Dean Baker

@deanbaker13.bsky.social

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Economist at the Center for Economic Research. Father to two dogs.

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The New York Times refuses to let the data on rising real wages interfere with its bad economy story cepr.net/nyt-finds-at...

NYT Finds Atypical Low-Wage Worker to Tell Bad Economy Storycepr.net Low wage workers have seen large real wage gains since the pandemic, so naturally as we come to the July 4th holiday the New York Times gives us a piece telling us how they are hurting. The piece is h...

The terrible economy story #32706: Multiple jobholders edition. Looks like the problem is teleworking gives people the opportunity to work multiple jobs cepr.net/the-economy-...

The Economy Is Awful #32,706: Multiple Jobs and Remote Workcepr.net One of the standard refrains from people pushing the bad economy story, in spite of the extraordinary streak of low unemployment, is that because of inflation everyone has to work two jobs. This ignor...

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Lydia Polgreen

Again: I am not saying she is some perfect vessel. I have read the articles about her dysfunctional management style, and I know she says loopy things that become memes (that isn't always a bad thing!). I am just saying that you could do a whole lot worse.

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Lydia Polgreen

Trump is unpopular. His policies are unpopular. He has never won the popular vote. His preferred candidates down ballot go down in flames. Democrats are on the right side of a highly motivating issue swing voters: abortion. Biden has struggled to take that fight to Trump. Harris won't.

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Lydia Polgreen

We can all debate whether America will elect a Black woman as president in the abstract, but will this electorate choose a sane, competent and centrist politician who is under the age of 60 instead of a convicted felon and chaos agent? I will take those odds.

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Dean Baker

Seems less likely that they'll =all= vote against their better interests =this time=. Here's hoping, at any rate. /2

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Dean Baker

Fortunately, there has also been an educational push in KY & TN to demonstrate how simple it is for coal workers to find clean/green energy-sector jobs, there's work to go around, and it's safer and healthier for the workers =and= their families. /1

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The coal mining jobs at stake due to environmental regulation are probably not enough to swing the election, but if the media can convince voters that environmental policy reflects the candidates' attitudes towards workers, they could cepr.net/donald-trump...

Donald Trump Wants Coal Mining Jobs to be a Big Election Issue and It Seems the Washington Post Is Prepared to Helpcepr.net As a major proponent of global warming, Donald Trump apparently thinks it benefits him to be perceived as a savior of jobs in the coal industry. This is likely not because he can do much to protect th...

The Washington Post wants you to think the economy is awful #45706 cepr.net/the-washingt...

The Washington Post Wants You Think the Economy Is Awful #45,706cepr.net Even though we have had the longest streak of below 4.0 percent unemployment in 70 years, and real wages are rising, especially at the bottom end of the wage distribution, the major media outlets insi...

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Israel is trying to depopulate Gaza and annex the West Bank, and Joe Biden looks feckless or complicit. It will be a stain on his record if he lets our ostensible "ally" continue to get away with it. www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/w...

Israeli Official Describes Secret Government Bid to Cement Control of West Bankwww.nytimes.com Israeli judges have long ruled that Israel’s control of the territory is a temporary military occupation and complies with international law. A powerful minister’s recent speech, caught on tape, sugge...

The labor price of gas is at Trumpian levels cepr.net/the-labor-pr...

The Labor Price of Gas Is at Trumpian Levelscepr.net The media have told us endlessly how people can no longer afford things due to higher prices and the fact that wages have risen more doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t want to disagree with the experts, but s...

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It was infuriating to see this piece at the top of the WaPo's list of most widely clicked articles since the premise is a complete lie. The labor market for recent college grads is actually very good.

Contrary to what the Washington Post tells you, the labor market for recent college grads is actually very good cepr.net/making-the-b...

Making the Bad Economy Case: College Grad Edition IIcepr.net If we wanted to know what the job market looks like for recent college graduates, we would probably start by looking at their unemployment/employment rates. On the other hand, if we wanted to try to m...

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Once again, crystal clear essay from @pkrugman.bsky.social (h/t @deanbaker13.bsky.social). I'd like to give a gift article link to this, but @nytimes.com does not seem to support this for entries under its "The Point" blog. So, here's the plain link, & an excerpt. www.nytimes.com/live/2024/06...

Remember when NAFTA was supposed to allow Mexico to catch up with its richer neighbors? cepr.net/nafta-the-gr...

NAFTA: The Great Success Storycepr.net As we enter the fourth decade of NAFTA, and now its successor, the USCMA, it is worth taking a quick look at the track record. Folks who can remember back to the debate around the agreement might reca...

Contrary to what the Washington Post tells you, the labor market for recent college grads is actually very good cepr.net/making-the-b...

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When someone starts talking about "free-market fundamentalism" they are telling you they don't understand the economy without telling you they don't understand the economy cepr.net/we-cant-have...

We Can’t Have a New Paradigm as Long as People Think the Old One Was Free-Market Fundamentalismcepr.net The belief in free-market fundamentalism runs very deep. When I say that, I don’t mean that support for the concept runs deep, I mean the belief that we had been pursuing free-market policies in the y...

When someone starts talking about "free-market fundamentalism" they are telling you they don't understand the economy without telling you they don't understand the economy cepr.net/we-cant-have...

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Contrary to what the Washington Post tells you, the labor market for recent college grads is actually very good cepr.net/making-the-b...

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In the cheap fun department, the CPI, excluding owners' equivalent rent, which no one pays, has been pretty much at the Fed's 2.0 percent target for almost a year cepr.net/cpi-without-...

CPI Without Owner’s Equivalent Rent Has Been at Fed Target for a Yearcepr.net That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the CPI, excluding owners’ equivalent rent (OER) fell to 1.4 percent in June of 2023 and has remained pretty close, but mostly above 2.0 percent ever since. We all...

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Was curious what this looked like for core. OER is one-third of core, actual rent paid is 10%. Core CPI ex OER has been below 2% YoY for the past 10 months and was just 0.2% annualized MoM in May. Chart shows annualized rates of change.

In the cheap fun department, the CPI, excluding owners' equivalent rent, which no one pays, has been pretty much at the Fed's 2.0 percent target for almost a year cepr.net/cpi-without-...

This is a huge deal -- good the WaPo is writing on it

they're not planning shit like this with any expectation of ever relinquishing power once they have it

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they're not planning shit like this with any expectation of ever relinquishing power once they have it

Eliminating the Constitution, as the Founders intended. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Trump loyalist pushes ‘post-constitutional’ vision for second termwww.washingtonpost.com Russ Vought, the former president’s budget director, is laying the groundwork for a broad expansion of presidential powers.

The productivity-pay gap is real, and it has ALWAYS been a story of a gap between productivity growth and the pay of a typical worker cepr.net/the-producti...

The Productivity/Pay Gap and Phony Debatescepr.net New York Times columnist Peter Coy did a piece yesterday questioning the existence of a gap between productivity growth and the typical worker’s pay. This gap was established decades ago by my friends...

wow, the right-wing gets so upset at the idea that the law applies to them too

old enough to remember when T***** was all over hack writers overusing metaphors delong.typepad.com/egregious_mo...

Matt Taibbi: Flathead: The Peculiar Genius of Thomas L. Friedmandelong.typepad.com Flathead: I think it was about five months ago that Press editor Alex Zaitchik whispered to me in the office hallway that Thomas Friedman had a new book coming out. All he knew about it was the title,...

Unemployment was still below 4.0 percent in May, for the 28th consecutive month (beats 1960s streak) cepr.net/unemployment...

Unemployment Was Still Below 4.0 Percent in Maycepr.net This is a bit nitpicky, but still a point worth making. If the unemployment rate came in below 4.0 percent in May, it would have been the 28th consecutive month of below 4.0 percent unemployment, beat...

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Contrary to what you often hear, the saving rate is not near record lows cepr.net/no-the-savin...

No, the Saving Rate Is Not Near a Record Lowcepr.net It has been popular for people commenting on the state of the economy to say that consumers have to pull back on consumption because they have exhausted their savings. A big part of this story is that...

Contrary to what you often hear, the saving rate is not near record lows cepr.net/no-the-savin...