From Deirdre McCloskey in Reason Magazine, The Myth of Technological Unemployment In 1910, one out of 20 of the American workforce was on the railways. In the late 1940s, 350,000 manual telephone operators worked for AT&T alone. In the 1950s, elevator
Read More
From The Wall Street Journal and Nicholas Eberstadt,The Idle Army: America’s Unworking Men Who are America’s new cadre of prime-age male unworkers? They tend to be: 1) less educated; 2) never married; 3) native born; and 4) African-American. But those
Read More
From Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post, Interest rates and the Fed’s great ‘slack’ debate: Is it time to consider raising rates to preempt higher inflation? The answer depends heavily on the economy’s slack: its capacity to increase production without
Read More
Why Young People Can’t Find Work, by Andrew Puzder in the Wall Street Journal Excerpts: Consider these grim employment numbers: • In February the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recorded the lowest percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds working or actively
Read More
This administration which demonizes the rich, bemoans growing inequality, and holds redistribution as a high value has in their stunning ignorance achieved the opposite results they claim to want.
Read More
from Mark Perry at his blog Carpe Diem, The current state of the US economy explained in one chart: The fact that the US economy is producing 5.6% more output now than in 2007 with 2 million fewer workers
Read More
At a business meeting we had an economist share his views of the economy. One comment he made was that only a minuscule portion of the unemployed were on government assistance. I found this comment curious and certainly counterintuitive.
Read More
from the Wall Street Journal, 4/6/13, Ben Casselman writes Number of the Week: Youth Unemployment at 22.9%? Excerpt: Perhaps no group has been hit harder by the recession and grinding recovery than the young. The official unemployment rate for those
Read More
Dan Mitchell writes The Perverse Unintended Consequences of Anti-Discrimination Laws in his blog International Liberty February 23, 2013 Excerpt: And if there are two applicants who otherwise seem to have equal qualifications for a certain job, but one has been out
Read More
In the Wall Street Journal Richard Vedder writes The Wages of Unemployment, 1/15/13. Excerpts: The sharp rise in food-stamp beneficiaries predated the financial crisis of 2008: From 2000 to 2007, the number of beneficiaries rose from 17.1 million to 26.3
Read More
Richard Vedder writes in the Wall Street Journal The Wages of Unemploymewnt, 1/15/12. Excerpts: Compare 2010 with October 2012, the last month for which food-stamp data have been reported. The unemployment rate fell to 7.8% from 9.6%, and real GDP
Read More
Mark Wilson writes The Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Laws in the Cato Institute Policy Analysis, 6/21/12 Some summary points from his paper: 1.8 million hourly workers were paid the minimum wage in 2010. Of those 49% were aged 24
Read More
The attempt to pursue social justice by political means is not a new idea. It is the centerpiece of political philosophy for over two centuries. Even the classical liberals who acknowledged the equal importance of economic liberty along with our
Read More
Few economic policies demonstrate the difference between intent and outcome more than the minimum wage. Those who push for higher minimum wages in the cause of social justice refuse to accept the outcome that the cost is often shown in
Read More
Mark Perry analyzes the current Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data is his blog, Carpe Diem, a required daily read for me. Excerpt from Interesting Facts from Today’s Employment Report, 1/6/12: The unemployment rate for workers with a college degree
Read More
Perhaps the most destructive policy of this administration has been the dramatic extension of unemployment benefits to 99 weeks. We have accumulated debt to give to the most unproductive act imaginable; paying people not to work. Nancy Pelosi’s now famous
Read More
Abin Sadar writes in American Thinker The Professional Poor 9/24/11 Excerpt: The genuine poor are people who, through debilitating circumstances great or small, have become incapable of sustaining a work life, and sometimes even a home life. Because of mental
Read More
The president’s jobs bill is a non starter, a desperate attempt to do something by doubling down on failed policies. Point one– He offers tax breaks to workers by extending the reduction in FICA taxes, and making up the deficit
Read More
As a result of the depressed economy the difference in income between whites and minorities have widened. While the most shrill will find this to be clear testament to the inherent racism in the GOP, the reality is that both
Read More
A few PhD economic bloggers I respect have forecasted a slow recovery but an improvement in employment numbers. Based on my view from my small corner of the world I have remained skeptical. Many small business people have remained reluctant
Read More
Recent Comments