Monthly Archives: May 2011

Jared Bernstein has an interesting proposition for progressive/liberal economic writers. We should talk less about what the administration and Democratic leader should do and more about what they could do: Especially re the WPA-idea, this got me thinking about the … Continue reading →

“The question is not whether we will have a surveillance state in the years to come, but what sort of surveillance state we will have. Will we have a government without sufficient controls over public and private surveillance, or will … Continue reading →

Dave Roberts is writing about a new animating idea for the left based around the idea of great spaces (Parts One, Two and Three). The bumper sticker version is: great places. Making the places we live and work more resilient, intelligent, productive, and … Continue reading →

The American Prospect has a special report on housing this month. Some of my favorite people who work on housing are in the issue, including Alyssa Katz, Marcus Stanley (from Americans for Financial Reform, who critiques HAMP), James Carr from … Continue reading →

I want to get a few graphs on this blog before we leave this data set behind, not sure if they’ll be of any use.  I wrote a post last week about unemployment by duration and came to two conclusions. … Continue reading →

The movie Bridesmaids has had a strong second weekend, dropping only 20% as a result of positive word-of-mouth. This hopefully shows that a movie that passes the Bechdel Rule can go on to make $100 million dollars and will encourage Hollywood … Continue reading →

- Jared Bernstein’s new blog is fantastic, and if you are a fan of economic blogs it is a must-read. “From the perspective of the workers who hold these types of jobs [that don't require college education], there may be no … Continue reading →

“This view is spreading like wildfire in the GOP.” Brian Beutler notices that the argument that a so-called “technical default” wouldn’t be bad for the economy is on the rise as a talking point within the GOP. I honestly can’t … Continue reading →

A lot of people have been commenting on this story and graph from National Journal, showing that media coverage of unemployment peaked in August 2010 and that media coverage has moved onto deficit talks. “Mentions of unemployment have been dwindling … Continue reading →

John Schmitt from CEPR has a new paper out, Labor Market Policy in the Great Recession: Some Lessons from Denmark and Germany (pdf). Schmitt: This paper reviews labor-market performance of Denmark and Germany during the Great Recession. From the mid-1990s through … Continue reading →