September 06, 2021

06 Septiembre 2021

Workers’ prospects will be further enhanced if Biden’s bill passes since it will hugely increase the amount of security they have.

• Economic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperación

Cheap Fun Saturday: Job Growth Under Biden and Trump

By Dean BakerDean Baker

September 04, 2021

04 Septiembre 2021

The August jobs report was somewhat disappointing. The economy added only 235,000 jobs for the month, just 48,000 more than the 187,000 pre-pandemic monthly average under Trump. Seriously, most of us did expect more jobs (my number had been 500,000), but after two months where job growth averaged more than 1 million, some falloff should have been expected, even without the impact of the Delta variant.

Anyhow, it’s time to see how the economy’s job performance under Biden stacks up against its performance under Trump. As I always say, this is silly since there are so many things that are beyond the president’s control, so the comparison really is not telling us much. But, you know if the situation were reversed, Donald Trump would be touting this graph to the sky. He probably would even have a huge neon version on top of Trump Tower.

So, here’s where we stand now. Including the August number, and the 135,000 upward revision to growth for the prior two months, Biden has now created 4.5 million jobs in the first seven months of his presidency. Trump lost 2.9 million jobs over his four years in office.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Author’s calculations.

The August jobs report was somewhat disappointing. The economy added only 235,000 jobs for the month, just 48,000 more than the 187,000 pre-pandemic monthly average under Trump. Seriously, most of us did expect more jobs (my number had been 500,000), but after two months where job growth averaged more than 1 million, some falloff should have been expected, even without the impact of the Delta variant.

Anyhow, it’s time to see how the economy’s job performance under Biden stacks up against its performance under Trump. As I always say, this is silly since there are so many things that are beyond the president’s control, so the comparison really is not telling us much. But, you know if the situation were reversed, Donald Trump would be touting this graph to the sky. He probably would even have a huge neon version on top of Trump Tower.

So, here’s where we stand now. Including the August number, and the 135,000 upward revision to growth for the prior two months, Biden has now created 4.5 million jobs in the first seven months of his presidency. Trump lost 2.9 million jobs over his four years in office.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Author’s calculations.

• Economic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperaciónEnvironment

Debt Doesn’t Go Away Just Because Senator Manchin and Others in Washington Choose Not to Think About It

By Dean BakerDean Baker

September 02, 2021

02 Septiembre 2021

Senator Manchin wants to pretend that this climate debt does not exist. He only wants to look at the debt that comes from the government directly borrowing money.

• BudgetEconomic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperación

The Shortage/Glut of Savings: The Which Way Is Up Problem in Economics

By Dean BakerDean Baker

September 01, 2021

01 Septiembre 2021

To my mind, this is a silly debate, starting with the idea that we should be concerned about inequalities in wealth resulting from low interest rates. That one is a bit hard for me to see.

• Economic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperación

Does the New York Times Prohibit Its Reporters from Providing Context on Budget Issues?

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 25, 2021

25 Agosto 2021

This article on the $3.5 trillion budget outline didn't mention once that the spending would be over ten years.

• Economic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperaciónInequalityLa DesigualdadInflation

Jerome Powell, the Fed and Regulation

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 25, 2021

25 Agosto 2021

Having argued the case for the importance of regulating finance, let me say that I still see it as very much a secondary consideration in the selection of the Fed chair.

• COVID-19CoronavirusEconomic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperación

Denmark and the Case for Optimism on the Pandemic

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 23, 2021

23 Agosto 2021

If the nonsense coming from the vaccine resisters can be effectively countered, we should be able to reach vaccination rates comparable to Denmark’s in the not distant future.

• United StatesEE. UU.WorkersSector del trabajo

CORRECTION: The $23 an Hour Minimum Wage

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 19, 2021

19 Agosto 2021

The problem is that we have made many changes to the economy that shifted huge amounts of income upward, so that we cannot support a pay structure that gives workers at the bottom $52,000 a year. This is the whole point of my book, Rigged.

• Economic Crisis and RecoveryCrisis económica y recuperación

Life at the Bottom in Joe Biden’s America

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 16, 2021

16 Agosto 2021

Nominal wages have been rising rapidly for workers at the bottom of the pay ladder in recent months. This has allowed workers in the lowest paying jobs to see substantial increases in real wages, in spite of the uptick in inflation the last few months.

• Environment

Cheap Talk from the Fed on Global Warming?

By Dean BakerDean Baker

August 13, 2021

13 00:00:00 Agosto 2021

It’s easy for a high-level executive to say that they didn’t pay attention to the rantings of some obscure economist, it’s much harder for them to say they don’t bother looking at what the Fed chair says and the research it publishes.