Dean Baker
Truthout, February 25, 2013

In Part 1 of this series we saw that two decades after passage of the FMLA, about a third of all workers (34 percent) still have not heard about the Act. More surprising, perhaps, is the finding that a significant share of employers who are covered by the

Actually he neglected to mention this fact in his column this morning. (It's less than 1.0 percent of GDP and only about 0.5 percent of GDP if we net out the interest rebated by the Fed.) Samuelson tells us:

"The true national debt could be triple the conventional estimate, anywhere from $11 trillion to $31 trillion by my reckoning. The differences mostly reflect explicit and implicit “off-budget” federal loan guarantees. In another economic downturn, these could result in large losses that would be brought “on budget” and worsen already huge deficits. That’s the danger.

"My purpose is not to scare or sensationalize. It’s simply to illuminate the problem."

Actually, Samuelson may have inadvertently done the latter.

If you want to make the jump from the $11 trillion commonly used number, or the $16 trillion debt subject to the legal debt ceiling, to get to Samuelson's $31 trillion, you have to add $2.9 trillion in loan guarantees (largely student loans and small businesses), $5.1 trillion in mortgages guaranteed through Fannie and Freddie, and $7.3 trillion in federal deposit insurance. What's neat about these additional debts is that they are tied to assets.

In the case of small businesses, the assets are the businesses. In the case of mortgages, the assets are the houses. In the case of deposit insurance, the assets are the deposits and the banks' assets. (I left out student loans -- we can't force people to work, but it is pretty hard to imagine a situation where all of our doctors and lawyers can't pay any of the debt they owe.)

April 2011, Eileen Appelbaum, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Carrie Leana

A few days ago two more land rights activists were murdered in the Bajo Aguán, a region of Honduras where dozens of campesinos have been killed over the last three years. On February 16, Jacobo Cartagena, member of the Unified Campesino Movement of the Ag

In Part 1 of this series we saw that two decades after passage of the FMLA, about a third of all workers (34 percent) still have not heard about the Act. More surprising, perhaps, is the finding that a significant share of employers who are covered by the

The Miami Herald editorial board commented on the recent reelection of Ecuador’s Rafael Correa earlier this week, noting that “opposition candidate Alvaro Noboa, whom Mr. Correa defeated 57 percent to 43 percent, has indicated that he might challenge the

Dean Baker
The Nation, February 20, 2013

There were two significant and possibly historic legal developments in Haiti today. After Jean-Claude Duvalier refused yet again to appear in court today, Judge Jean Joseph Lebrun issued an order for him to appear at the next hearing, meaning Duvalier wil