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Dean Baker - Latest News [Page 1]
It's Time for Representative Ryan to Man Up
Tuesday, 5 April 2011, 1:45 pm | Dean Baker
Congressman Paul Ryan is the new darling of both the Republican Party and the major media outlets. He has put forward bold plans for dismantling Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In Washington policy circles, this passes for courage. Congressman ... More >>
Wall Street Congratulates Washington
Thursday, 1 July 2010, 3:47 pm | Dean Baker
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is well known for pretentious columns that consist of letters that he suggests some prominent person write. I licensed Friedman's literary tool in order to present the following letter from the Wall Street CEOs ... More >>
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: Just a Four-Letter Word
Tuesday, 29 December 2009, 2:30 pm | Dean Baker
That word would be "TARP" of course. The night before Christmas, the Treasury announced that these two bankrupt mortgage giants would get an unlimited draw on the taxpayers' dollars. This looks a lot like TARP. More >>
Dean Baker: Hostage-Takers in the Senate
Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 11:16 am | Dean Baker
As most of us are preparing for the holidays a small clique in the Senate, with their collaborators in the Washington punditry, are planning for a dramatic hostage-taking event. Their target of opportunity is a bill to increase the nation's debt limit. ... More >>
Unemployment 10.2% - Economy Sheds 190,000 Jobs
Sunday, 8 November 2009, 1:29 pm | Dean Baker
The strong wage growth reported for October was probably an aberration. The unemployment rate crossed 10.0 percent for the first time since early 1983, hitting 10.2 percent in October. The establishment survey showed the economy losing another 190,000 jobs, ... More >>
Governor Palin's Crazed Health Care Rant
Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 3:57 pm | Dean Baker
As a basic rule, politicians will say anything they can get away with. If an effective politician thinks that he can call his opponent a drug-dealing, serial-murdering gangster, and have the charge taken seriously by the media, then he will do it, even ... More >>
Dean Baker: Good Medicine - Why Not for Everyone?
Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 9:13 am | Dean Baker
As part of his health care package, President Obama proposed creating an independent commission of medical experts that would determine the medical procedures for which Medicare will pay. The reason is that patients now receive many costly procedures ... More >>
Tax Health Insurance, Subsidize Health Providers
Tuesday, 21 July 2009, 2:49 pm | Dean Baker
As a card-carrying economist, I don't like the unlimited tax deduction for health insurance premiums. It is regressive and just plain bad policy. Low- and moderate-income people are both less likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and benefit ... More >>
Obama's Plan Fails to Address Accountability
Thursday, 18 June 2009, 12:21 pm | Dean Baker
Washington, DC - There are many useful features of President Obama's proposals for the reform of the regulatory system. Most notably, the plan to establish an agency to ensure that financial products are fair and transparent to consumers is a big ... More >>
US: Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.9 Percent
Monday, 11 May 2009, 2:06 pm | Dean Baker
The economy lost another 539,000 jobs in April, down from an average of 680,000 over the prior five months. The unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent, in spite of the fact that the household survey actually showed an increase in employment of 120,000. ... More >>
Dean Baker: The Lesson of Fiat-Chrysler
Tuesday, 5 May 2009, 12:55 pm | Dean Baker
The media coverage of the auto bailouts has focused on the need for union autoworkers to take big pay cuts, causing them to once again miss the real story. The Fiat-Chrysler deal shows that the pay problem is at the top, not the bottom. At the end of the ... More >>
The Wall Street Whine: Goldman Sachs Edition
Tuesday, 21 April 2009, 11:33 am | Dean Baker
Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, is very upset with the TARP. Last fall, Mr. Blankfein borrowed $10 billion through the TARP at below market interest rates. Now, the government is starting to tie some real condition to this money, for example, ... More >>
The Bank Bailout Fails, Will Anyone Get the Boot
Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 11:48 am | Dean Baker
This is a rude question to many people, which is why it is so important that it be asked. The Obama administration is moving forward with a massive bailout program to rid the banks of their bad assets. The plan could involve as much as $1 trillion ... More >>
How About a Second Opinion?
Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 12:10 pm | Dean Baker
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants to have the government lend up to a trillion dollars to hedge funds, private equity, funds and the banks themselves to clear their books of toxic assets. The plan implies a substantial subsidy to the banks. It is ... More >>
Unemployment Jumps to 8.5%, Economy Sheds Jobs
Monday, 6 April 2009, 12:22 pm | Dean Baker
The unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March as the economy shed another 663,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the job loss reported for March, and upward revisions of 84,000 for the prior two months, the economy has ... More >>
Taxing Main St. to Make Wall St. Richer
Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 1:56 pm | Dean Baker
The new consensus among the experts who missed the housing bubble (EMHB) is that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's plan to subsidize the purchase of junk mortgages and their derivatives will help alleviate the stress on the banking system. That's ... More >>
The Battle Over the A.I.G. Bonuses
Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 11:46 am | Dean Baker
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 family ... More >>
Dean Baker: New Thinking on the Economy
Tuesday, 10 February 2009, 10:26 am | Dean Baker
Jeff Faux, my former boss at the Economic Policy Institute, tells a story from his days as a foot soldier in President Johnson's War on Poverty. Johnson was asked by a delegation from Alaska if he had an anti-poverty program for their state. Johnson ... More >>
Dean Baker: US Employment Free Fall Continues
Monday, 9 February 2009, 10:53 am | Dean Baker
The January employment report showed the economy losing 598,000 jobs in the month. In addition, there were sharp upward revisions to the job loss figures for the prior two months. The data now show the economy losing 1,772,000 jobs over the last three ... More >>
Dean Baker: Fannie Mae's Overpaid Board
Tuesday, 3 February 2009, 10:44 am | Dean Baker
Last week, President Obama called it "shameful" that the bank executives, who took taxpayer money through the bailout last fall, paid themselves large bonuses. While the vast majority of the public agrees with this view, there is little that President ... More >>
