Dean Baker's Blog, page 334

Dan Balz and Phillip Rucker Insist the Democrats Cannot Abandon Clinton's Bubble Driven Growth

I'm not kidding. They discuss the battle between the progressive and the Wall Street wings of the Democratic Party then tell readers;

"For Democrats who could lead the party in the future, the challenge will be to articulate a new populist direction without denigrating the Obama record or abandoning the contributions of Bill Clinton."

Of course the most important contribution of Bill Clinton was an over-valued dollar that led to a huge trade deficit. The demand gap that was created by the tra...

Thomas Friedman Escaped and Is Writing About Economics Again

Thomas Friedman is loose in Silicon Valley, the economic hub best known for colluding to rip off its workers. He can't contain his enthusiasm for "start-up America," telling readers;

"What they all have in common is they wake up every day and ask: 'What are the biggest trends in the world, and how do I best invent/reinvent my business to thrive from them?' They’re fixated on creating abundance, not redividing scarcity, and they respect no limits on imagination. No idea here is 'off the table....

Inequality By Design: It's Not Just Talent and Hard Work

Greg Mankiw is out there defending the 1 percent again. He put forward the argument that the big bucks are simply their just desserts; the rewards for exceptional skill and hard work.

His opening act is Robert Downey Jr. who apparently got $50 million for his starring role in a single movie. This is a great place to start. There's no doubt that Robert Downey is an extremely talented actor, but of course there have been many actors over the years who have put in great performances for much les...

The Scary Robot Story Stems from Confusion by the Story Tellers

Joe Nocera uses his column today to discuss the scary robot story. This is the story that none of us will have jobs because we will all be displaced by robots. (Incredibly, this story exists side by side with its direct opposite, the view that we won't have any workers because so many people are retiring and living for ever.) Anyhow, the deal is that the owners of the robots are very rich and the rest of us are left begging for pennies.

The reason this story makes no sense is that the ability...

Casey Mulligan, the ACA, and the Marginal Tax Rate Story

Paul Krugman and Jonathan Gruber have been responding to Casey Mulligan's complaints about how the high implicit marginal tax rates created by the Affordable Care Act will discourage work. They both insist that they are concerned about disincentives, but find them less of an issue than Mulligan. I confess to being less concerned than Krugman and Gruber.

The reason is that many low and moderate income people already faced very high marginal tax rates in the form of the loss of benefits. For th...

Are English Conservatives Threatening War Against an Independent Scotland?

That's what people must be wondering after reading a Post piece reporting Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's threat that an independent Scotland would not be able to use the pound. The Post quotes Osborne as saying that the pound is not something that you can divide like a CD collection.

It is difficult to understand the possible meaning of this threat. It could mean that England would not negotiate the terms of a monetary union with an independent Scotland, however it is hard to se...

Comcast-Time Warner Merger Could Reduce Competition

Timothy Lee has a good piece explaining to those of us who already thought competition was dead in the cable industry that yes, it could get worse. The point is that cable is also a buyer, not just a seller. If Comcast and Time-Warner are allowed to merge they will have enormous market power as a buyer of both content and new technologies. This means that even if their merger does not directly affect the market for consumers (they mostly don't overlap in service areas) it will still mean sign...

The Low Bar for Good News in Greece

The NYT reported that preliminary estimates showed GDP shrank 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2012. This would make the decline in GDP 3.7 percent for 2013 compared with 2012, which it tells readers was smaller than the 4.0 percent decline expected by the I.M.F. While the piece notes that Greece's cumulative decline since the beginning of the downturn is 23 percent, leading to a 28 percent unemployment rate, it might have also been worth pointing out that...

Obamacare Needs Invincibles, It Doesn't Matter If They Are Young

The persistence the myth that the future of Obamacare depends on young healthy people signing up shows how reporting on key policy issues can be completely removed from reality. The tiny kernal of truth in the story is that the premium structure is somewhat tilted against young people. An actuarial fair structure (meaning premiums are proportional to costs) would have the oldest age group (55-64) paying about 3.5 time as much as young people on average. However under Obamacare the ratio is ju...

Exporting U.S. Crude Oil: What Is At Issue

The NYT had an article on the battle between oil producers and refiners over removing restrictions on the export of crude oil that included some misleading comments. At one point it presented the claims from a producer that a domestic glut of crude oil is lowering prices and could lead to a shutdown of less productive fields.

"'Nobody wants the collapse of the oil industry,' Mr. Sheffield [the oil producer] said in an interview. 'You would be importing crude oil from the Middle East all over...