Dean Baker's Blog, page 280

There Are Other Mechanisms Than Copyrights to Support Creative Work

The NYT might have tried to find someone who could have made this point in a Room for Debate segment on Spotify and streaming music more generally. The question being posed is whether these services help or hurt musicians and recording artists.

As several of the comments indicate, most musicians are finding it increasingly difficult to earn any substantial amount of money from their recordings. While some blame Spotify and other streaming services, because of the difficulty of enforcing copyr...

David Leonhardt Should Talk to Someone Other than Clintonites for Advice on Wage Growth

David Leonhardt had an Upshot piece that discussed the prospects for future wage growth in which the only two "experts" cited were Gene Sperling and Roger Altman, both Clinton administration officials with strong ties to Wall Street.  While the piece includes assurances from Gene Sperling that no mix of the policies he advocates are likely to lead to wage growth any time soon, it is worth noting that a policy he likely opposes is likely to offer near-term benefits.

Specifically a lower v...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Reduce Trade

The NYT told readers misled readers in its description of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It told readers:

"The American plan [the TPP] would require each country to open even some of its most fiercely protected markets to foreign goods and services, which could produce a surge in trade."

While the agreement is pursuing some trade openings, notably in agriculture, it is not clear how far they will go since there is much political resistance to these openings. On the other hand, it also c...

In Terms of Covering People on the Exchanges, There May Not Be Much Difference Between the Uninsured and the Previously Insured

The NYT likely misled readers in the concluding paragraph of an article on projections for enrollment in the health care exchanges next year. It concluded:

"In a brief analysis of coverage trends, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that 'most of the new marketplace enrollment for 2015 is likely to come from the ranks of the uninsured,' rather than from people who previously bought insurance on their own outside the exchanges."

Actually, people routinely go between being u...

The It's Hard to Get Good Help Crowd Promotes Population Growth

Tyler Cowen is worried that rich countries won't have enough people to do the work. This concern seems more than a bit off the mark given that almost every rich country continues to have large numbers of unemployed and underemployed workers, but I suppose pondering this question can at least create some jobs for economists. Anyhow, two of the countries Cowen highlights are Japan, which he tells us has seen a declining working age population since 1997 and China, where he warns about the diffi...

WaPo's Factchecker Grades Obama Harshly on Obamacare

Washington Post Fact Checker gave President Obama three Pinocchios for claiming in a press conference that the Affordable Care Act was responsible for the slowdown in health care costs overall and the slowdown in Medicare costs in particular. This seems more than a bit harsh.

First, there are some clear misstatements, Obama referred to savings on Medicare and Medicaid, even though he just said "Medicare." Also, he was referring to projected savings in 2020, even though his comments implied th...

The Size of Detroit Workers Pension Cuts

The articles reporting on the cuts to Detroit city workers pensions resulting from its bankruptcy have not generally conveyed the true size of the cuts to readers. The pieces usually note an immediate cut of 4.5 percent to pensions and then point out that the agreement ends the cost of living adjustment to pension.

This latter provision is likely to prove far more important. If the workers' contracts had provided for full indexation, and we assume that inflation averages 2.0 percent in the y...

Washington Post Misrepresents Issues in Obamacare Supreme Court Case

The Washington Post fundamentally misrepresented the issues in a front page piece on the decision by the Supreme Court to hear a case contesting whether people in the federal exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) qualify for subsidies. The case stems from awkward wording in one part of the law that describes subsidies going to people in the exchanges created by the states. The opponents of the law argue this means that people enrolled in the exchanges created by the federal gover...

Will Ending Tipping Increase Saving?

Catherine Rampell has a nice piece in the Post outlining some of the problems with having workers rely on tips for much of their pay. She comments in passing that because people may underestimate the cost of eating at restaurants they may eat out more often, which would provide a boost to the economy by creating more demand.

If this was really true, then the saving cultists who want people to save more money should all be pushing for an end to tipping. (In an economy where we are faced with i...

More Editorializing About the Budget in the NYT's News Section

The NYT is pushing so hard for budget cuts that it is prepared to ignore journalistic standards to make its case. An article about the possibilities for collaboration between President Obama and the Republican Congress included a number of assertions that were just opinion or inventions.

The piece begins by telling readers:

"After years of clashes and a grudging truce, fiscal and economic policy was brought back to center stage by the wave of Republican electoral victories on Tuesday, with bo...