What Krugman Misses About 1937 – Quite a Lot
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 8th, 2011 4:31 am by HL
What Krugman Misses About 1937 – Quite a Lot
Amity Shlaes, Bloomberg
What it if it just keeps going? That’s the question Americans are asking as they consider last month's 9.1 percent unemployment rate, still so high 33 months after the crash of September 2008. Scholars of economic history are asking another question: Are we repeating 1937?That year, when Americans were expecting their economy to finally pull out of the Great Depression, the stock market dove again, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping from the 190s in March 1937 to less than 100 in March 1938. Nonfarm private unemployment, the measure of Roosevelt's industrial…
Huntsman Zeroes In on New Hampshire
Erin McPike, RealClearPolitics
LITTLETON, N.H. — Jon Huntsman figured out very quickly that in order to score well in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary here next year, he needs to win over one voter at a time. So over the weekend he held extended discussions with just a few voters throughout the sparsely populated North Country, and he'll head right back to the state — his third trip — this Friday.”If you can't make it here as a motorcycle rider, you can't make it anywhere,” Huntsman joked between stops on Sunday, noting that there are more motorcycles per capita in the Granite State…
NAACP Enters Unholy Alliance
Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News
Excessive pay raises and benefits can corrupt unions. This fact does not invalidate their existence, but entitlements can become more important than doing a good job. A prime example is the United Federation of Teachers, which is more concerned with the security of its members than the quality of their performance.In an irrational dance, the UFT and the NAACP have filed a suit against New York City aimed at stopping some charter schools, which for the most part don't use unionized teachers, from sharing space with district public schools.
Obama Hits Lows on Handling of Economy
Balz & Cohen, Washington Post
The public opinion boost President Obama received after the killing of Osama bin Laden has dissipated, and Americans' disapproval of how he is handling the nation's economy and the deficit has reached new highs, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.The survey portrays a broadly pessimistic mood in the country this spring as higher gasoline prices, sliding home values and a disappointing employment picture have raised fresh concerns about the pace of the economic recovery.
The German Economic Example
David Leonhardt, New York Times
WASHINGTON President Obama welcomes Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany as she arrives at the White House on Tuesday. Go to your Portfolio » Germany has been a frequent cudgel in recent fights over the American economy. When Germany has grown faster than the United States, stimulus skeptics like to point across the Atlantic Ocean and say that austerity works. When it has grown more slowly, people who think the American stimulus made a big difference — including me — return the favor. But the full story is more interesting…