When we think of economic downturns, we generally think of them as flat up or down. We are all familiar with terms like recession. That is what we are now very slowly getting out of. We know, from our parents and grandparents, what the utter devastation of a depression is. We know, from our most recent experience, the Great Recession, what that feels like. Some months back, a term was added to the economic conversation: secular stagnation. Though the concept isn’t a new one, it has recently been reintroduced. Continue reading Defining Secular Stagnation | Economics
Tag Archives: Demand
Larry Summers adds concerns about insufficient supply to those about inadequate demand…to which I ask, “why go there?” | Jared Bernstein | On the Economy
By Jared Bernstein
Larry Summers adds concerns about insufficient supply to those about inadequate demand…to which I ask, “why go there?”
Jared Bernstein: A Quick Check-in on the Wage Front
We don’t yet have all the data I need to update my full-monty-wage-mash-up, but a few series to which I pay attention are now available for the first half of the year: median weekly earnings (MWE) of full-time workers and two flavors of average hourly earnings. What do they show?
Not much, in terms of wage pressures. MWE is a very noisy series–medians are a more volatile statistic then means–so in order to show underlying pace in nominal weekly earnings, I’ve smoothed the series (using an HP filter; both figures show year-over-year changes). Amidst the jumpiness, the deceleration is clear.
Continue reading Jared Bernstein: A Quick Check-in on the Wage Front