Reich)
Interesting piece from Robert Reich’s blog. An excerpt: The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Missing from almost all discussion of America’s dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. Average weekly earnings rose a bit this ...Read more.
Financial Reform Inches More
It now appears that with Scott Brown (our “populist” senator from Massachusetts) has agreed to support the reconciled version of the banking reform bill, once he wrested concessions favorable to Massachusetts-based banks like State Street and Fidelity. With votes from Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, Brown’s vote will make for the sixty votes necessary for ...Read more.
History of BP and Transocean
Yestesrday’s Times had an article about the alleged misdeeds of Transocean, the company that owned (still owns, I suppose) the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in April, setting into motion the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history (still underway). The company has been accused of: doing business with Myanmar, Syria, and Iran; having ties to ...Read more.
Dean Baker on David Brooks
Dean Baker posted a great response to that David Brooks column I mentioned yesterday. Here’s what he says: The Arrogant David Brooks Tells Readers That Stimulus Will Risk National Insolvency Tuesday, 06 July 2010 03:27 David Brooks has decided to jump into the debate over stimulus with both feet. In a column in which he ...Read more.
The Bleak Jobs Picture
Friday’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was bleak. Though the unemployment rate went down to 9.5% (from 9.7%), that’s because the ranks of discouraged workers increased. The economy shed 125,000 jobs, which was mostly due to the end of some 200K temporary Census jobs. Private employers added only 83K jobs. Here’s an ...Read more.
