Dean Baker's Blog, page 291

Should We Get Really Excited About a 0.04 Percentage Point Increase In GDP Growth?

People often confuse percent and percentage points. (I've even done it myself.) It makes a big difference. The Wall Street Journal told readers about G-20 plans to increase growth by 2 percent.

If this is accurate, then the goal is to have growth that is 2.0 percent faster than the baseline. In the U.S. case the baseline projections for annual growth are a bit more than 2.0 percent. The G-20 plans would then raise this figure by 0.04 percentage points. That would be nice, but not a terribly b...

News for New York Times: Affordable Care Act Affects Women

We are used to politicians making bizarre distinctions, but we expect a little better from the NYT. Therefore many readers were probably surprised to see the NYT imply that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) does not affect women in an article reporting on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaigning for Democratic candidates.

"Democrats in several key Senate races have attempted to shift the debate from President Obama and the Affordable Care Act to issues affecting the key constituenc...

The Fed and Inequality

Charles Lane has a column in the Washington Post arguing that the Fed has contributed to inequality with its low interest policy. Essentially the argument is that low interest rates have helped to push up asset values, most importantly stock prices. Since the rich have stock and most people don't, this means the rich are getting richer relative to everyone else. Since a lot of people who should know better have made this argument, it is worth addressing.

First, it is important to understand t...

Europe Is Already Suffering From the Bad Story With Deflation

THe NYT gave us another article from the cult of zero, which highlighted a modest upward revision in the year over year inflation rate from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent. The piece told readers:

"The revised figure for August suggests that inflation may have stabilized, but is unlikely to end a debate among economists about whether the eurozone is at risk of deflation — a broad, sustained decline in prices that is associated with depression and high unemployment."

Actually Europe is already faci...

The New York Times Doesn't Like the U.K. Health Care System

That is what readers of an article headlined "Health Care for Britain in Harsh Light" would likely conclude. The intention of the article certainly seems to be to put the health care system in Britain in a harsh light.

The substance of the article is that the National Health Service (NHS) refused to pay for a young boy suffering from a brain tumor to go overseas to get a new treatment. The treatment is expensive, and according to his doctors and other medical experts, not the best way to trea...

Crapo-Johnson and Affordable Housing

The Post ran a piece today discussing the agenda of Julian Castro, the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary. At one point the piece discusses affordable housing. It then refers to the Johnson-Crapo bill for privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This bill has a provision for a fund that would support affordable housing.

It would have been worth noting the size of the fund. It would get its revenue from a 0.1 percent tax on mortgages issued through the sy...

Timothy Geithner's Revenge: A Broken Bond Rating System

One of the factors that made it easy for the housing bubble to be inflated to ever more dangerous levels was the conduct of the credit rating agencies. They gave every subprime mortgage backed security (MBS) in sight top investment grade ratings. This made it easy for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and the rest to sell their junk bonds all over the world.

There was a simple reason the credit rating agencies rated subprime MBS as AAA: money. The banks issuing the MBS pay the rating agency. If the bi...

Trade Deals Do the International Equivalent of Banning State Tax Incentives

Emily Badger in Wonkblog had an interesting discussion of the issues around state tax incentives to lure or keep businesses. The piece notes that many economists believe that it would be good to ban these incentives since it ends up being a zero sum game. It then includes many comments implying that any bans would be difficult to enforce.

While it is certainly true that enforcement would be difficult, it is worth noting that parallel issues arise in international trade all the time. A major g...

NYT Does Mind Reading on Rhode Island Gubernatorial Candidate

The NYT engaged in some mind reading on Gina Raimondo, the Democratic nominee for governor of Rhode Island. In reference to Raimondo it told readers:

"Growing up in a Democratic household, she believed in activist government. (Her father had gone to college on the G.I. Bill.) She also thought pension benefits needed to be curbed to save other government services, not to mention the pension system itself."

It's great that the NYT is able to tell us what Raimondo actually believes about activis...

Ensuring that Airbnb Renters Comply With the Law: It's Simple!

The Washington Post's Wonkblog had an interesting piece on efforts by San Francisco and other cities to set up rules for short-term rental services like Airbnb. At one point it tells readers:

"critics of any new regulation will likely argue that it imposes onerous bureaucracy on would-be hosts, while setting up a complex system that the city can't maintain."

Actually, it should be fairly easy to enforce regulations by simply holding Airbnb responsible for people who rent through its service....