Dean Baker

I have railed in the past about the uselessness of the consumer confidence index. It basically gives us a measure of where the economy is today and tells nothing about where it will be tomorrow. For this reason, I was not especially impressed by the news that the index had fallen slightly last month. It […]

Not one of the “Blue Chip” 50 economic forecasters saw the coming of the 2001 recession in the fall of 2000. How could 50 intelligent informed observers make independent assessments of the economy and fail to see a major event that was right in front of their eyes. The obvious answer is that forecasters do […]

Circulation Plunges at Major Newspapers –Dean Baker

The NYT had a mostly good piece on efforts to deal with global warming today. The one big item missing is any discussion of pay-by-the-mile auto insurance. The logic on this one is simple. Currently auto insurance is pretty much a fixed price, drivers pay an average of close to $1,000 a year whether they […]

Apparently NYT reporters can’t. An article in Monday’s NYT on a new Medicare guidebook that seems to promote private plans reports that “senior Democrats” complain that these plans raise the cost of the program. Well, senior Democrats might complain about the higher costs of the HMOs, PPOs and other private plans that have been incorporated […]

We all know the story, an old-line U.S. industry, burdened by high wages and outmoded business practices, starts to lose out to foreign competition. Instead of bringing their pay more in line with world standards, they go running to the government for help. Yep, that’s the best way to describe the financial industry’s efforts to […]

No, I’m not talking about economics reporters or the brilliant economists who somehow failed to see the housing bubble (and the stock bubble), I’m talking about the Census Bureau’s release of data on vacancy rate for thethird quarter. The data show that vacancy rates have climbed to yet another record high. The big story is […]

Those folks wanting to weigh the impact of the economy on the elections next month would well-advised to place more emphasis on yesterday’s reported plunge in new home prices than the recent uptick in the stock market. The basic story is simple, most people have far more money in their house than in the stock […]

President Bush has repeatedly said in the last two weeks that he wants to push his plan for privatizing Social Security again after the election. This presumably means that it will be back on the table if the Republicans keep control of Congress. This means that Social Security should be a major issue in every […]

The Washington Post reports that a trade agreement with the United States is a major issue in Ecuador’s presidential campaign. It repeatedly refers to the proposed agreement as a “free trade” pact. Of course the agreement would not create free trade. It would largely leave in place the protections that ensure high wages for doctors, […]