Derek Thompson talks about the job situation and includes a chart that we've all seen one or another version of for quite some time in
The Economic Story of the Year: The Stock Market vs. the Labor Market:
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and the Dow closed at nominal all-time highs. Three days later, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy added a shockingly low 88,000 jobs in March. How bad is 88K? Well, put it this way, we're theoretically in the midst of an accelerating recovery, and 88K new jobs per month won't get us back to full employment for another 20 years, or more.
I suspect that this will be one of the defining national stories of 2013, and beyond: The big, sustained, and accelerating gap between the working opportunities of most Americans and the profits produced at the top.
You could argue that this is a new, and transitory, story. You could say I picked two headlines from the past four days (I did). You could say that firms rushed to technology and efficiency to replace workers in an exceptional, and slowly normalizing, crisis (they did). You could say that the balance between labor and capital might naturally come back to normal as rising Asian wages send more work back into the U.S. (they might).
But when you draw back the lens, you see that this week's stock market/labor market schism isn't a new story, at all. Here's the 40-year look at the growth of corporate profits vs. GDP vs. income that goes to workers, rich and poor. I mean, holy wow.
Why are corporations on such a tear? The first clue is that a significant share of these profits have always come from two sectors, as Jordan Weissmann has reported: Manufacturing and Finance. Together, they account for more than 50 percent of domestic corporate profits. But they employ just 13 percent of the workforce. [...]
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That's part of the story. But this chart offers a nasty coda:
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Ryan budget ignores CBO, reality, says health care repeal will reduce deficit:
The non-partisan, number crunching CBO has long since become a major nuisance for the GOP, since many of its conclusions about the realities of the budget run counter to GOP budget truthiness. That's the case again in the so-called "Path to Prosperity," Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to weed the nation of the elderly, the sick, and the disabled so the rich people can get even more stuff.
In the case of this budget proposal, Ryan conveniently ignores the fact that the CBO says repealing the Affordable Care Act won't reduce the deficit.
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Tweet of the Day:
On today's
Kagro in the Morning show, Everything on the show today has a
Greg Dworkin component to it. First, an extended version of his regular segment, featuring
Monte Frank of Team 26, for a recap of their Newtown-to-DC ride, an update on their activities & word on what's next. Then, the story of the surprising phone call Greg got from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, regarding my reading of his article, "What The NRA's 'School Shield' Would Cost." While I finished up the article,
Armando called in to go to bat for Johnston & pitch an effort to get him on the show.
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