Dean Baker's Blog, page 97

How Many Doctors in the United States Work for $17.61 an Hour, or Less

Just curious, since Marketplace radio told listeners about the shortage of workers in the residential construction industry for jobs that pay $17.61 an hour. Would we be hearing that there is a shortage of doctors (or lawyers or economists) if few were willing to work at $17.61 an hour?

I know these professions require much more training (although construction workers seem to do much better at their jobs than economists), but if the wage on offer for jobs in these professions was ridiculously...

Amazon Gets Into the Counterfeiting Business

Not really. The Guardian has an article that begins by telling readers how Amazon produces a copy of a designer laptop stand and sells it for half the price as the designer stand. While the article correctly refers to the Amazon product a "knockoff," in other contexts, such as when discussing Chinese copies of US products, these copies are often referred to as "counterfeits."

This is not just a question of semantics. With a counterfeit, the buyer is being deceived. They pay a higher price bec...

Just as Robots Are Taking All the Jobs China Looks to be Running Out of Workers

Yes, it's the old looming demographic crisis again. It seems China is not going to have enough workers just as robots are taking all the jobs. Now that's a bleak future.

There is No Contradiction Between Weak Capital Goods Orders and Investment Growth in First Quarter

The Washington Post noted the 6.0 percent rise in business investment in the first quarter and said that it seems to contradict the drop of 0.1 percent in capital goods orders (excluding aircraft) in March. There actually is no contradiction.

Capital goods orders are forward-looking, indicating businesses' intentions for how much they want to invest over the next year or two, sometimes longer. Their investment in the first quarter is mostly the outcome of investment made in prior quarters.

If...

Trump Pick as CDC Director to Get 110 Food Stamp Years of Pay in Addition to Salary

We all know how upset some folks get at the idea that people get food stamps from the government. So let's get some of the righteous outrage directed at Robert R. Redfield, Trump's pick to be the new head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to an NYT article, Dr. Redfield will earn $375,000 a year in this post. According to the article, Redfield is able to get this high pay through a loophole that allows the government to pay more money to people who are uniquely...

Trump Pick as C.D.C. Director to Get 110 Food Stamp Years of Pay in Addition to Salary

We all know how upset some folks get at the idea that people get food stamps from the government. So let's get some of the righteous outrage directed at Robert R. Redford, Trump's pick to be the new head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to a NYT article, Dr. Redfield will earn $375,000 a year in this post. According to the article, Redford is able to get this high pay through a loophole that allows the government to pay more money to people who are uniquely qualifie...

Seriously Sloppy Reporting On SALT Deduction at the Washington Post

Many progressives, including this one, have worked to come up with ways around the Republican tax laws limits on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT). The reason is that we worry that the increased cost of these taxes will reduce the ability of states like New York and California to maintain and expand relatively generous social safety nets and support for education, health care, and child care.

When these taxes were fully deductible, the federal government effectively picked up 40...

Serious Confusion on Currency and the Dollar at the NYT

The NYT had a seriously confused column by Lan Cao on US trade policy. The piece touts the dollar's role as the world's leading currency, highlighting the fact that most oil is traded in dollars.

In reality, the need for countries to get dollars to buy oil is trivial. If a country does not otherwise want to hold dollars, it can hold its assets in any major currency. Since there are massive currency markets in which trillions of dollars worth of currency change hands every day, it can sell wha...

The Amazon Tax: Higher Rents

The NYT had an interesting column on the impact that the location of Amazon's new headquarters would have on rents in the finalist cities. The column reports projections from Zillow on how much more the median rents would rise over the next decade due to the presence of Amazon.

Topping the list is Los Angeles, where Zillow projected that the median monthly rent will be $740 higher in 2028 if Amazon puts it headquarters. This means that the median renter in the city will be paying an Amazon ta...

Economists Don't Say That Automation Will Drive Unemployment Higher

Erik Loomis had an NYT column arguing for a government jobs guarantee by telling readers:

"Employment numbers may look solid now, but economists, physicists and industrial engineers all say that automation will, in the not-so-distant future, drive higher unemployment."

This is not true. Productivity growth (a.k.a. "automation") has been very weak for the last decade, averaging just over 1.0 percent annually. Most projections assume that productivity growth will remain slow, implying a relat...