Jared Bernstein
- : Jared Bernstein is a senior economist at Economic Policy Institute. He is the author of the new book, "Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)."
Trickle Down...R.I.P.
Look for this obituary in tomorrow's paper: Trickle-down economics died yesterday morning at 10AM. The cause of death was a data release from the US Census Bureau, but trickle-down had been ailing from lack of empirical support for decades. Also...more »
Posted on August 26, 2008 11:11 PM
EFCA
David's answer to my question made a lot of sense. I want to pick up on one part of it: expanding the labor movement, and to put in a plug for a law that could make an important difference...more »
Posted on July 10, 2008 11:22 PM
Uprisings: Bottom Up and Top Down
I think it was the British comedian Alexei Sayle who used to do this routine riffing off of Tracy Chapman's song about revolution. He'd play it for awhile, and then stop it suddenly right when Tracy was singing "there's...more »
Posted on July 8, 2008 2:01 PM
Muddy Brooks
David Brooks made an important mistake in his Tuesday column about Barack Obama's fund raising. He writes: "If Obama's tax plans go through, those affluent donors could wind up giving over 50 percent of their income to the federal government."...more »
Posted on July 1, 2008 10:53 PM
Defintion for Today
Today's retail sales report for May revealed a much better-then-expected jump of 1%, the best monthly showing in six months (year-over-year growth of 2.5% is still sluggish). It wasn't just spending on gas either (core sales, ex-autos, ex-gas were also...more »
Posted on June 12, 2008 12:20 PM
Fear Inc., Economy Version
Thanks much to Arianna Huffington for inviting me to respond to her posts this week. First, let me say that Right is Wrong is an important and enlightening read. Many of us are already there in terms of the...more »
Posted on June 9, 2008 12:07 PM
It's Hot Outside but Cold in the Job Market
Sweltering DC humidity arrived on schedule this morning, but it brought with it a truly lousy jobs report. I give the full low-down here, but the punchline is that the unemployment rate leapt up a big half-percent in May, from...more »
Posted on June 6, 2008 3:19 PM
Workin' My Last Good Nerve
Robert Samuelson's oped in today's WaPo is workin' my last good nerve. The basic argument is that a cap-and-trade carbon tax is anti-growth, and he cites lots of numbers to make it sound terribly expensive and painful. But what Samuelson...more »
Posted on June 2, 2008 3:31 PM
More Reasons to Worry about McCain-onomics
As Jonathan Taplin's discusses in an earlier post, candidate McCain gave a big economics speech today. Allow me to elaborate on why this stuff should scare you. First, the gas tax holiday is smart politics but lousy policy. As Taplin...more »
Posted on April 15, 2008 4:15 PM
Responding to Brad and Alan
The Great Merit Debate: OK, OK…mea culpa re the ambiguity of “merit.” I’m not trying to be elusive. I’m just trying to find words that work for lots of different readers from different walks of like. Let me be,...more »
Posted on April 11, 2008 5:09 PM
-
JohnW1141,
1) I dunno...the whole thing smells to me. But I guess Darth, I mean Dick, would say because he has to pay X% on the realized gain from a stock sale, he won't do it. But if could pay less than X%...well, then he'd be selling and investing like crazy.
2) True...they never have that paragraph.
Posted at August 27, 2008 6:11 PM in response to Trickle Down...R.I.P.
-
Brooks comment was about average rates, not marginal rates, as in your comment--I also am citing average rates. Average rates are tax liability/income. In a system with graduated marginal rates, the average is usually lower than the marginal (unless we're talking megabucks, where they're going to be about the same).
Also, it's important to recognize that the BHO campaign has not specified the Soc Sec rate for those with incomes above $250K. They--or Congress--could easily choose a lower rate, maybe on a broader base than just earnings.
Posted at July 2, 2008 9:18 AM in response to Muddy Brooks
-
Hmmm...I dunno...'nother rebate?
Posted at June 14, 2008 7:53 PM in response to Defintion for Today
-
In the 2000s (2000-07), real median wages grew about 3%; real median compensation grew about 6% and productivity grew about 20%, so that doesn't make much difference, ie, using total comp shaves about 3% points off of a 17 point gap.
Posted at April 12, 2008 4:34 PM in response to Merit, Globalization, and Optimal Tax Rates
-
Joe,
Rob Scott at EPI has done some work on insourcing...search the site. I think he finds that there's less there than meets the eye.
On outsourcing, we've got a new'ish analysis you might find interesting.
http://www.epi.org/datazone/characteristics_of_offshorable_jobs.pdfI'll check out Wolf's book--I've not read it.
Thanks.
Posted at April 9, 2008 11:40 PM in response to The Crunchian Take on Globalization
-
Ellen,
The point is not that they shouldn't make risky investments. They're welcome to buy futures on Martian wheat yields, as far as I'm concerned. The problem is that when such liabilities are kept off balance sheet, only deep insiders can accurately assess risk, and such non-transparency is really bad for the economy.
Similarly, neither you nor I have the information to judge whether BS was TBTF (too big to fail). But if the powers that be are going to make that call, at our expense (ie, the bail out), then oversight become critical--a no-brainer, really. At that point, we have an absolute right to know that the firm was as integral to the integrity of the system as we're being told. Like you, I'm skeptical, but also like you, I'm wholly in the dark.
That's the problem: it's a shadow financial system and it needs to be brought into the light.
Posted at April 8, 2008 9:22 AM in response to Response to Barbara
-
Yes, I absolutely think you can make this case on an efficiency basis. The current system is a huge burden on employers and fraught with wasteful inefficiences. Of course, those inefficiencies have many beneficiaries, in the insurance industry and big Pharma, eg, and they won't go gently into that good night.
Which is why the current reform plans--eg HRC and BHO--goes through them, not around them.
Posted at April 8, 2008 8:06 AM in response to Let's Talk "Crunch"
-
Don't know but I'll check.
Posted at April 8, 2008 12:14 AM in response to Let's Talk "Crunch"
-
Actually, just stumbled on some more details. I fear there's less here than meets the eye. Predicitably...
More to come.
Posted at March 31, 2008 12:12 AM in response to JB on PK vs BHO
-
Good idea...maybe I'll try if I can find a minute.
First blush: good start--necessary consolidation, and some new oversight of investment banks by the Fed. I'm just not sure the Fed are the right folks to take this on. They're congenitally laissez-faire on such matters, I think.
Posted at March 30, 2008 8:19 AM in response to JB on PK vs BHO
