Rich People Have Lots of Money

Ezra Klein reproduces two charts from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities showing that the real income of the upper quintiles is rising dramatically faster than those of the lower quintiles. These gains are impressive, indeed.  But not exactly surprising. After all, the bottom quintile is bounded.  Some significant percentage of them have no taxable income at all.  And welfare benefits ...

Unemployment Hits 8.1 Percent

Really bad news on the jobs front: The nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs amid a deepening recession. Both figures were worse than analysts expected and the Labor Department's report shows America's workers being clobbered by a wave of layoffs unlikely to ease in the coming months. "There is ...

Obama’s Secret Plan: Inflation?

Michael Kinsley has a rather rambling column about the "upside-down economics" of the stimulus plan that's subtitled (or, whatever one calls the SEO-driven title tag that appears at the top of the browser and in search results) "Recession Economics - How Do We Repay the Stimulus Spree?" But even if the stimulus is a magnificent success, the money still has to ...

Grade Inflation or Smarter Students?

Harry Brighouse expounds on the novel argument that maybe what we've dubbeed "grade inflation" is really a legitimate response to increased quality of work from the students rather than a lowering of standards on the part of the professors. Could the students really be more talented? Well, think about the Ivy League schools, which while most of them still practice affirmative ...

Bailouts in Perspective

Barry Ritholz calculates that the various government bailouts under way amount to $4.6165 trillion dollars.  To put it in context, he shows the cost of some other government expenditures you might have heard of: • Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion • Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion • Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 ...

Congressional Approval at Record Low, Republicans More Likely than Democrats to Approve

President Bush isn't alone in being unpopular: Congress is down to 14 percent approval, the lowest in the history of the Gallup poll. While the approval numbers are the worst ever, there is a silver lining: "The 75% currently disapproving of Congress is just shy of the record-high 78% in March 1992" Lydia Saad calls these numbers "extraordinary." Approval ...

The Importance of the Deficit

In commenting about John McCain's budget plans, Matthew Yglesias threw out this comment: Given the present circumstances, I can't think of any good reason for a presidential candidate to be promising to that we'll be at balanced budgets in four years. It would be nice to see the deficit on a decreasing trajectory rather than an increasing one, but achieving short-term ...

G8 and EU Growing Pains

Two articles cited in today's Small Wars Journal roundup have almost nothing to do with wars, small or otherwise, but are nonetheless interesting in showing the state of flux of some key international institutions. Steven Erlanger reports on a bold attempt to forge a "Union of the Mediterranean" which would be something of a minor league for the European Union. Perhaps the ...

Ann Dunwoody First Woman Four-Star General

Ann Dunwoody has been nominated for a fourth star, making her the first woman to achieve that rank in American history. "This is an historic occasion for the Department of Defense and I am proud to nominate Lt. Gen. Ann Dunwoody for a fourth star," said Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "Her 33 years of service, highlighted by extraordinary leadership and ...

School Vouchers And Other Forms Of Choice

School vouchers is an idea I've supported ever since I first read Capitalism and Freedom in 1989. It's an idea so simple, and sound, that it's a wonder it hasn't been embraced. Yet here we are, forty-six years after CaF was published and choice hasn't caught on (except when dismembering a fetus) and is even reviled by most ...

James Hamilton on the 2008 Oil Shock

Prof. Hamilton has an interesting post that argues that we are now seeing another oil shock like we say in 1973-74 (oil embargo), 1978 (Iranian Revolution), 1980 (Iran-Iraq war), and 1990 (first Persian Gulf war). Prof. Hamilton notes that in all cases the run up in oil prices was followed by a recession. Now, using recent data we ...

Why Don’t More People Go to College?

Joseph Altonji, Prashant Bharadwaj, and Fabian Lange observe that, despite increasing economic incentives for people to obtain college degrees, the percentage of people graduating high school and college has been declining. They note several studies showing the high correlation between college attendance and parental educational attainment. They conclude, At this point we can only speculate as to why the response in ...

Inflation Not as Bad as You Think?

David Leonhardt argues that, despite the belief that the Consumer Price Index understates inflation, the opposite is really true. The problem, he contends, is that everyone is keenly aware of rising prices but most people are oblivious when costs go down. In 2003, a pound of hamburger cost all of $2.20. More than two decades earlier, in 1980, ...

Zero Sum Wars

Fred Kagan Kaplan makes the argument that, as a matter of practicality, the only way for Robert Gates to move 7,000 more troops into Afghanistan is to take 7,000 troops out of Iraq.Let's look at the numbers. After the last of the five "surge" brigades goes home this summer, the U.S. Army will have 13 brigade combat teams in Iraq (the ...

Europe’s Middle Class Stagnant

The Middle Class is disappearing, the NYT reports. In Europe. The European dream is under assault, as the wave of inflation sweeping the globe mixes with this continent’s long-stagnant wages. Families that once enjoyed Europe’s vaunted quality of life are pinching pennies to buy necessities, and cutting back on extras like movies and vacations abroad. Potentially more disturbing — especially to ...