THE END OF THE YOYO (You're On Your Own)

[BurtWorm]

Discussion of an excellent economics book for a popular audience by my friend Jared Bernstein, of the Economic Policy Institute, at Max Sawicky's Maxspeak blog:


http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002326.html

Today is our gabfest on Jared Bernstein's book. Below is his opening post. Leave comments as you like. He will check in between 12:30 and 2 today to respond and dispense his wisdom. -- mbs

By Jared Bernstein
Senior Economist, Economic Policy Institute
Author of All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy.

Let us begin with a few observations:

· Over the course of the current economic expansion, real GDP is up 15%.
· The Congress is busy killing a moderate minimum wage increase while working diligently to repeal the estate tax.
· Profits as a share of national income are at a forty-year high. The share of income accruing to the top 1%, after falling in the wake of the dot.com bust, is again on the rise.
· Productivity is up a stellar 15% over this recovery. Real hourly wages of non-managers are up bupkes (-0.6%).
· New economy cheerleaders expound on the great job market, yet employment growth is up only 2% over this business cycle. The growth for the comparable period over the 1990s cycle was 7% and the historical average for cycles of this length was 10%.
· Over five million more people are poor in 2004 (most recent data) compared to 2000, including 1.4 million kids.

In other words, this is an economy that looks pretty good until you take a closer look at the people in it....

[CrispyQ]

1. An excellent read!

I'm going to see if my library has the book. I like the like the YOYO & WITT acronyms. ;)

snip...
In other words, the target of economic policy has shifted from maximizing society’s potential through promoting full employment and insurance against market failures, to incentivizing the individual’s interactions with the market.

In this intellectual climate, YOYO economics was born. Today, we’re seeing the outcomes: greater inequality, a fiscally bankrupt government, the shifting of risk from the government and the firm to the individual, the drying up of the large risk pool, and the loss of the systems and institutions—like pension coverage, minimum wages, overtime rules, and a durable safety net—that smoothed some of the rough edges of capitalism, without diminishing the economy’s growth potential.

Mix these YOYOs in with the influence peddling that is especially rampant today, and you end up with a Congress working to repeal the estate tax while ignoring a minimum wage that’s stuck at a 50-year low (http://www.epinet.org/Issuebriefs/224/ib224.pdf).

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Please consider posting in the non-fiction section!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=209

[BurtWorm]

2. I think he has written a little classic, on the order of Lakoff's

People are scared of economics, but Jared makes it very accessible. And he reclaims it from the monetarist's and libertarians who've made it a truly dismal science.

[Hugin]

4. .

Don't mind me... I'm trying to get this economics stuff a little
readership.

It's got to compete with a 'pump'. :eyes:

[Hugin]

3. It's time to ask the question.. "Are you better off now than 6 years ago?"

To which my answer is a resounding... No.

Everything, and I do mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G, I ever cared about
has been transformed by the Religeocorporatocracy into a grotesque caricature
of what it once was... To include the Constitution.

How's about everyone else?

[BurtWorm]

5. I am definitely not better off in almost any way than I was 6 years ago.

Least of all economically.

[Hugin]

6. That's too bad BurtWorm...

I can really sympathize with your feelings.

[BurtWorm]

7. I do have my health.

;)

And my family. It's not all awful. It's just that Bushism has cast a pall over the whole world, and it hasn't done a thing to improve my standard of living.

[Hugin]

8. For me... The last one is playing havoc with the first two.

It's a jumbled mess.

[acmejack]

9. Worse off.in one way, but better in another

Job in India (Dell) Health lame, I am better off in the sense that I confounded the medicos & failed to die as they had told me I was going to. It serves to make everyday a good day. I started watching C-span instead of soap operas as I had to lay around and the more I saw the more I learned, the more I freaked out. I stopped read fiction, I have learned about the Government I have become involved.

But I watch all the things I valued in this Country go under and it hurts so much.

[Hugin]

10. Yes, I will admit I had a moment of weakness following...

the terrorist attacks. I joined the throngs seeking vengeance. Which opened the
doors for the fraud currently being perpetrated.

Sometimes, I think I'd trade it all for a few days of "Pursuing Happiness".

Sorry to hear of your troubles... But, I'm glad you're now fully awake and motivated
for change.

[JCMach1]

11. If you believe GDP is up 15%, I have some swampland

I would like to sell you...

This is strictly PAPER economy... the real economy of production, manufacture, building, trade, resources, continues to shrink

[Hugin]

12. I had a thought most of that 15% might be the increase in energy prices...

Nothing else seems to be increasing.

[BurtWorm]

13. You could make that case at MaxSpeaks and see what Jared says.