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The Election And The Economy
Its election season and Republicans and Democrats are working hard to demonstrate that they support dramatically different policies for rejuvenating the economy. While the Democratic Party’s call for...
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Low-Wage Employment Recovery
The media has focused on the lack of jobs as a major election issue. But the concern needs to go beyond jobs to the quality of those jobs. As a report by the National Employment Law Project makes...
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The Continuing Relevance of Class
Politicians always seem to be talking about the middle class. They need some new focus groups. According to the Pew Research Center, over the past four years the percentage of adult Americans that...
View ArticleThe Role Of Government In The Economy
A big debate is underway about fiscal multipliers. Sounds esoteric but it is not—it reveals that economics is far from an exact science and the outcome appears to confirm what most working people...
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The Jobs Gap
There is growing talk that the economy is finally on its way to recovery—“A Steady, Slo-Mo Recovery”—in the words of Businessweek. Here is how Peter Coy, writing in Businessweek, explains the growing...
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The Times They May be Changing
One of the biggest obstacles to improving economic conditions has been majority belief that our current economic system is capable of delivering steady improvements in living and working conditions....
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Scaling The Fiscal Cliff
With the election over, the news is now focused, somewhat hysterically, on the threat of the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff refers to the fact that at the end of this calendar year several temporary...
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The Distressed Labor Market
The following two charts taken from a Center for Economic Policy and Research Center study by John Schmitt and Janelle Jones highlight the distressed nature of the U.S. labor market and the need for...
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Beyond Growth
While newspapers give a lot of ink to arguments about whether reducing the budget deficit will boost or reduce growth, they seem to have little interest in the related issue of whether economic growth...
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The Continuing Unsatisfactory Economic Expansion
Media and policy-makers seem anxious to convince us that the economy is in strong recovery mode. Therefore no further significant policy interventions are needed. Their optimism appears to rest...
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A Bleak Future
Any improvement in living and working conditions in the United States is going to require far more than tinkering at the margins. The fact is that U.S. economic dynamics have undergone a major...
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The Deteriorating Labor Market
Despite the declining rate of unemployment—-it fell to 7.4% in July, the lowest level since December 2008—it is clear that economic trends, especially the rate and nature of job creation, are far from...
View ArticleProfits UP, Investment DOWN
Profits are definitely up. In fact, as Doug Henwood reports in a post on his Left Business Observer blog, corporations are “flush with cash”: At last count, U.S. nonfinancial corporations had nearly...
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For A Stronger Public Sector
The current economic recovery officially began June 2009 and is one of the weakest in the post-World War II period by almost every indicator except growth in profits. One reason it has offered working...
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Goodbye Public Investment
As the following chart from the Financial Times shows, public sector gross capital investment–which includes government spending on infrastructure, scientific research, education, and other long-term...
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Dismal Trends
Officially our most recent recession began December 2007 and ended June 2009. The following chart provides an important perspective on the recovery period. Stocks and profits have enjoyed a remarkable...
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Profits Without Social Benefit
The conventional explanation for our economic problems seems to be that our businesses are strapped for funds. Greater business earnings, it is said, will translate into needed investment, employment,...
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The Way Forward
Floyd Norris, writing in the New York Times, summarizes key economic trends as follows: Corporate profits are at their highest level in at least 85 years. Employee compensation is at the lowest level...
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A Failing Grade For U.S. Job Creators
In a fancy bit of marketing U.S. capitalists have been reborn as “job creators.” As such, they were rewarded with lower taxes, weaker labor laws, and relaxed government regulation. However, despite...
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Hipster Economics
We have the money and the know how to tackle most of our social problems. Certainly unemployment, houselessness, and poverty. So, why don’t we? In large part it is because our socially created wealth...
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