The Trouble with Low Inflation
The Fed announced today that they’ll continue to be the only ones in town trying to do something about the stubbornly high unemployment rate: The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that its stimulus campaign would press forward at the same pace it has maintained since December, putting to rest for now any suggestion that it was [...]
At Least the Big Banks Are Kickin’ It…
I just read that Goldman Sachs posted a profit of $2.2 billion in the first quarter, “…driven by strength in its investment banking business as well as its investing and lending unit.” And they’re mere pikers compared to their banking brethren: Across Wall Street, banks are showing signs of strength. Last week, JPMorgan posted a [...]
Underemployment Is Also the Right Target (Not Just Unemployment)
If we wanted to target the persistent slack in the labor market, though I can’t see any signs that we do, we shouldn’t just target the unemployment rate; we should also go after the underemployment rate. Since it captures the important dimension of not just do you have a job, but are you getting the [...]
Jobs Day Tomorrow: It’s A Wealth V. Wages Recovery
How do we know economists have a sense of humor? Because we keep forecasting the monthly jobs numbers. And so, without further ado and with deep humility, I submit that I expect tomorrow’s jobs report to show payrolls up about 170,000 in March, which is below the 193,000 consensus and a deceleration from February’s initial [...]
Abolish the Minimum Wage??!! A Debate
Had a rousing and often substantive debate last night sponsored by the group Intelligence Squared. My partner was the great and eloquent Karen Kornbluh (listen to the podcast–I really thought Karen did a great job merging morality, compassion, and the facts of the case); the opposing team was Russ Roberts and Jim Dorn. The proposition [...]
Going Meta on the Minimum Wage
MSNBC host Martin Bashir has been doing yeoman’s work highlighting the President’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9. I’m a veteran of these debates and lemme tell ya, it takes a lot of agitation to get them over the legislative goal line. Here’s a piece on the topic from Martin’s blog to which I contributed, featuring [...]
Talking Top Salaries in Finance and the Gas Price Spike with Kudlow and Co.
Had great fun co-hosting the Larry Kudlow show last night—yes, it was fun and interesting (though way, way too much of the Republican talking point: it’s Obama’s sequester! That part was pure nonsense). Anyway, check out this segment on the pay of finance CEO’s. There you learn that as penance for his lack of oversight [...]
Charles (goes out of his) Lane On the Minimum Wage
Charles Lane of the WaPo oped page often makes pretty muscular arguments in favor of conservative causes. But alas, not today. Today he’s got a bit of a mash-up on why he’s against the minimum wage increase, a dog’s breakfast of arguments that failed to make his case. Lane argues that even if the weight [...]
Minimum Wage Increase: $9 is Log Linear
Richard Freeman, the godfather of labor economics, once told me that one reason minimum wage increases don’t have the job loss effects their opponents predict is because the political process disallows increases that would be large enough to trigger such effects. I think that’s right and one way to quantify it is to look at [...]
Raising the Minimum Wage: The Debate Begins…Again
If you, like me, are a veteran of this minimum wage scrum that’s getting underway, you’ve likely heard the arguments before. But for you newbees out there–or vets who need an update—here ‘tis: Claim: Instead of helping low-wage workers, an increase in the minimum wage will cause them to lose their jobs. Certainly that’s the prediction [...]
Jared Bernstein’s areas of expertise include federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.
