Dean Baker's Blog, page 251

Washington Post's Front Page Nonsense on Freddie Gray

I usually confine my comments to economic reporting, but I can't let my blog sit idle when the Washington Post commits major journalistic malpractice on a story of national importance. The Post ran a major front page story with the headline, "Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was 'trying to injure himself' document says." As the article indicates, the basis for the story is a document which includes the statement by another prisoner, presumably someone still in police custody. The Post tells...

Pain Versus Gain: Argentina, Greece, and Paul Volcker

The NYT has a column today by Uki Goni, warning of the bad things that will face Greece if it defaults. The default by Argentina in December of 2001 provides the basis for his warnings.

"Economic activity was paralyzed, supermarket prices soared and pharmaceutical companies withdrew their products as the peso lost three-quarters of its value against the dollar. With private medical insurance firms virtually bankrupt and the public health system on the brink of collapse, badly needed drugs for...

Drug Company Pays $2.4 Billion for Responding to Patent Incentives

Takeda, a Japanese drug company, agreed to pay $2.4 billion to settle suits claiming it concealed evidence that its diabetes drug, Actos, increased the risk of cancer. Concealing evidence of a drug's dangers is a predictable result of government-granted patent monopolies. Since patent monopolies allow drug companies to sell their products at prices that are often several thousand percent above the free market price, they provide drug companies an enormous incentive to mislead the public about...

Shock of the Century: Thomas Friedman Supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership!

Yes folks, hold on to your hats, Thomas Friedman supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Friedman fans will recall his famous comment:

"I was speaking out in Minnesota — my hometown, in fact — and a guy stood up in the audience, said, 'Mr. Friedman, is there any free trade agreement you’d oppose?' I said, 'No, absolutely not.' I said, 'You know what, sir? I wrote a column supporting the CAFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade initiative. I didn’t even know what was in it. I just knew two words:...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Secret, not "Secret"

That is an important correction to the David Ignatius' Washington Post column touting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as a way to revive Japan's economy. Unlike President Bush, who published a draft text of the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement before requesting fast-track authority, President Obama has chosen to keep the draft text of the TPP secret. This is not an allegation of TPP critics, it is a fact in the world.

Another point worth mentioning in this context is that when Preside...

Washington Post Prints Column on Japan and TPP by Paul Ryan Impersonator

That is the only possible conclusion that an informed reader can reach. After all, we all know that Representative Ryan is a huge champion of fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, and sound money. We also remember how he denounced Ben Bernanke and the Fed for their policy of quantitative easing. He issued strong warnings about the debasement of the currency and hyperinflation.

There is no way that this celebrated fiscal hawk and sound money proponent could praise a country for running larg...

In Memory of Barbara Bergmann

The economist Barbara Bergmann died last week. There is a memorial service on Tuesday which I will not be able to attend because of another commitment, but I did want to say a few words.

Barbara was an extraordinary person. She got her PhD in economics in the early 1960s; a time when virtually no women entered the profession. She made extensive contributions to the field, most of them in the area of gender economics.

I first encountered Barbara back in the 1980s when I was a grad student at t...

Washington Post Comes Out Against Trans-Pacific Partnership

Yeah, that was a joke. However that would be the case if the paper was consistent. Its lead editorial today complained about the people arguing that currency rules should be included in a trade deal. It told readers:

"And, yes, the International Monetary Fund has developed criteria for currency ma­nipu­la­tion — including prolonged current account surpluses and excessive foreign exchange reserve accumulation — that could, in theory, be incorporated into the agreement.

"The problem...

Who Makes the Minimum Wage and Who Earns Less Than the Old Minimum Wage

Lydia DePillis had a short piece in the Post on the workers who currently make the federal minimum wage. This is interesting, but it should not be confused with an analysis of who would be affected by an increase in the minimum wage. Because the minimum wage has fallen so far behind inflation in the last four decades, there are relatively few workers who earn exactly the federal minimum wage.

John Schmitt and Janelle Jones did an analysis a few years ago of the workers who earned less than wh...

Getting Globalization Wrong at the Washington Post

The Washington Post had a front page story in the Sunday business section headlined, "The Great Unraveling of Globalization," which told readers that the overseas profits of U.S. corporations are not growing in line with their expectations from two decades ago. Among the main complaints is that consumer markets have not developed as expected.

"Those vast new consumer markets in globalized nations have not emerged either. For example, Chinese household consumption accounts for about 34 percent...