Dean Baker Posts

We are now looking at a labor market that is as strong as at any point in the last fifty years.

The trucking industry is far less unionized than it was back in the 1970s, making it a lot less lucrative. It’s not surprising that workers aren't lining up for the job.

Not only did the federal minimum wage not keep pace with productivity growth, it did not even keep pace with inflation.

The Washington Post tells us that 7.7 million first doses of vaccines have been shipped to date (two million shots have been given), with a target of 16 million by the end of the year. This is warp speed?

It’s good to see the New York Times making the case for higher wages in an editorial. Unfortunately, they get much of the story confused.

Defaulting on the pensions of state and local employees would be a huge hit to African American workers and retirees.

While there are some very good economic reporters out there, it is clear that the major news outlets care very little about accurately informing their audience about the economy.

Warren is exactly right and is doing a public service with her simple insistence that costs for most people will go down.

"You can see the Trump plan is a terrific way to make America really great again for very rich people."

One positive point is yesterday's rate rike may be the last one for some period of time.

Thus far, the Ebola virus has infected three people in the United States that we know of, however Ebola hysteria seems to have infected somewhere close to 300 million. There are reports of kids being pulled out of schools and even some school closings.

President Obama’s chief economist, Jason Furman, weighed in behind efforts to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last week. The main plan on the table is a bill forward by Senators Tim Johnson and Mike Crapo, the chair and ranking member, respectively, on the Senate Banking Committee.

As has frequently been noted, the TPP is not really about trade. The tariff barriers and quotas between the TPP countries are already low in most cases. Rather, the point of the deal is to put in place a structure of regulations that will be more friendly to the large corporations who are in many cases directly part of the negotiating process. Even if it were about trade, there are many lessons to be learned from NAFTA's failures that Washington would be wise not to ignore.

While meandering the streets of Paris, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman apparently awakened to the fact that the assignment of claims to wealth through patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property is a really big deal. This is good news for those who have been jumping up and down yelling about this fact for the last 15 years or so.

At this point everyone who follows economic policy debates knows about the famous Reinhart-Rogoff spreadsheet error uncovered by a University of Massachusetts graduate student. When the error is corrected, there is nothing resembling the growth falloff cliff associated with a 90 percent debt-to-GDP ratio that had been the main takeaway from the initial paper.

The Commerce Department released data on corporate profits last week that showed the before-tax profit share in 2012 reaching its highest level since 1951. The after-tax profit share edged down by one-tenth of a percentage point from its 2011 level, but was still higher than every other year since 1930.

There are few areas where the corruption of the national media is more apparent than in its treatment of Social Security. Most of the elite media have made it clear in both their opinion and news pages that they want to see benefits cut.

There are few areas where the corruption of the national media is more apparent than in its treatment of Social Security. Most of the elite media have made it clear in both their opinion and news pages that they want to see benefits cut.

The most striking feature of the U.S. economy over the last three decades has been the upward redistribution of income. The top 1.0 percent of households has managed to pocket the vast majority of gains over this period. That is a sharp contrast with the three decad

Congress and the president are going to do exactly what voters elected them to do; they are going to cut Social Security by 3 percent. You don’t remember anyone running on that platform? Yeah, well, they probably forgot to mention it.