political economy

Obama turns 51. His favorite Wire character is Omar Little. During the first campaign he said in an interview with BusinessWeek that labor hasn't shared in productivy gains since the late 1990s and that it isn't fair. During one of his State of the Union addresses with the Supreme Court judges sitting front row, he blasted their Citizens United decision. He gave the order at Zero Dark Thirty to capture or kill Bin Laden. He hasn't made any big gaffes besides listening to Geithner and Orszag's advice to turn to deficit cutting. Reappointing Bernanke was an understandable yet costly error given the fragility of the financial system at the time.

The Monetary Base is Irrelevant by Yglesias

Unemployment Insurance Claims Do Provide Information by Dean Baker

Hiring Picks Up in July, but Data Gives No Clear Signal by Catherine Rampell

America added more jobs than expected last month, offering a pleasant surprise after many months of disappointing economic news. Even so, hiring was not strong enough to shrink the army of the unemployed in the slightest.

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“Nearly the entire reduction in unemployment since October 2009 has been accomplished through a significant drop in the percentage of adults participating in the labor force,” said Peter Morici, a professor in the business school at the University of Maryland.

Emphasis added. Looks like the economy has stagnated at a depressed equilibrium.

 The Job Market is Stuck in Place - NYTimes editorial

July’s job-growth figure brings the monthly average tally for 2012 to 151,000, compared with a monthly average in 2011 of 153,000. At that tepid pace, it would take roughly 10 more years to regain the jobs that were lost — or never created — as a result of the Great Recession.
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Responding to the latest employment report, the White House noted correctly that major areas of job weakness — including positions in construction and teaching — are precisely those that would have been the subject of the jobs bill proposed in 2011 by President Obama. That legislation was blocked by Congressional Republicans.

2008-2012 is worse than the 1970s.