Dean Baker's Blog, page 294

NPR Gets Putin and Russian Economic Growth and Corruption Backwards

An interview on Morning Edition with Edward Lucas, senior editor at The Economist and author of The New Cold War, likely mislead listeners about the path of the Russian economy and corruption under President Putin's period in power. Lucas implied that Russians are likely to be very unhappy about the current state of the economy and public services and angered over the extent of corruption in the country.

While undoubtedly there is much corruption in Russia under Putin, corruption did not begi...

Fast Food Prices Could Go Up

The Washington Post thinks it has found a fatal flaw in the argument that fast food workers should have higher wages:

"The problem: Fast food is a low-profit margin business. How low? According to Yahoo Finance, 2.4 percent. Just look at the headline: 'Fast-Food Chains Aren’t as Rich as Protesters Think.'"

It is likely that most of the people organizing the push for higher wages in the industry are fully aware of "the problem." If workers got higher wages they would presumably be offset...

Good Story in U.S. Job Market Depends Largely on Ignoring People Who Drop Out of the Labor Force

Wonkblog had a post telling readers that the U.S. labor market is doing better in the recovery than the labor market in most other wealthy countries.  While this is true if we look at unemployment rates, is far less clear if the focus is employment rates (EPOP), the percentage of the population who is working.

This is true even we control for demographics. The EPOP for prime age men (ages 25-54) in the United States is still down 3.7 percentage points from its pre-recession level. By com...

Actually, the Chinese Can Do the High-Skilled Jobs at Lower Cost Too

Joe Nocera had a good piece discussing the plight of factory workers in the United States subjected to low cost competition from China and other developing countries. He argues that the government has done too little to help the workers and the communities that have suffered from such competition. However his prescription, that workers should get more skills, is somewhat misleading.

While it is always better to have a more skilled workforce, one of the main reasons that more skilled workers h...

Is Japan's Aging Population Really Going to Shrink Into Oblivion?

That's what a Reuters story on the NYT website said Japanese leaders are troubled by. The piece told readers:

"Policymakers are also pledging to draft a vision of how to keep Japan's ageing population from shrinking into oblivion, holding the line at 100 million in 2060, a 20 percent drop from now."

And what bad thing happens if Japan continues to become a less crowded island through the rest of the century and beyond, more room at the beach and less pollution? 

Medicare and Medicaid Could Increase Competition

Austin Frakt had an interesting piece in the Upshot section of the NYT reporting research finding that show substantial reduction in health care premiums when there is more competition in the market. The implication is that prices could fall substantially in the exchanges where there are a small numbers of insurers and especially in states like New Hampshire or West Virginia where there is only a single insurer in the market.

At the end of the piece Frakt notes that more insurers appear to b...

CBO Projects Lower Deficits: Dana Milbank Derides Politicians for Not Having the Courage to Kick Old People in the Face

Folks who are not DC insiders might think it would take courage to stand up to the rich people who have done so well (and caused so much harm) over the last three decades. Or, we might think it would take courage to standup to nonsense about budget deficits to point out that we need larger deficits now to create the demand necessary to bring the economy back to full employment. (Yes, we all love the private sector, but the private sector doesn't create jobs for love.) Taking those positions m...

More Cheap Thoughts on the Corporate Income Tax

The exchange I had with Jared Bernstein and subsequent comments by others have led to me do more thinking on the corporate income tax. First, just to respond to various notes and comments, I was not all upset that Jared and I disagreed. Jared is an old friend and a very good economist. I value his views, which is why I write books with him. I learned from his comments and I appreciate his concern for losing revenue even if it doesn't over-ride my my reasons for thinking that eliminating the c...

1.1 Percent First Half GDP Growth is Not Much Grounds for Celebration

The NYT had a piece on the upward revision of second quarter GDP data to a growth rate of 4.2 percent from 4.0 percent in the advance report. It would have been worth reminding readers that the jump was a reversal from a weather induced plunge of 2.1 percent in the first quarter. This leaves the economy growing at annual rate of just 1.1 percent for the first half of the year. Even if the growth rate is 3.0 percent for the second half that would still leave year-round growth at just 2.0 perce...

NPR Celebrates France's President For Accepting Mass Unemployment

A Morning Edition report on French President Francois Hollande's decision to reshuffle his cabinet and eliminate members who complained about the cutbacks in government spending that are slowing growth and destroying jobs, treated him as a potential hero for trying to restructure France's labor market. This coverage directly contradicts economics, since there is no plausible story whereby the economic gains from whatever restructuring Mr. Hollande is able to engineer will be more than a small...