Archive for National Economy

CPEG | March 12, 2012
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Commentary on the February 2012 BLS Jobs Report

For many years now CPEG has been saying that the U.S. economy is not going to truly return to any semblance of full employment without a large scale federal public jobs program that could be easily funded with a modest financial transaction or “speculator” tax.

While data released this morning by the BLS shows a (seasonally adjusted) Nonfarm payroll employment increase of 227,000 in February 2012 from January 2012 from the (CES) “Establishment” survey and a Civilian Employment increase of 428,000 in February 2012 from January 2012 from the (CPS) “Household” survey, that in normal times would indicate adequate growth, this rate of growth is not likely to restore our economy to pre-Great Recession or “Lesser Depression” (LD) employment levels anytime soon.

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CPEG | February 9, 2012
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CPEG Commentary on Settlement to End Foreclosure Probe

Authored by CPEG’s Bill Barclay, an expert on the housing crisis with 22 years of experience in the Financial Services Sector

According to press accounts, there will be a deal between the banks and the state Attorney Generals over housing/foreclosures, etc. A bubble in housing prices (driven by finance) got us into the Lesser Depression and it could get us out. But I don’t think this deal is it.

The banks are going to fork over $25 billion, plus access to refinancing by 300,000 homeowners now shut out, and perhaps some payments to 750,000 people who lost homes to foreclosure. This may sound like a lot of money – until you remember the scope of the problem.

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CPEG | February 4, 2012
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Commentary on the January 2012 BLS Jobs Report

The employment and unemployment statistics released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics report an expansion in employment of almost 250,000 and a decline in the unemployment rate to 8.3%. Taking these numbers at face value, the media is already editorializing that the economy is bouncing back. Yet if we look more closely at the numbers we find that they are strongly influenced by the approach the BLS takes to seasonally adjusting data. January is a tricky month for statisticians. December often sees a run-up in the labor market followed by a drop in January. What the BLS is reporting is not an increase in employment, but a drop smaller than expected for this season.

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CPEG | January 18, 2012
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Wall Street Journal Columnist Cites CPEG Study as Financial Transaction Tax Gains Momentum

The idea of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), a small tax on financial transactions that could generate $537 Billion annually for the ailing economy, has been steadily gaining momentum. Recently, it’s been championed by Labor Unions, the Occupy Movement, and some Democratic Lawmakers. But on January 5th, the FTT found support in a very unlikely place.

The Wall Street Journal, not exactly a clearinghouse for progressive ideas, published an online column entitled “To Reclaim the Envy of the World, Wall Street Must Pay“. Written by WSJ online’s David Weidner, the column cites our study in it’s call for a Financial Transaction Tax, which it points out would “create new forms of revenue for cash-strapped regulators and gently apply the brakes to trading run amok in the markets.”

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Category: National Economy | Tags: , , ,
CPEG | January 9, 2012
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Commentary on the December 2011 BLS Jobs Report

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released the jobs/unemployment report for the month of December, 2011. The report shows an increase in the number of non-farm jobs of an additional 200,000 in December. The number of unemployed persons is 13.1 million, which gives an overall unemployment rate of 8.5 percent. This is a small improvement from the (revised) November unemployment rate, which was 8.7 percent. And that in turn was an improvement over the previous month’s rate of 8.9 percent. So, things are slowly getting better. But, we need to ask at least three questions to make sense of these and related numbers:

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