Tag Archives: Great Recession
Payrolls Rising with Lower Labor Productivity
Popular Economics Weekly Suddenly it looks like the U.S. economy isn’t stalling. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in March, reported the U.S. Bureau of … Continue reading
David Stockman’s Crony Capitalism
Popular Economics Weekly Paul Krugman is being too gentle with David Stockman, whose recent New York Times ‘rant’ glorifies the gold standard and denigrates government for standing in the way of putting “free markets and genuine wealth creation back into … Continue reading
The Decline of the West
Popular Economics Weekly Berkeley Prof Brad Delong has posted a very sobering essay on his website. Because the deficit hawks and austerity advocates now hold sway in both Europe and North America, we could be in for a very prolonged … Continue reading
January Housing Prices, Mortgages, Surging
The Mortgage Corner CoreLogic reported that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased on a year-over-year basis by 9.7 percent in January 2013 compared to January 2012. This change represents the biggest increase since April 2006 and the 11th consecutive … Continue reading
State of the Union—Why So Few New Jobs?
Popular Economics Weekly President Obama’s State of the Union address was all about jobs. So why have so few been created since the Great Recession? Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen gave a recent speech entitled: A Painfully Slow Recovery … Continue reading
Juicing Employment Is Good
Financial FAQs The subject of juicing is in the air with Lance Armstrong’s confession that he and his cycling teammates injected various stimulants to win races. Yet he told Oprah on her show he didn’t think he was cheating. “Scary, … Continue reading
What Budget Problem?
Popular Economics Weekly Does Congress know that our federal budget deficit has been shrinking steadily since 2009, the end of the 18-month Great Recession? Yes, that’s right. A combination of cuts in government spending and very low interest rates on … Continue reading
Unemployment—Why Still So High?
Popular Economics Weekly What will bring US back to full employment is a very big question among economists. The problem is that the 155,000 per month nonfarm payroll average in 2012 isn’t enough to either absorb new entrants, or those … Continue reading
Happy New Year—A 2013 Recovery!
Popular Economics Weekly Any doubts how dependent the rest of the world is on U.S. growth was dispelled on ratification of the ‘fiscal cliff’ bill by Congress. The world’s stock markets rallied on the news. The DOW was up + … Continue reading
Our Tragedy of the Commons—Austerity That Doesn’t Work
Popular Economics Weekly There is a longer term fiscal crisis that current budget negotiators are ignoring. It is called the Tragedy of the Commons — the long term neglect of common resources and facilities used by all, including our air, … Continue reading
