Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
After his death, the followers of economist John Maynard Keynes embraced the myth of a “natural” market economy that required “intervention” from the government to keep it stable. But there is nothing natural about the market — and the Keynesians’ mistake led to a withering of the radical potential of Keynes’s ideas.
The May jobs report showing a drop in the unemployment rate shouldn’t have been a surprise, with many states having lifted their shutdowns. But if Congress uses the report to excuse not passing another stimulus — especially one that includes relief for state and local governments — the economy could face a collapse.
If worker pay had kept pace with productivity gains since 1968, a full-time minimum wage worker would be earning $48,000 a year today.
William Greider, who died on Christmas day, was one of the last his kind: a reporter dedicated to holding elites accountable rather than acting as their megaphone.
Fears of an approaching recession are overblown. But the economy is slowing — and it’s the poor who will suffer most.
On trade policy, the media has a simple rule: when trade hurts the working class, it’s good for the economy. When it hurts the ruling class, it’s bad for the economy.
We should force the Right to choose between their pro-market ideology and their fealty to the rich.
A financial transactions tax would attack income inequality by attacking the finance industry.
Want to reduce income inequality in the US? Dismantle its onerous system of copyrights and patents.
Everyone deserves a great public education, but better schools alone can’t fight inequality.