Blog: The Fine Print / Open, Accountable Government

Labor Market Failures

Jul 25, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Ezra Klein, a writer for the American Prospect, has an interesting post on uncompetitive and exploitative labor markets- a significant cause of inequality. Sadly, the best thing written on the blog today didn't come from me. Rather, it's a comment from Kathy G. arguing that labor markets don't look much like classical assumptions would suggest, and that the data -- and some emergent theory -- offers evidence that they're closer to a monopsony than the more traditional competitive-market-in-equilibrium model. Full comment below the fold: Anyone who thinks mandated leave would inevitably lead to a decrease in employment or wages most likely has not taken any econ beyond Econ 101. Because if you believe that such results would inevitably follow, you clearly are not familiar with the empirical research on paid leave, nor do you understand economic theory beyond a very superficial and incomplete level.

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Minimum Wage Raised Today

Jul 24, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The minimum wage will go up to $5.85 today- the first of three raises scheduled under the law enacted by this Congress. In a earlier blog post, I wrote that the increase happened on July 1st, which was wrong. It was also wrong to blast the media for not covering that, well, the minimum wage wasn't increased. In my defense, I had gotten that information from this Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. I should have known better.

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NYT's Brooks: If Inequality is So Real, Why Are Liberals Talking About It?

Jul 24, 2007 by Matt Lewis

People who downplay inequality are like the cranks who don't believe in global warming. They find evidence on the margin that is supposed to cast doubt on the macrophenomenon. They bob and weave, admit this exists, but say we can't do anything about it, etc. etc. David Brooks is inequality's equivalent of the American Petroleum Institute. His column ($) today provides a fine example of the type of sophistry he peddles. Let's examine: First, pile on the studies that downplay inequality, so you seem like you know what you're talking about and overwhelm your audience. The first complicating fact is that after a lag, average wages are rising sharply. Real average wages rose by 2 percent in 2006, the second fastest rise in 30 years.

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Is SCHIP the Opening Salvo in the Great Health Care Debate?

Jul 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President Bush, as you probably know, says he's gonna veto any SCHIP expansion, the principle rationale being that government doesn't belong in health care. My hunch is that this won't carry the day. SCHIP's focus on kids is its trump card. But Bush is right that SCHIP is only the beginning of the policy fight over health care, and when the focus isn't on kids or some other sympathetic demographic group, the arguments being made today could win out by tapping into public distrust of government, which the Bush administration has deepened.

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The New Politics of Poverty

Jul 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

E.J. Dionne on the new consensus on poverty: Quietly, a new anti-poverty consensus -- reflected in the dueling speeches Edwards and Obama gave this week -- is being born.

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Mid-Session's Muted Myopia

Jul 19, 2007 by Dana Chasin

In its Mid-Session budget review last week, the White House ballyhooed the good "news" that the FY 2007 federal budget deficit projection was down from OMB's original February forecast of $244 billion to a revised $205 billion. But looking out the next five years, the muted Mid-Session story is of unmitigated worsening news on the deficit front. The deficit projected for FY08-FY12 was actually higher than what was originally forecast -- by $137 billion.

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Will Union Growth Require More Than the Employee Free Choice Act?

Jul 18, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An interesting article on unions, via the great blog Economist's View. Its thesis is that the decline in unionization is a product of a wide array of legislative and regulatory changes. The upshot is that much more than laws like the Employee Free Choice Act may be necessary to substantially increase union membership. Even more interesting, the article finishes with the dreaded "e" word (exploitation) as the basis of promoting unionization.

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Making My Job Easier

Jul 17, 2007 by Craig Jennings

A tax on tobacco is a regressive tax, and so equity-based opposition to a tobacco tax increase generally makes sense. However, if the tax will be used to fund an expansion of a fiscally progressive program, then it is possible that the net result will be progressive. I spent some time this morning compiling info that would give some indication of how the SCHIP expansion would shake out. Well, someone has already done the yeoman's work and crunched the numbers.

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A Virtuous Free Market? Lending Edition

Jul 17, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The free-marketeers say that not only is the market more efficient than government in almost every way, it makes everyone virtuous. People become dependent on the state when it intervenes; the market promotes self-reliance and rewards hard work and discipline.

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The Absurdly Wealthy Tell It Like It Is

Jul 16, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An interesting article from this weekend's New York Times that let's the wealthy share their views on why they're so rich. Other very wealthy men in the new Gilded Age talk of themselves as having a flair for business not unlike Derek Jeter's "unique talent" for baseball, as Leo J. Hindery Jr. put it. "I think there are people, including myself at certain times in my career," Mr. Hindery said, "who because of their uniqueness warrant whatever the market will bear."

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