Tag Archives: US economy

Workers’ wages have been stagnant for the past decade across the 36 countries that make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. But the problem has been particularly acute in the United States, where the “low-income rate” is high (only surpassed by two countries, Greece and Spain) and “income inequality” even worse (following only Israel). The causes are clear: workers suffer when many of the new jobs they’re forced to have the freedom to take are on the low end of...

When the poorest gain, the lower bound, or ‘floor’, of the distribution of living standards rises. Using microdata spanning the last 30 years, this column argues that the floor in the US has been sinking, alongside rising top incomes. The floor would have fallen further without public spending on food stamps, which helped protect the poorest in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. vox.euAlongside rising top incomes, the level of living of America’s poorest has fallen Martin...

Peter Temin says 80 per cent of the population is burdened with debt and anxious about job security. Welcome to the banana republic.Independent (UK)US has regressed to developing nation status, MIT economist warnsChloe Farand

Policymakers have helped to perpetuate an economic model that is ultimately unsustainable. The article is based on Bill Mitchell's analysis of US unemployment.AlterNetThe Fed Is on the Verge of Making a Major Policy ErrorMarshall Auerback / AlterNet

PPP rather than GDP. Purchasing power parity calculations of GDP attempt to measure all the goods and services produced by a country with a common set of prices. This means we add up all the cars, tables, haircuts, knee surgeries etc. produced in both the U.S. and China, and assume that each item costs the same in both countries. According to the projections from the I.M.F. China's GDP is already 25 percent larger by this measure and will be almost 50 percent larger by the end of the...

Princeton economist estimates there are 5.3 million Americans who are ‘absolutely poor’ by global standards MarketWatchKey Words: U.S. has more truly destitute people than either Sierra Leone or Nepal, says Nobel economist Deaton Greg Robb | Senior Economics Reporter

Out of paradigm with MMT but useful as an analysis of how the elite is likely to act when faced with the next recession based on core beliefs with respect to contractions. Could get ugly under this scenario. World Economic Forum The US is not ready for the next recession. Here's why Barry Eichengreen | Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

James K. Galbraith is a self-described "Galbraithian" (institutionalist) and also a supporter of MMT.Market WatchEconomist James K. Galbraith isn’t celebrating Dow 25,000 Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch interviews James K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin

One of the findings of the dynamic information equilibrium approach (see also my latest paper) is that nominal output ("GDP") has essentially the same structure as the size of the labor force. The major shocks to the path of NGDP roughly correspond to the major shocks to the Civilian Labor Force (CLF). Both are shown as vertical lines. The first is the demographic shock of women entering the workforce.... With the positive shock of women entering the labor force ending, immigration is a...

Summary of Grantham's guesses (described "absolutely my personal views")A melt-up or end-phase of a bubble within the next 6 months to 2 years is likely, i.e., over 50%. If there is a melt-up, then the odds of a subsequent bubble break or melt-down are very, very high, i.e., over 90%. If there is a market decline following a melt-up, it is quite likely to be a decline of some 50%. If such a decline takes place, I believe the market is very likely (over 2:1) to bounce back up way over the...