Dean Baker's Blog, page 501

ABC and the Independent Are Terrified by the Prospect of Japan Getting Less Crowded

Japan is a densely populated country. As a result, housing is extremely expensive in its major cities. Its subway system is so crowded that Tokyo has people who push people into the subway cars to ensure that no space is wasted.

Given this situation, it was striking to see that the Independent report on Japan's "demographic crisis" and ABC News tell us about Japan's "dire picture." Their concern is that Japan's population is projected to shrink by about a third over the next 50 years.

While t...

Brazil's Per Capita Income Did Not Grow by 200 Percent Over the Past Decade

By Mark Weisbrot

 

An article in Saturday's New York Timesclaimed that Brazil had "tripled its per capita income over the past decade."  In fact, Brazil's real per capita income (per capita GDP) has grown by about 30 percent from 2001-2011.  

The article notes that "some of that increase has to do with its [Brazil's ] overvalued currency", but (1) even this cannot account for the vast difference between 200 percent and 30 percent, and (2) even if it all of this "growth" were due to currency a...

Arithmetic Lesson for Robert Samuelson

In a piece that supported imposing a Buffet-rule type tax on the wealthy, Robert Samuelson explained the growing income share of the 1 percent in part on the booming stock market. He told readers:

"From 1980 to 2000, stocks rose almost tenfold; from 2000 to 2007, the gain was about 40 percent."

While the first part is roughly correct, the S&P 500 rose by just 3.5 percent from 2000 to 2007. According to his source, it averaged 1427.22 in 2000. Its average close in 2007 was 1477.19.

It's good t...

The House is on Fire and Fred Hiatt Is Worried About What Color to Paint the Kitchen

You have to love Fred Hiatt and the Washington Post's oped page. The country is suffering through the worst downturn in 80 years. Tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed. Millions are facing the prospect of losing their homes. And tens of millions of baby boomers are looking at a retirement where they will be entirely dependent on their Social Security and Medicare.

With this state of affairs, they naturally rise to the occasion by denouncing politicians for being...

The WSJ Didn't Hear About the Collapse of Japan's Bubbles

It is apparently hard to get information about Japan's economy at the Wall Street Journal. That is what readers must think after seeing an article about Japan's debt that say:

"after decades of undisciplined spending, government debts are more than twice the size of the nation's annual economic output."

Of course there were not decades "decades of undisciplined spending." In fact Japan was running large surpluses through the 80s and into the 90s. If the WSJ had access to IMF data (it's free f...

English Lessons for WSJ: "Deflation" Means Falling Prices

It's unfortunate that people who actually do business deals might think that they are getting information from the Wall Street Journal. It had an article warning readers that:

"demand for loans hints at deflation."

There was actually not a single item in the article that suggested in any way whatsoever that prices would be falling. The piece did present some evidence of weakening loan demand, which would imply slower economic growth, but there was zero, nada, nothing to suggest that prices...

The Post Gives Another Defense of the One Percent: Mobility

There is a big market in defending the One Percent these days and the Post is rising to the challenge. It presented a front page Outlook piece by James Q. Wilson that tells readers that inequality is not a really big deal because of the all the mobility in U.S. society. Furthermore, it tries to tell us we would be worse off with less inequality because inequality fell in Greece over the last three decades.

Wilson's main source for his claims about mobility is a study from the St. Louis Fed...

The Post Gives Another Defense of the One Percent, Mobility

There is a big market in defending the One Percent these days and the Post is rising to the challenge. It presented a front page Outlook piece by James Q. Wilson that tells readers that inequality is not a really big deal because of the all the mobility in U.S. society. Furthermore, it tries to tell us we would be worse off with less inequality because inequality fell in Greece over the last three decades.

Wilson's main source for his claims about mobility is a study from the St. Louis Fed...

Post Uses News Section to Push Its Editorial Line on Austerity, Again

The Washington Post reminded readers why it is known as Fox on 15th Street when it referred to an agreement among European leaders that it said would "limit the perennial budget deficits that are the root of the crisis."

Both parts of this statement are demonstrably false. Of the five countries now facing an imminent debt crisis, only Greece and Portugal had consistent deficit problems prior to the economic collapse in 2008. Italy had a declining ratio of debt to GDP and Spain and Ireland...

Is Thomas Friedman More Incoherent Than Usual?

In a column that repeats the usual Thomas Friedman line about all the barriers between countries coming down in the brave new world (while conveniently ignoring the barriers that protect highly paid professionals like doctors and lawyers, allowing them to earn far more than their counterparts elsewhere in the world), he approvingly quotes Michael Dell:

"'I always remind people that 96 percent of our potential new customers today live outside of America.' That's the rest of the world. And if c...