Dean Baker's Blog, page 21

Big Pharma Strikes Back

On Monday, Achal Prabhala, Arjun Jayadev, and I had a column in the New York Times arguing in support of a resolution put forward before the WTO by India and South Africa, which would suspend intellectual property rights related to vaccines and treatments related to the pandemic. The main point is that these rights are slowing the diffusion of life-saving medicines in a crisis. Furthermore, since much or all the cost of developing these vaccines and treatments were picked by up by various...

Beating Up on Finance

When I do one of my diatribes about how our protectionist barriers allow U.S. doctors to earn twice as much as doctors in other wealthy countries, I invariably get complaints from doctors and their friends asking why I dont go after the really big bucks people on Wall Street. The answer of course is that I do, but the bloated paychecks on Wall Street are not a reason to pay an extra $100 billion a year ($750 per household) to doctors in the United States. But it is true that I havent beaten...

Journalism Lesson for Ron Elving at NPR’s Weekend Edition: You Don’t Know What Republican Members of Congress “Think” About Aid to State and Local Governments

Im not sure why it is so hard for reporters to just tell us what politicians say and do, instead of telling us what they think and believe. This may be news for reporters, but politicians dont always believe the things they say. For example, almost 90 percent of the Republicans in Congress will not say that Joe Biden won the election (2 say Donald Trump won), however I am quite certain that the overwhelming majority of these politicians understand that Bidens 306 electoral votes give him the...

Repeal Section 230 and Never Again Have to Worry About What Mark Zuckerberg Thinks About Anything

Apparently Donald Trump has gotten into his head that he wants to repeal Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Apparently he is upset that Facebook and Twitter have pointed out that much of what he posts is not true.

It’s not clear what Trump thinks he would accomplish by repealing this provision of the law. Section 230 exempts Facebook and other Internet intermediaries from being liable for material that is passed along through their systems, either as ads or through individuals’ ...

Lessons for Steve Rattner from Folks Who Actually Remember the 1990s

Steve Rattner used his NYT column to tell progressives that they should not try to pressure President-Elect Biden to implement progressive policies with noisy protests. He argues that compromise with the Republicans is necessary and argues that the Clinton presidency after the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress is a good model.

“Progressive history has not treated kindly President Bill Clinton’s decision to work with Republicans after their enormous midterm victory in 1994. But taxes got cut, ...

NYT Wants to Talk About Higher Wages, but Doesn’t Want to Talk About the Real Reasons Wages are Low

It’s good to see the New York Times making the case for higher wages in an editorial. Unfortunately, they get much of the story confused.

First off, the essence of the case is that higher wages will lead to more consumption, which will spur growth. This is true, but higher pay is not the only way to generate more demand. We also get more demand with larger budget deficits, lower interest rates, and a smaller trade deficit.

But that is the less important problem with the piece. The bigger problem...

More Bad News About the Pandemic Recession: Longer Hours

We know that the economy is likely to get worse in the immediate future as the pandemic is spreading out of control in most parts of the country. However, the latest data on average weekly hours indicates we may be facing a longer term issue that has not generally been anticipated.

In a normal recession we see both a loss of jobs and a reduction in hours for those who managed to keep their jobs. The shortening of hours is a better way for employers to deal with reduced demand for labor, since it...

Why are the Free Traders All Protectionists? Vaccines and Sharing Knowledge (Fun for Thanksgiving)

After having Donald Trump in the White House for four years, we have gotten used to being lied to by people in high positions. Trump and his top staff have no qualms about telling us night is day, black is white, and two plus two equals five.

But we expect better from Team Reality: you know, the folks who write newspaper and magazine articles and opinion pieces, teach at major universities, and pass themselves off as great thinkers on the important issues of the day. But when it comes to discuss...

News for Bill Gates: Capitalism Is Still Capitalism Without Patent Monopolies

Like Donald Trump, Bill Gates apparently has a hard time understanding some things. The NYT had a major article on Gate’s role in developing vaccines against the coronavirus. At one point, the piece notes critics of Gates, who complain about how he has promoted patent monopoly financing of the development of vaccines and drugs, which allow these items to sell at prices that can be many thousand percent above the free market price.

The piece then presents Gates’ rejoinder:

“This capitalism thing ...

Fighting Disinformation: Maybe Reporters Can Try Putting Big Budget Numbers in Contexts that Make Them Understandable

Margaret Sullivan, the Washington Post’s media columnist, had a good piece on how reporters can try to combat the nonsense that right-wing politicians and media sources are spewing. I would like to add one item to her list, writing big budget numbers in ways that are meaningful to readers.

While this seems stupidly simple, for some reason reporters refuse to do it.  The point is that when readers see that we are spending $70 billion on food stamps or $15 billion on foreign aid (roughly last  yea...