The New York Review of Books
Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us
Cass R. Sunstein | Robert Walmsley University Professor and Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Cass R. Sunstein — Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us [book review]
The New York Review of Books
Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us
Cass R. Sunstein | Robert Walmsley University Professor and Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
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During an Oct. 2 press conference dominated by discussion of a mass shooting in Oregon and the ongoing civil war in Syria, President Barack Obama took time out for a victory lap on the federal budget.
"I want to repeat this because the public apparently never believes it," Obama said. "Since I took office, we’ve cut our deficits by two-thirds. The deficit has not been going up; it has been coming down -- precipitously. We’ve cut our deficits by two-thirds. They’re below the average deficits over the past 40 years."
Well done (Joker claps)
More good news:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/06/26/the-u-s-stands-out-on-labor-force-participation-rates/
It's true! It's true!
Bob the story behind that chart is complex, but it also questions the status quo of 'unemployment' stats worldwide.
How Spain, with an outrageous unemployment (above 20% official, and structurally above 10% even at good times), can have higher labour force participation than the USA? There is a big lie built in the statistical methods used to measure unemployment or employment.
Not because the statistic are wrong, but because the wrong indexes are being used for media and political propaganda (is not like the indexes don't exist).
The situation is even more bleak when you add up demographic pyramid, most of those European countries have an inverted population pyramid, they are decreasing in population, so a drop in the labour participation wouldn't (relatively speaking) look so bad, but in the case of the USA it still is growing (due to immigration). Awful situation.
At the same time cultural traits explain the initial base levels as well as the growth rates. In the case of Spain for example the incorporation of women to the working force in mass started later than in other nations. But at the same is the big lie of the last decades: you need two incomes to support the same quality of life where a few decades ago you only needed one, at the same time households are barely able to save anything and make it to month end.
The elites have been making a racket the last decades absorbing ll the theoretical productivity gains and absorbing most of the surplus wealth created ...
How Spain, with an outrageous unemployment (above 20% official, and structurally above 10% even at good times), can have higher labour force participation than the USA?
The simple answer is that the unemployed are considered 'participants' so long as they actively seek work.
A drop in the participation rate, adjusted for an aging population, indicates how many people have given up seeking employment. A more concise measure would be to count how many people have voluntarily chosen not to work. This is distinct from having given up due to economic circumstances.
The labour force also has to be adjusted for those who cannot work due to illness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Labor_Participation_Rate_1948-2011_by_gender.svg
Longer term trend which includes the entry of women into the labour force.
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