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2012-05-02T14:07:39Z

A recent article at CEPR estimates the change from 1979 to 2011 in the proportion of Low Wage Earners at different levels of education (and age, but my focus is only on educational attainment).  I can't find their 1979 source data at the gov't source they cite, but I do have the employment by wage & educational levels ...

2012-05-03T14:11:46Z

http://robertreich.org/post/22204212722

I'm rooting for constructive reforms... but history says my hope is on the wrong side of realities.

2012-05-03T14:12:00Z

I've seen recent reports that keep citing expected or projected GDP growth rates over the 10 year period 2010 - 2020 at or in the close range of 3%/year.   What's important isn't GDP growth rates per-se, but GDP growth per Capita.  GDP's growth by itself doesn't indicate improvement if the population is ...

2012-05-06T21:39:49Z
It's pretty easy to see which segment of societies benefit the most from gov't austerity by just following the money.
 
...
2012-05-07T21:44:03Z
While it's nice to see an economist, even though just a left wing one, recount capitalism's issues by comparing era's and gov't responses it doesn't break any new ground, provides no new insights, and thus simply states what's been stated many, many times before. ...
2012-05-07T21:47:56Z
An excellent and relevant example of why the economics profession is far, far from being any kind of a science... its even questionable (to me) whether it can even be considered a valid social science.  The example is just one of many others.  There are a multitude of differences in definition (or lack ...
2012-05-07T21:51:12Z
... my rants and analysis notes on economics and social/political subjects have followed the same approach I used through-out my employment.  Basically that approach is to understand the fundamental reasons for the problems involved before being able to provide solution paths and their respective pro's and con's in ...
2012-05-09T18:00:12Z

The abject failure of nearly 200 years of economics to supply valid and objective fundamental theory is best illustrated by the theory  relating the supply of money to a nation's economic performance, prices, and employment.  I used several sources for the following information --- among them was one from ...

2012-05-09T18:04:22Z

... .but getting there was indirect and unexpected.... so this note is about how I got there.   Sorry... it's not a story about the girls from Nantucket.  

I was reading http://economistsview.typepad.com/ and in particular a blog article tonight by an economist who had quite neatly synopsized the three ...

2012-05-10T18:10:21Z

Rational Expectations in the financial markets is an hypothesis created in order to explain / justify why the market is the only efficient means of allocation of resources to it's best use.

Rational in the sense defined by the hypothesis means that all currently available information is used by the market's agents to make decisions ...

2012-05-11T18:13:39Z

Don't know if you are interested in such things, but the following paper is highly enlightening. Most especially the Comments on it by Robert Topel of NBER & Univ. of Chicago.... following the body of the paper (starting on pdf "page" 58).  If you read nothing else in this link, read the Topel Comments which are a good ...

2012-05-11T18:15:24Z

Like you have also probably been doing I've been loosely following the EU's debt woes --- Greece being mostly in the camera's lens, but also Ireland, Portugal, and of course Italy & Spain from time to time.   From the onset the issue has been the kinds and extent of terms imposed on these sovereigns by creditors to ...

2012-05-14T16:18:10Z

I was looking at 8th grade national proficiency scores in math for non-english language learners only, over the annual periods 2011 to 2005.  I used 8th grade since very few drop-outs occur by that age hence it should come closer to capturing the general 8th grade population without the least capable having dropped out or ...

2012-05-14T16:23:43Z

Note sure I understand what's really going on here, but a unit of Ally (Formerly GMAC, GM's former financing unit) that financed mortgages during the housing boom period is being written off by Ally.  Ally was created in GM's bankruptcy... GMAC was effectively "purchased" by the US Taxpayer to take the money pit off the reorganized ...

2012-05-14T16:27:27Z

In my note of May 12 Consequences of Risk Decisions --- Creditors Want it Both Ways, among other things I listed the possible options available for the indebted EU sovereigns:  

Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, & Spain (and a host of other peripheral EU currency nations) are not in control of the value of the Euro ...

2012-05-14T16:29:29Z

Re: Greece. 

If Greece can form a government and that government signs up to the bailout agreement, then it is possible some of the targets in the program could be softened, the chairman of the euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, said.

"I don't envisage, not even for one second, Greece leaving the euro area. This is ...

2012-05-15T16:30:55Z

According to the author of this econ article in the Guardian (UK), fantasy prevailed in both the entry of Greece into the Euro, and the pending exit from it.

It took no particular talent to have seen this coming [Greece exiting EU], just the recognition that it has always been a fantasy ...

2012-05-15T16:31:56Z

From a comprehensive econ paper about the Greek debt and austerity measures required by creditors (paper, page 14):

 

Ten years ago, writing in the wake of Argentina?s default on its public debt ? then the largest sovereign default in history, George Soros noted that creditors as a group have an interest in punishing such ...

2012-05-16T16:33:12Z

From London't Financial Times via Tim Duy's blog :

Meanwhile, Germany and France are holding to the official line. From the FT:

?We want Greece to stay in the euro,? Ms Merkel said. ?We know that the majority of people in Greece see that.?

The Greek government had also agreed on a ...

2012-05-19T16:37:34Z

The statement below is from the preface in a new econ paper looking at the relationship between the middle class and economic growth.  The statement says, in a nutshell, that economists' research interest is dominantly motivated by the here and now.

For most economists, however, the concepts of ?...

2012-05-20T16:38:40Z

It's interesting that economics uses the term "human capital" in comparison to the term "capital"... or "physical capital".  

Basically this shows that economists have a "capital" centric view of economics.  Why not just call it ("human capital") labor?  Labor is defined as those earning income by working for a&...

2012-05-20T16:40:17Z

Of High Scoring Students (in 2005): Rates of Pursuit of College Degree by Income Levels

30% - Low Income 

50% - Middle Income

75% - High Income

This is only for the high scoring students... thus doesn't include the "its their own fault" bullshit applied by conservatives to lower income students not applying themselves academically....

2012-05-20T16:41:33Z

Have you ever asked yourself why the US public education system (K-12) is founded on local community level school districts funding??

In this system, the best educational schools and funds for those schools' resources (breadth and depth of the curricula, teacher quality, & class size) occur in the local school districts with the ...

2012-05-21T16:43:21Z

Robert Samuelson writes in today's WoPo Op-Ed that "...in the long run, the interests of labor and capital coincide."

He then cites the share of national income achieved by Capital and Labor at years 1950, 1980, 2000, & 2011 which show that Labor's share has declined by 8.9% since 1980, while Capital's Share has increased by 23.2%&...

2012-05-24T16:17:55Z

From BLS.gov's data on educational attainment, employment, & weekly wage/salary for the dozen years 2000 - 2011:

For wage/salary, & employment data of full time employees over age 25 (by educational attainment) it's clear that wage/salary growth didn't keep pace with productivity growth.... so employee's ...

2012-05-24T16:45:15Z

The DVNF Charity has been investigated by CNN.  The charity is ostensibly to provide to veterans and disabled veterans, but CNN's near 2 year investigation has not been able to find any legitimate charitable gifts / money given to that cause by this ostensible charity. 

Disclosure:

...
2012-05-24T16:46:51Z

From the Current Population Survey via CEPR:  Unionization Rate by State.   see here.

The 11 lowest union rate states average 6% while the 11 highest union rate states average 20%.... that's a 3.4: 1 ratio... a big difference. 

But most notably, the 11 lowest union states are almost exclusively ...

2012-05-31T12:38:59Z

I very highly recommend reading this book (in .pdf form here ) to become (better) acquainted with modern society's socio-political behavioral history by one of the renowned political sociologists of the early 20th century.   In it he describes what causes a democratic society to inevitably become ...

2012-05-31T12:40:55Z

"... all the factors of public life speak and struggle in the name of the people, of. the community at large. The government and rebels against the government, kings and the party-leaders, tyrants by the grace of God and usurpers, rabid idealists and calculating self-seekers, all are ?the people,? and all declare that in their actions ...

2012-05-31T12:41:46Z

The long bond ended the day up almost three points, dropping its yield to 2.718%, its lowest close since December 31, 2008. The 30-yr yield has only seen 10 closes below today?s level, and all of them occurred at the depths of the financial crisis. Elsewhere, the 5-, 7-, and 10-yr yields all hit record lows during today touching 0.679%, ...

2012-05-31T12:43:23Z

Mark Weisbrot at CEPR says it best (but in my words):  The financial "crises" in europe and the peripheral (generally southern) nations within the EU  is being used (effectively, I might add) by the right wing to undo the left's long win streak in Europe.... essentially to force the break-up of unions and deprive gov'ts of&...