Tag: economic growth

During his State of the Union speech last night, the president was reportedly gloating about 100 consecutive months of improved employment numbers. But he has only been president for 24 months…he needs to give someone else credit for those previous 76: Just sayin’!

By all accounts, today’s job numbers were quite good.  But state and local government employment still represents a drag on the recovery. A shrinking public-sector workforce as a share of the overall population can have a real impact on residents’ quality of life, since the services that states and localities provide…

Angela Merkel fades into irrelevancy Their compact—now called the “treaty on stability, co-ordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union”, has as its main aim the imposition of balanced-budget rules on members. This may be a useful discipline in good times. But many worry that, at a time of…

One of the grand lies that conservatives like to tell Americans is that “We’re becoming just like Greece.”  Without going into a lot of economic detail here, if you believe the MMT economists are right (I do), there is no possible way for America to “go broke” in the way…

Mark Thoma: There clearly is a class of people willing to sacrifice the livelihood and well-being of others in pursuit of their ideological goal of a smaller government (so long as their own future remains secure). The notion of “expansionary austerity” was the cover, but so long as government shrinks…

Imagine a world where politicians actually understood something about economics.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful?  Now open your eyes, you’re in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin where economic policies have lead to 6 months of straight private sector job losses.  But wait, there’s more!  His policies have also driven public sector workers to…

One theme that wove it’s way through the speakers at Saturday’s event was that Scott Walker has saved us from the fate of Illinois where they raised taxes and turned the state into a barren wasteland of opportunity.  It’s a good bedtime story for conservative children (like Jerrid), but the…

Businesses expand and contract for one simple reason: demand.  All the voodoo supply-side nonsense the right spouts, all that crap about regulations or taxes, or “confidence” is just pure, unadulterated bunk.  Companies don’t hire new workers because of a loose regulatory climate.  The hire because there is demand for their…

Mitt Romney is a big talker.  He loves to talk about America as a “land of opportunity.”  The trouble is, the data don’t support that anymore.  Oh, they used to.  Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it could be said that each generation would did economically better than every previous…