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Dean Baker

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Japan's Central Bank Holds Much of Japan's Debt

Dean BakerMar 22, 2010

An AP story in the Washington Post on the IMF's warnings about debt levels told readers that: "Japan's debt is proportionately even bigger -- about twice its GDP -- but the impact is cushioned because most is held by Japanese households." Actually the fact that the debt is mostly held by Japanese households by itself is of little consequence. If Japan had been running large trade deficits and foreigners had bought private assets but not government bonds, then Japanese households and its economy would be in the same situation as if foreigners had bought its debt.

NPR Covers Up for Economists' Responsibility for Pennsylvania Pension Shortfall

Dean BakerMar 22, 2010

A Morning Edition piece on the shortfall in Pennsylvania's public employee pension funds told listeners that just 10 years the funds were over-funded, then the good times went away. Actually, 10 years ago the stock market was in the middle of a huge bubble. This temporarily inflated the assets of pension funds, including the public pension funds in Pennsylvania.

$85 Billion is 2 Percent for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Dean BakerMar 22, 2010

The NYT article on the passage of the health care reform package noted that the pharmaceutical industry had agreed to reduce their charges by $85 billion over the next decade. It would have been helpful to tell readers that this is a bit more than 2 percent of projected revenues over this period for the industry. The patent monopolies granted by the government on prescription drugs give them about three times as much money every year.

--Dean Baker

Does the Post Know How Patent Monopolies Affect Drug Prices?

Dean BakerMar 21, 2010

It seems that they don't. The paper has a good article in the business section discussing how drug companies use illegal or unethical methods to push their drugs in order to take advantage of the huge patent rents available. However, the lengthy article never once notes that the patent system is at the heart of the problem. If drug research was financed through a mechanism that allowed drugs to sell at their market price, the incentives for this sort of corruption would disappear.

--Dean Baker

Bernanke, Who Engineered Huge Bank Mergers, Rails Against Giant Banks

Dean BakerMar 21, 2010

The NYT reported that in a speech before the Independent Community Bankers of America Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke lashed out against the risks created by giant too big to fail banks. It would have been worth mentioning that Bernanke had helped to engineer several mergers that made very large banks even larger during the financial crisis in 2008.

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