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Baker: The Battle Over the A.I.G. Bonuses: Class War in the Media
Znet Article, March, 23 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The debate over the A.I.G. bonuses is class war in its full naked glory. On the surface, everyone agreed that paying multi-million bonuses to the folks who bankrupted their company and handed the taxpayers a bill for $170 billion ($2,300 for a fam...
Baker: Unions and Unemployment: The Battle Over the Employee Free Choice Act Gets Ugly
Znet Article, March, 17 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
In Washington, money talks. And we all know that the folks opposed to the Employee Free Choice Act have lots of money. That means that they are doing lots of talking. And, they are saying some pretty strange things.
Baker: Competing Views of Government: Universal Medicare or Government-Protected Insurance Companies
Znet Article, March, 15 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
We all know that people have different ideologies about the proper role of government. Some people, who tend to be left of center, think that the government's role is to try to promote the general good, by providing basic services, protecting the ...
Baker: East Asia's Revenge: The Crash of the Housing Bubble
Znet Article, March, 11 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
In the matter of a few short weeks in the summer of 1997 the thriving countries of East Asia saw their economies overwhelmed by a financial tsunami. First Thailand and Indonesia, and then South Korea and Malaysia, saw investors panic and watched c...
Baker: Strengthening Worker Retirement Security
Znet Article, March, 09 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Strengthening Worker Retirement Security Testimony of Dean Baker Before the House Committee on Education and Labor Hearing on Strengthening Worker Retirement Security
Baker: Unemployment Jumps to 8.1 Percent as Job Loss Accelerates
Znet Article, March, 06 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
This report shows that recent economic projections were overly optimistic.
Baker: The Santelli Screed Hits Wrong Target on Mortgage Bailout
Znet Article, March, 04 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
At the risk of spoiling a promising artistic and commercial venture, people should know that Mr. Santelli is firing at the wrong target...
Baker: Are We Really Nostalgic for the Great Depression?
Znet Article, March, 03 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The Washington policy debates of the last week would almost make a casual observer believe that the nation's political leadership is in fact nostalgic for the good old days of the Great Depression when the country suffered double-digit unemploymen...
Baker: Housing Price Decline Accelerates
Znet Article, February, 27 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Housing aid should be focused on nonbubble markets.
Baker: The Solution to the Budget Deficit: The Peter G. Peterson Intergenerational Fairness Tax Credit
Znet Article, February, 23 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Peter Peterson is coming to get your Social Security and Medicare. Peterson was the commerce secretary in the Nixon administration. He then went on to make billions of dollars as one of the top executives at the Blackstone Group, a private equity ...
Baker: The TARP Dog and Pony Show
Znet Article, February, 17 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's long-awaited plan for rescuing the banks left people even more confused about the Obama administration's agenda than they had been before the announcement. This is best demonstrated by the plunge in the market...
Baker: Stop Baby Boomer Bashing: Protect Social Security and Medicare
Znet Article, February, 16 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Remember all those headlines about how the baby boom cohorts just lost several trillion dollars in home equity due to the collapse of the housing bubble and how they lost trillions more in their retirement accounts as a result of the stock market ...
Baker: Fewer Jobs: Stimulus on the Cheap
Znet Article, February, 09 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The moderates in the Senate of both parties are very proud of themselves for having negotiated a slimmed down version of the stimulus package. They apparently knocked out more than $100 billion in spending, trimming the package to less than $400 b...
Baker: Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You
Znet Article, February, 07 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
An excerpt from Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy by Dean Baker, published by PoliPoint Press, 2009.
Baker: Employment Free Fall Continues, Unemployment Rate Jumps to 7.6 Percent
Znet Article, February, 06 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The January employment report showed the economy losing 598,000 jobs in the month...
Baker: Time for Bank Rationalization
Znet Article, February, 03 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Leaks in the media indicate that the banks are about to inhale another helping of taxpayer dollars. This round is likely to be considerably larger than the $350 billion that they swallowed in the bailout last October.
Baker: Time for Jobs: How Shorter Work Weeks / Work Years Can Be Stimulus
Znet Article, January, 27 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
It is important that some version of President Obama's stimulus package get approved by Congress as quickly as possible. The package will be an important first step toward stopping the downward slide.
Baker: The Anti-Stimulus Crowd Blows a Gasket
Znet Article, January, 26 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The anti-stimulus crowd is getting desperate. The possibility that a young charismatic new president will push through an ambitious package that begins to set the economy right is truly terrifying to this crew. After all, if the economy begins to ...
Baker: President Obama's Big Stimulus
Znet Article, January, 25 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
There is much to celebrate this week. Topping the list of course is President Obama's inauguration. There is good reason to believe that we have seen power pass from one of the country's worst presidents to one of its best.
Baker: TARP II: Money for Banks, Not Homeowners
Znet Article, January, 21 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
TARP II, the second helping of $350 billion that is supposed to restore the health of our financial system, will soon be dished out by the Obama administration. Ostensibly, much of this money will go to help homeowners stay in their homes. But, as...
Baker: Redefining Chutzpah: Wall Street Goes After Social Security, Again
Znet Article, January, 14 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Many people, most notably investment banker and Concord Coalition founder Peter Peterson, have questioned the solvency of Social Security based on the fact that its trust fund is held in U.S. government bonds. Peterson and others derisively refer ...
Baker: Right to Rent: Helping Homeowners Without Throwing Money at Banks
Znet Article, January, 12 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
We got into the current economic crisis because many very smart people with outstanding credentials were unable to use simple arithmetic. If they knew arithmetic, they would have been able to see an $8 trillion housing bubble that was right in fro...
Baker: Free Market Myth
Znet Article, January, 06 2009
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Regulation is everywhere. Let's choose who benefits.
Baker: Washington Post: The Problem is YOU, Not "We"
Znet Article, December, 24 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
Imagine a major national newspaper that never saw an $8 trillion dollar housing bubble. Suppose its most often cited expert on the housing market was the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, who also authored the 2006 bestselle...
Baker: Wages Soar as Stock Market Tanks
Znet Article, December, 23 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
You probably didn't see this in the newspapers, but real wages rose at an incredible 14.8 percent annual rate over the last three months. The basic story is straightforward, while nominal wages have continued to grow at a modest 3.2 percent annual...
Baker: The Ownership Society: R.I.P.
Znet Article, December, 17 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The Bush administration is packing its bags and about to head out the door. As they leave, we should insist they take the garbage with them. Among the items in the garbage pile should be the "ownership society."
Baker: Homeownership Without Equity: What's It Worth?
Znet Article, December, 15 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
It costs roughly $3,000 a year to insure a kid through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Head Start costs around $7,500 per student. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program checks in at about $750 a head.
Baker: Obama Has the Right Medicine
Znet Article, December, 09 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
President-elect Obama wants to spend several hundred billion dollars in each of the next two years building infrastructure, retrofitting public and private buildings to increase energy efficiency, and aiding state and local governments in dealing ...
Baker: Paulson and Bernanke Spread the Wealth Around
Znet Article, December, 03 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
During the campaign, then-Senator Obama provoked a media flurry and right-wing outrage over his comment to Joe the Plumber about "spreading the wealth around." They told us that this view was contrary to the American Way, that this was socialism.
Baker: The Bear is Cool: Overcoming Fears of Falling Stock Prices
Znet Article, November, 27 2008
Dean Baker
Baker's ZSpace page
The stock market's historic plunge over the last year has pushed the news media into a state of near hysteria. News shows and headlines routinely roll out the scorecard on the market's new lows in the same way they might list the victims of a terr...
