Dean Baker

Allan Sloan, a columnist at Newsweek and the Washington Post and a commentator on MarketPlace reversed his previous position on the Social Security trust fund. I had previously taken Mr. Sloan to task for advocating default on the government bonds held by the Social Security trust fund. This morning on MarketPlace, he unambiguously stated that […]

In an article on the victory of the conservatives in Sweden’s election, the NYT repeated their assertion that Sweden’s official 5.7 percent unemployment rate would jump to 21 percent if “early retirees, people in job-training and those on long-term disability” were included. The same charge appeared the previous day. It is not clear what this […]

Sweden is holding an election on Sunday, which earned it a bit of ink in the Times. The article notes that Sweden�s official unemployment rate of 5.7 percent is one of the lowest ones in Europe. It then reports the assertion of the conservative opposition candidate that its unemployment rate would be 21 percent if […]

The Fed released data for industrial production for August yesterday. The story in the media was that production had fallen by 0.1 percent in August, suggesting that the economy was slowing. Well, this is a case where more caution would be helpful. First, it is best to focus on the data for manufacturing. The other […]

Actually, California’s economy has done pretty well over the last 30 years, yet its per capita use of electricity has barely budged. It also ranks near the bottom of the 50 states in per capita gasoline consumption. This is a striking story, given how much some politicians and economists have led us to fear regulations […]

The deficit hit another record in July. It’s now running at an $820 billion annual rate, more than 6 percent of GDP. Of course, I’m talking about the trade deficit, not the budget deficit. All the bad outcomes of large budget deficits are also true of large trade deficits, yet the media barely notice a […]

The NYT reported on Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s decision to veto an ordinance setting a higher minimum wage for large stores (e.g. Wal-Mart). After 2010, the law would have required large stores to pay workers at least $10 an hour, plus $3 an hour for benefits. The article concludes by presenting the assertion of a […]

This is what reporters are supposed to do. –Dean Baker

We are still at the early stages of the collapse of the housing bubble, but it�s not too early to start pointing fingers. This isn�t a question of vengeance, the issue is accountability. If the dishwasher breaks the dishes, she gets fired. If the custodian doesn�t clean the toilet, he gets fired. Economists think it�s […]

The Fed released data for consumer debt for July on Friday. The release got little attention, and the short pieces that did cover it mostly focused on the slower rate of growth. The growth in consumer credit overall slowed from a 7.3 percent annual rate in June to a 2.8 percent rate in July. For […]