Why are none of the “free trade” members of Congress pushing to change the regulations that require doctors go through a U.S. residency program to be able to practice medicine in the United States? Obviously they are all protectionist Neanderthals.
Will the media ever stop the ridiculous charade of pretending that the path of globalization that we are on is somehow and natural and that it is the outcome of a “free” market? Are longer and stronger patent and copyright monopolies the results of a free market?
The NYT should up its game in this respect. It had a good piece on the devastation to millions of working class people and their communities from the flood of imports of manufactured goods in the last decade, but then it turns to hand-wringing nonsense about how it was all a necessary part of globalization. Actually, none of it was a necessary part of a free trade.
First, the huge trade deficits were the direct result of the decision of China and other developing countries to buy massive amounts of U.S. dollars to hold as reserves in this period. This raised the value of the dollar and made our goods and services less competitive internationally. This problem of a seriously over-valued dollar stems from the bungling of the East Asian bailout by the Clinton Treasury Department and the I.M.F.
If we had a more competent team in place, that didn’t botch the workings of the international financial system, then we would have expected the dollar to drop as more imports entered the U.S. market. This would have moved the U.S. trade deficit toward balance and prevented the massive loss of manufacturing jobs we saw in the last decade.
The second point is political leaders are constantly working to make patents and copyrights stronger and longer. This raises the price that ordinary workers have to pay for everything from drugs to computer games. The result is lower real wages for ordinary workers and higher incomes for the beneficiaries of these rents. It also slows economic growth since markets are not smart enough to distinguish between a 10,000 percent price increase due to a tariff and a 10,000 percent price increase due to a patent monopoly. (In other words, all the bad things that “free trade” economists say about tariffs also apply to patents and copyrights, except the impact is far larger in the later case.)
Finally, the fact that trade has exposed manufacturing workers to international competition, but not doctors and lawyers, was a policy choice, not a natural development. There are enormous potential gains from allowing smart and ambitious young people in the developing world to come to the United States to work in the highly paid professions. We have not opened these doors because doctors and lawyers are far more powerful than autoworkers and textile workers. And, we rarely even hear the idea mentioned because doctors and lawyers have brothers and sisters who are reporters and economists.
Addendum:
Since some folks asked about the botched bailout from the East Asian financial crisis, the point is actually quite simple. Prior to 1997 developing countries were largely following the textbook model, borrowing capital from the West to finance development. This meant running large trade deficits. This reversed following the crisis as the conventional view in the developing world was that you needed massive amounts of reserves to avoid being in the situation of the East Asian countries and being forced to beg for help from the I.M.F. This led to the situation where developing countries, especially those in the region, began running very large trade surpluses, exporting capital to the United States. (I am quite sure China noticed how its fellow East Asian countries were being treated in 1997.)
Why are none of the “free trade” members of Congress pushing to change the regulations that require doctors go through a U.S. residency program to be able to practice medicine in the United States? Obviously they are all protectionist Neanderthals.
Will the media ever stop the ridiculous charade of pretending that the path of globalization that we are on is somehow and natural and that it is the outcome of a “free” market? Are longer and stronger patent and copyright monopolies the results of a free market?
The NYT should up its game in this respect. It had a good piece on the devastation to millions of working class people and their communities from the flood of imports of manufactured goods in the last decade, but then it turns to hand-wringing nonsense about how it was all a necessary part of globalization. Actually, none of it was a necessary part of a free trade.
First, the huge trade deficits were the direct result of the decision of China and other developing countries to buy massive amounts of U.S. dollars to hold as reserves in this period. This raised the value of the dollar and made our goods and services less competitive internationally. This problem of a seriously over-valued dollar stems from the bungling of the East Asian bailout by the Clinton Treasury Department and the I.M.F.
If we had a more competent team in place, that didn’t botch the workings of the international financial system, then we would have expected the dollar to drop as more imports entered the U.S. market. This would have moved the U.S. trade deficit toward balance and prevented the massive loss of manufacturing jobs we saw in the last decade.
The second point is political leaders are constantly working to make patents and copyrights stronger and longer. This raises the price that ordinary workers have to pay for everything from drugs to computer games. The result is lower real wages for ordinary workers and higher incomes for the beneficiaries of these rents. It also slows economic growth since markets are not smart enough to distinguish between a 10,000 percent price increase due to a tariff and a 10,000 percent price increase due to a patent monopoly. (In other words, all the bad things that “free trade” economists say about tariffs also apply to patents and copyrights, except the impact is far larger in the later case.)
Finally, the fact that trade has exposed manufacturing workers to international competition, but not doctors and lawyers, was a policy choice, not a natural development. There are enormous potential gains from allowing smart and ambitious young people in the developing world to come to the United States to work in the highly paid professions. We have not opened these doors because doctors and lawyers are far more powerful than autoworkers and textile workers. And, we rarely even hear the idea mentioned because doctors and lawyers have brothers and sisters who are reporters and economists.
Addendum:
Since some folks asked about the botched bailout from the East Asian financial crisis, the point is actually quite simple. Prior to 1997 developing countries were largely following the textbook model, borrowing capital from the West to finance development. This meant running large trade deficits. This reversed following the crisis as the conventional view in the developing world was that you needed massive amounts of reserves to avoid being in the situation of the East Asian countries and being forced to beg for help from the I.M.F. This led to the situation where developing countries, especially those in the region, began running very large trade surpluses, exporting capital to the United States. (I am quite sure China noticed how its fellow East Asian countries were being treated in 1997.)
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Robert Samuelson had what he thinks is good news, the pay gap in hourly wages between men and women is just 8.0 percent once we control for occupations and experience, not the more widely cited 21 percent. Samuelson tells us that it is a mistake to throw around this 21 percent figure since it doesn’t include proper adjustments. While Samuelson is correct that the 21 percent figure does not include all the controls that we would like to see, it is wrong to claim, as Samuelson is implicitly claiming, that the choice of occupation is not in part the result of discrimination.
In almost all occupations, there is a clear pattern where the most highly paid sub-sections are predominantly male, while the lower paid ones are predominantly females. This is clearest in the case of medicine. Highly paid specialists like neurosurgeons and cardiologists continue to be disproportionately male. Family practitioners and pediatricians are disproportionately women.
One can believe that women just don’t like to do things like learn about hearts, or one can believe that women face obstacles advancing in residency programs dominated by men. Samuelson seems to think the former. While it is probably not the case that women are ever formally blocked from entering higher paying areas of medicine or other occupations, there are many subtle ways in which the men already in these fields can make woman entrants feel uncomfortable. If these are not tackled then we are likely to end up with a situation where women’s pay remains well below the pay of men, even if it is comparable when we adjust for occupation and experience.
Robert Samuelson had what he thinks is good news, the pay gap in hourly wages between men and women is just 8.0 percent once we control for occupations and experience, not the more widely cited 21 percent. Samuelson tells us that it is a mistake to throw around this 21 percent figure since it doesn’t include proper adjustments. While Samuelson is correct that the 21 percent figure does not include all the controls that we would like to see, it is wrong to claim, as Samuelson is implicitly claiming, that the choice of occupation is not in part the result of discrimination.
In almost all occupations, there is a clear pattern where the most highly paid sub-sections are predominantly male, while the lower paid ones are predominantly females. This is clearest in the case of medicine. Highly paid specialists like neurosurgeons and cardiologists continue to be disproportionately male. Family practitioners and pediatricians are disproportionately women.
One can believe that women just don’t like to do things like learn about hearts, or one can believe that women face obstacles advancing in residency programs dominated by men. Samuelson seems to think the former. While it is probably not the case that women are ever formally blocked from entering higher paying areas of medicine or other occupations, there are many subtle ways in which the men already in these fields can make woman entrants feel uncomfortable. If these are not tackled then we are likely to end up with a situation where women’s pay remains well below the pay of men, even if it is comparable when we adjust for occupation and experience.
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The NYT had an account of the negotiations that led an agreement where holders of defaulted debt received billions of dollars in payments from the Argentine government. It made a point of contrasting the attitude of the new government, which was elected last fall, with the prior government, which it tells readers had referred to the debt holders as “vultures.”
In fact, this is not pejorative term invented by the prior Argentine government, it is actually the self-definition of these funds. They are called “vulture funds” because they buy up assets that are in default, or expected to be in default, with the expectation that they will be able to get more money than the current market price.
In the case of Argentina, this expectation was based on the (correct) belief that they could use their political power to block efforts to have the I.M.F. and the United States accept the deal under which more than 90 percent of Argentine bondholders settled with the Argentine government. Had this effort been successful, as many in both the I.M.F. and Treasury wanted, then these vulture investors would not have profited from their holdings of Argentine debt.
The NYT had an account of the negotiations that led an agreement where holders of defaulted debt received billions of dollars in payments from the Argentine government. It made a point of contrasting the attitude of the new government, which was elected last fall, with the prior government, which it tells readers had referred to the debt holders as “vultures.”
In fact, this is not pejorative term invented by the prior Argentine government, it is actually the self-definition of these funds. They are called “vulture funds” because they buy up assets that are in default, or expected to be in default, with the expectation that they will be able to get more money than the current market price.
In the case of Argentina, this expectation was based on the (correct) belief that they could use their political power to block efforts to have the I.M.F. and the United States accept the deal under which more than 90 percent of Argentine bondholders settled with the Argentine government. Had this effort been successful, as many in both the I.M.F. and Treasury wanted, then these vulture investors would not have profited from their holdings of Argentine debt.
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Neil Irwin had a good piece in the Upshot section of the NYT pointing out that the growing gap in life expectancies for rich and poor have made Social Security a less progressive program. He argues that this is a good reason not to consider increases in the Social Security retirement ages as a way to reduce the projected shortfall in funding.
This is true, but there is also a further reason that raising retirement ages would be regressive. Lower income people are far more likely to work at physically demanding jobs. A recent paper by Cherrie Bucknor found that 81.4 percent of older workers (over age 58) with less than a high school degree and 61.0 percent of those with a high school degree worked at jobs that were either physically demanding or in difficult workers conditions, this was true for only 29.4 percent of those with college degrees and 20.4 percent of those with advanced degrees.
The basic story is that it might not be any big deal for a lawyer or an economist to work until they are 70 or beyond, it might be considerably harder for a custodian or a waitress. We can run into serious problems when our retirement policy is designed by lawyers and economists who think that everyone has jobs like theirs.
Neil Irwin had a good piece in the Upshot section of the NYT pointing out that the growing gap in life expectancies for rich and poor have made Social Security a less progressive program. He argues that this is a good reason not to consider increases in the Social Security retirement ages as a way to reduce the projected shortfall in funding.
This is true, but there is also a further reason that raising retirement ages would be regressive. Lower income people are far more likely to work at physically demanding jobs. A recent paper by Cherrie Bucknor found that 81.4 percent of older workers (over age 58) with less than a high school degree and 61.0 percent of those with a high school degree worked at jobs that were either physically demanding or in difficult workers conditions, this was true for only 29.4 percent of those with college degrees and 20.4 percent of those with advanced degrees.
The basic story is that it might not be any big deal for a lawyer or an economist to work until they are 70 or beyond, it might be considerably harder for a custodian or a waitress. We can run into serious problems when our retirement policy is designed by lawyers and economists who think that everyone has jobs like theirs.
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I suppose the NYT should get credit for only doing it once, but it is still necessary to ask what information it thought it was providing readers in describing the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) as a “free trade” agreement? As a practical matter, the formal trade barriers between the United States and the European Union are already near zero, so there is not much to be gained from further reducing the remaining barriers.
The TTIP is primarily about putting in places rules on intellectual property, investment, and health and safety regulations. It also establishes an extra-judicial process to enforce these rules. Free trade has almost to do with the TTIP, so why use the term to describe the pact? It is not providing accurate information to readers.
I suppose the NYT should get credit for only doing it once, but it is still necessary to ask what information it thought it was providing readers in describing the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) as a “free trade” agreement? As a practical matter, the formal trade barriers between the United States and the European Union are already near zero, so there is not much to be gained from further reducing the remaining barriers.
The TTIP is primarily about putting in places rules on intellectual property, investment, and health and safety regulations. It also establishes an extra-judicial process to enforce these rules. Free trade has almost to do with the TTIP, so why use the term to describe the pact? It is not providing accurate information to readers.
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That would seem to be the implication of her Washington Post column, the headline of which told readers, “Republicans don’t like Kasich because he sounds like Obama.” What Rampell actually means by this is that Governor Kasich doesn’t sound angry, not that his political positions are at all similar to the ones advocated by President Obama. (In addition to the headline items, I should also mention that Kasich is opposed to the steps President Obama has taken to curb global warming and wants the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates.)
This obsession with tone rather than substance is common among reporters, but the Washington Post seems to have gone especially over the top in this area with reference to Mr. Kasich. (Anyone interested in verifying that Mr. Kasich actually has a very right-wing agenda can make a quick trip to his website.)
This obsession with Mr. Kasich’s moderate tone is remarkable because it flips the responsibilities of reporters on their head. Most of us are pretty good at listening to a politician and assessing whether they are angry, calm, reasoned, or other aspects of their demeanor. In any case, reporters don’t possess any obvious expertise in this area, they are not theater critics.
On the other hand, reporters should be in a position to know that the claim that large tax cuts will boost growth and increase revenue has been tried and repeatedly failed and that almost no economists accept this view. They also should know that the promise to maintain a balanced budget regardless of the condition of the economy would lead to long and severe recessions. And, they should know that the Fed’s expansionary monetary policy has helped to spur growth and reduce unemployment.
They should be sharing this information with readers so that they will understand that Mr. Kasich is making promises that are out of touch with reality. The amateur efforts at theater criticism have no place in serious political analysis.
That would seem to be the implication of her Washington Post column, the headline of which told readers, “Republicans don’t like Kasich because he sounds like Obama.” What Rampell actually means by this is that Governor Kasich doesn’t sound angry, not that his political positions are at all similar to the ones advocated by President Obama. (In addition to the headline items, I should also mention that Kasich is opposed to the steps President Obama has taken to curb global warming and wants the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates.)
This obsession with tone rather than substance is common among reporters, but the Washington Post seems to have gone especially over the top in this area with reference to Mr. Kasich. (Anyone interested in verifying that Mr. Kasich actually has a very right-wing agenda can make a quick trip to his website.)
This obsession with Mr. Kasich’s moderate tone is remarkable because it flips the responsibilities of reporters on their head. Most of us are pretty good at listening to a politician and assessing whether they are angry, calm, reasoned, or other aspects of their demeanor. In any case, reporters don’t possess any obvious expertise in this area, they are not theater critics.
On the other hand, reporters should be in a position to know that the claim that large tax cuts will boost growth and increase revenue has been tried and repeatedly failed and that almost no economists accept this view. They also should know that the promise to maintain a balanced budget regardless of the condition of the economy would lead to long and severe recessions. And, they should know that the Fed’s expansionary monetary policy has helped to spur growth and reduce unemployment.
They should be sharing this information with readers so that they will understand that Mr. Kasich is making promises that are out of touch with reality. The amateur efforts at theater criticism have no place in serious political analysis.
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It’s too bad the NYT doesn’t have a policy of fact-checking their columnists. (I realize, it might make it harder to get columnists, but it would make their columns more informative.) Ross Douthat’s confused piece on “The Democrats After Sanders” definitely would have benefited from more attachment to reality.
In the second paragraph Douthat tells us about the constraints on the budget since we are likely to face “the prospect of structural deficits for as long as baby boomers are taking Medicare.” Actually, the baby boomers use of Medicare has relatively little to do with budget deficits. Medicare is projected to rise as a share of GDP from roughly 3.6 percent today to 5.5 percent in two decades (Figure II.D1). The costs are then projected to rise gradually to 6.0 percent of GDP by 2080.
In other words, there is no reduction in costs after the baby boomers are all dead. The rise in costs is not due to baby boomers, but rather the fact that people are projected to live longer (the cruel things we do to our kids). Also, the excessive cost of health care in the United States is a big factor raising the cost of the program.
But this confusion is symptomatic of Douthat’s analysis. He argues that young people would be unlikely to want to pay the taxes to support a large welfare state once they are older and have higher incomes. Of course a big part of the issue is what happens to workers before tax income. If progressive Democrats are pursuing policies that lead to broadly shared wage growth, in other words workers get their share of productivity growth in wage growth, then workers can pay higher taxes and still enjoy much higher after-tax income.
For example, the Social Security Trustees Report projects that on average real wages will grow by 50 percent over the next three decades. If most workers share in these increases, then they may not be bothered much by a 1–2 percentage point increase in the Social Security tax. They would still have more than 45 percent in after-tax income than they do today.
While Mr. Douthat might want people to be concerned only about their taxes, economic theory would say that people care about their after-tax income. For after-tax income the extent to which workers can benefit from sharing productivity growth will matter far more than modest increases in tax rates.
It is also worth pointing out Douthat’s confusion about the impact of deficits. As long as the economy is well below its full employment level of output, deficits will not matter except to the politicians and columnists who like to yell about them. If the economy actually is up against its resource constraints and is reaching full employment, then deficits do matter. This is actually a much simpler story than Douthat seems to recognize.
Of course, if the economy is near full employment, we will have more tax revenue and be paying out less money for unemployment benefits and other transfer programs. This will go far towards eliminating any deficits, as was the case in the high employment years of the late 1990s.
It’s too bad the NYT doesn’t have a policy of fact-checking their columnists. (I realize, it might make it harder to get columnists, but it would make their columns more informative.) Ross Douthat’s confused piece on “The Democrats After Sanders” definitely would have benefited from more attachment to reality.
In the second paragraph Douthat tells us about the constraints on the budget since we are likely to face “the prospect of structural deficits for as long as baby boomers are taking Medicare.” Actually, the baby boomers use of Medicare has relatively little to do with budget deficits. Medicare is projected to rise as a share of GDP from roughly 3.6 percent today to 5.5 percent in two decades (Figure II.D1). The costs are then projected to rise gradually to 6.0 percent of GDP by 2080.
In other words, there is no reduction in costs after the baby boomers are all dead. The rise in costs is not due to baby boomers, but rather the fact that people are projected to live longer (the cruel things we do to our kids). Also, the excessive cost of health care in the United States is a big factor raising the cost of the program.
But this confusion is symptomatic of Douthat’s analysis. He argues that young people would be unlikely to want to pay the taxes to support a large welfare state once they are older and have higher incomes. Of course a big part of the issue is what happens to workers before tax income. If progressive Democrats are pursuing policies that lead to broadly shared wage growth, in other words workers get their share of productivity growth in wage growth, then workers can pay higher taxes and still enjoy much higher after-tax income.
For example, the Social Security Trustees Report projects that on average real wages will grow by 50 percent over the next three decades. If most workers share in these increases, then they may not be bothered much by a 1–2 percentage point increase in the Social Security tax. They would still have more than 45 percent in after-tax income than they do today.
While Mr. Douthat might want people to be concerned only about their taxes, economic theory would say that people care about their after-tax income. For after-tax income the extent to which workers can benefit from sharing productivity growth will matter far more than modest increases in tax rates.
It is also worth pointing out Douthat’s confusion about the impact of deficits. As long as the economy is well below its full employment level of output, deficits will not matter except to the politicians and columnists who like to yell about them. If the economy actually is up against its resource constraints and is reaching full employment, then deficits do matter. This is actually a much simpler story than Douthat seems to recognize.
Of course, if the economy is near full employment, we will have more tax revenue and be paying out less money for unemployment benefits and other transfer programs. This will go far towards eliminating any deficits, as was the case in the high employment years of the late 1990s.
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