The man who famously admitted that economics is not his strong suit wants to fundamentally alter the government’s role in the economy by deeply cutting non-defense spending, from discretionary programs to entitlements.
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein is an economist and senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He was formerly chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden and a member of President Barack Obama’s economic team.
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The Economic State of the Union
In last night’s State of the Union, Bush danced around the very real economic concerns faced by Americans. Of course, this is nothing new.
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Which Kind of Economics?
Economist Bryan Caplan confuses reality with ideology, to unfortunate effect; economist Richard Freeman calls for open-source unions, which might just point the way to a revival of the labor movement.
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Is Education the Cure for Poverty?
Economists may disagree a lot on policy, but we all agree on the “education premium” — the earnings boost associated with more education. But what role can education play in a realistic antipoverty policy agenda? And what are the limits of that role? First, it depends on whether you’re talking about children or adults, and […]
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Short Circuited
— Date: April 10, 2057 Memo: From the communitarian of labor Topic: Historical musings regarding the dark ages — The seed of the destruction of the market economy that predominated until the early 21st century was planted in a 50-year-old press release from the electronics retailer Circuit City. As was common in this dark period […]
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Keep it Clean
It should come as no surprise that one of the first acts of the 110th Congress will be legislation to raise the minimum wage. A bit more surprising is the endorsement by President Bush, who recently announced that a minimum wage increase was a policy on which he and the incoming Democratic congress could “work […]
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Caging the Inflation Hawks
As was widely expected, the high priests at the Temple of the Fed announced yesterday that they would hold the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) steady at 5.25 percent. There are inflation hawks out there who will criticize the decision, but it’s a good thing these hawks are keeping their claws off the pause. Neither the […]
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Honey, I Raised the Fed Rate Again
For the 16th time in a row, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate, bringing the federal funds rate to 5 percent. The rate hike was widely expected. The question among soothsayers who parse the entrails of the Fed’s statements was not whether this hike would occur, but whether the committee would signal […]
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Short Changed
When the economy is doing well, presidents tend to spout growth rates and historical comparisons in their State of the Union speeches, while leaders of the other party suffer through the speech. If a president is presiding over a downturn, he feels their (and everybody’s) pain, tortures a few numbers to suggest things are not […]
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Not Another Tax Cut
The consensus was that they’d do it, and they did it. The Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates again, the 11th consecutive rate increase, from a measly 1 percent in June of 2004 to 3.75 percent on September 20. Technically, the rate in question is the interest rate that banks charge one another on overnight […]
