Dean Baker: Open Season on Bernie b/c He Raises Issues Elites Want to Keep Quiet

[amborin]

[blockquoteBernie Sanders has gotten many mainstream types upset. After all, he is raising issues about the distribution of wealth and income that they would prefer be kept in academic settings, certainly not pushed front and center in a presidential campaign.

Snip

[blockquoteThose familiar with economic data know the labor market, which is the economy for the vast majority of the public, is very far from recovering from the recession. While the unemployment rate is reasonably low, this is largely because millions of workers have dropped out of the workforce.




And, contrary to what is often asserted, these are not retiring baby boomers or people without the skills needed in a modern economy. The employment rate of prime-age workers (ages 25–54) is still down by 3.0 percentage points from its prerecession level. Furthermore, this drop is for workers at all levels of educational attainment. Employment rates are even down for workers with college and advanced degrees. Other measures of labor market strength, like the percentage of people involuntarily working part-time, the quit rate and the duration of unemployment spells, are all still at recession levels.

Furthermore, the huge shift from wages to profits that we saw in the downturn has not been reversed. As a result, wages are more than 6.0 percent lower than they would be if the labor share had not changed.

http://fair.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8c573daa3ad72f4a095505b58&id=f1b597a828&e=0b2c891f68

http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/new-yorker-joins-open-season-on-bernie-sanders

[yeoman6987]

1. I think it's ok for Bernie to be questioned even in a difficult way

The Repugs are going to during the debates. This is good for Bernie.