What would the long-term federal deficit look like if the cost of the country’s health care system continued to explode, so that in thirty years it costs four times as much per person as that of other rich countries? Well, if I had nothing else to do with my time, I might calculate these numbers. […]
Dean Baker
Dean Baker is senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer. Read more about Dean.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Bad Advice on Mortgages from the NYT
The Sunday Times has an article reporting that many homebuyers who took out adjustable rate mortgages 3 years ago, are now refinancing to avoid higher mortgage rates. The article (actually the accompanying chart) also adds that many are refinancing with negative amortization loans, under which the outstanding principle increases through time. The chart tells readers […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Housing Appraisals: The Accounting Scandal of the Housing Bubble
Financial bubbles breed accounting fraud. Those of us who warned of the stock bubble in the late nineties were not surprised by the Enrons and WorldComs that surfaced when the bubble deflated. Bubbles make it possible to paper over all sorts of questionable accounting or outright fraud. When the bubble deflates, these practices can no […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Problems of Protectionism: Another Prescription Drug Scandal
In econ 101, we teach that when the government intervenes in a market to keep prices above marginal costs, it will encourage all sorts of undesirable and harmful rent-seeking behavior. This is one reason that all right-thinking economists are strong opponents of tariffs and quotas that can raise the price of things like shoes, shorts, […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Shame and Pain: The “Medicare and Social Security” Line Again
I believe that the Washington Post has a copyright on combining the words “Medicare” and “Social Security” in a single sentence. Anyone who writes on these issues on their editorial pages always seems to do it. Again folks, the numbers are real clear. Medicare is a big problem because U.S. health care costs are projected […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Washington Post’s Happy Face Version of the Fed
There is plenty of room to debate what the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy should be, but the necessary prerequisite for a serious debate is the knowledge of how monetary policy works. Readers of the Post would be badly misled on this topic by an article in today’s paper. The article correctly reports that the […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
NYT Discovers “Ghetto Tax”
The NYT had a good article this morning highlighting a new Brookings report that details how people living in inner city areas often pay far more for goods and services than people living in more affluent areas. The report is worth reading and the NYT gets credit for calling attention to it. Unfortunately, the report […]
Posted inEducation in America
Stagnation Celebration
Even the most casual consumer of elite American commentary knows about the looming demographic crisis. The drumbeat of warnings that the United States and (more acutely) Europe face some sort of catastrophe due to stagnating or even declining populations has been steady and loud for years. Here in the United States, the defeat of the […]
Posted inEducation in America
Stagnation Celebration
Even the most casual consumer of elite American commentary knows about the looming demographic crisis. The drumbeat of warnings that the United States and (more acutely) Europe face some sort of catastrophe due to stagnating or even declining populations has been steady and loud for years. Here in the United States, the defeat of the […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Drug Companies Gone Wild: Medicare Part D
The NYT had a very good piece about how the shift of 6 million Medicaid beneficiaries into the Medicare drug benefit program may increase drug company profits in 2006 by $2 billion. According to the article, under the new program the drug companies get to sell the same drugs at higher prices. It doesn’t get […]
