Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
Actually, it’s not clear that the 200 jobs were due to Trump since the biggest factor appears to be higher world energy prices. Trump is not obviously responsible for rising oil and gas prices, but I suppose there is some way that his administration can take the credit/blame for people paying more for their gas and heat. Even with the new jobs, employment in the sector is still down by almost one-third from its average under President Obama.
In any case, the new coal mining jobs bring the total in Pennsylvania to 5000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total employment in Pennsylvania is 6,043,000 jobs, which means that the coal industry accounts for 0.08 percent of total employment in the state. Given its limited importance to the state’s economy, it is difficult to see why NPR would devote so much attention to the industry.
Actually, it’s not clear that the 200 jobs were due to Trump since the biggest factor appears to be higher world energy prices. Trump is not obviously responsible for rising oil and gas prices, but I suppose there is some way that his administration can take the credit/blame for people paying more for their gas and heat. Even with the new jobs, employment in the sector is still down by almost one-third from its average under President Obama.
In any case, the new coal mining jobs bring the total in Pennsylvania to 5000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total employment in Pennsylvania is 6,043,000 jobs, which means that the coal industry accounts for 0.08 percent of total employment in the state. Given its limited importance to the state’s economy, it is difficult to see why NPR would devote so much attention to the industry.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
This is what bringing money back to the United States means. Under the old tax law, companies often attributed legal control of profits to foreign subsidiaries, so that they could defer paying taxes on this money. However, the money was often actually held in the United States since Apple could tell the subsidiary to keep the money wherever it wanted.
For this reason, the economic significance of bringing the money back to the United States is almost zero. The legal change of ownership is leading to the collection of taxes, but this is in lieu of the considerably larger tax liability that Apple faced under the old law.
It would have been helpful if these points were made more clearly in this NYT piece. It does usefully point out that we don’t know the extent to which the expansion plans announced by Apple would have occurred even without the tax cut.
Addendum
It is probably worth also mentioning that the $2,500 one time bonuses that Apple said it is giving its workers (paid in stock) is a bit less than 0.5 percent of the tax savings on their foreign earnings as calculated by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which is cited in the article. This assumes that all 84,000 Apple workers get the bonus.
This is what bringing money back to the United States means. Under the old tax law, companies often attributed legal control of profits to foreign subsidiaries, so that they could defer paying taxes on this money. However, the money was often actually held in the United States since Apple could tell the subsidiary to keep the money wherever it wanted.
For this reason, the economic significance of bringing the money back to the United States is almost zero. The legal change of ownership is leading to the collection of taxes, but this is in lieu of the considerably larger tax liability that Apple faced under the old law.
It would have been helpful if these points were made more clearly in this NYT piece. It does usefully point out that we don’t know the extent to which the expansion plans announced by Apple would have occurred even without the tax cut.
Addendum
It is probably worth also mentioning that the $2,500 one time bonuses that Apple said it is giving its workers (paid in stock) is a bit less than 0.5 percent of the tax savings on their foreign earnings as calculated by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which is cited in the article. This assumes that all 84,000 Apple workers get the bonus.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
Friedman probably doesn’t realize it, but in his column he is describing an economy with soaring productivity growth. That is what it means when robots, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies displace workers in large numbers. If productivity growth takes off (contradicting the projections of the Congressional Budget Office and most other forecasters) then GDP growth will also increase (barring especially awful macroeconomic policy), which means that the 3.0 percent growth rate targeted by the Trump administration should be easily reached.
It is striking that so many people who write on economic issues apparently don’t have the most basic understanding of the economy. If we see rapid job displacement, then we will see rapid economic growth and things like budget deficits and Social Security’s finances are not problems. This is not a debatable point, it is a matter of logic.
Friedman probably doesn’t realize it, but in his column he is describing an economy with soaring productivity growth. That is what it means when robots, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies displace workers in large numbers. If productivity growth takes off (contradicting the projections of the Congressional Budget Office and most other forecasters) then GDP growth will also increase (barring especially awful macroeconomic policy), which means that the 3.0 percent growth rate targeted by the Trump administration should be easily reached.
It is striking that so many people who write on economic issues apparently don’t have the most basic understanding of the economy. If we see rapid job displacement, then we will see rapid economic growth and things like budget deficits and Social Security’s finances are not problems. This is not a debatable point, it is a matter of logic.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
The NYT printed a Reuters article which included the bizarre assertion that the United States would be in some way threatened if China stopped buying US government bonds. The assertion is bizarre because for years many people (included me) complained that China was deliberately keeping down the value of its currency against the dollar in order to support its exports.
Depressing the value of the Chinese currency resulted in the country building up a huge trade surplus with the United States. This led to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, largely in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The way China kept down the value of its currency was by buying up government bonds with the dollars it acquired instead of just selling them in the open market. If China now decides to sell these bonds, it should mean that its currency will rise, thereby reducing the US trade deficit. It’s hard to see what the problem is here.
The NYT printed a Reuters article which included the bizarre assertion that the United States would be in some way threatened if China stopped buying US government bonds. The assertion is bizarre because for years many people (included me) complained that China was deliberately keeping down the value of its currency against the dollar in order to support its exports.
Depressing the value of the Chinese currency resulted in the country building up a huge trade surplus with the United States. This led to the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs, largely in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The way China kept down the value of its currency was by buying up government bonds with the dollars it acquired instead of just selling them in the open market. If China now decides to sell these bonds, it should mean that its currency will rise, thereby reducing the US trade deficit. It’s hard to see what the problem is here.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
That is a fairly important point that somehow was missing from an NYT article telling readers that the UK’s National Health System (NHS) is in crisis. The Conservative government has cut back spending on NHS from levels that were already very low by international standards. According to the OECD, the UK spends a bit more than 40 percent as much per person as the United States.
In purchasing power parity terms, the UK spent $4,200 per person in 2016. This compares to $9,900 per person in the United States. If the UK increased its spending by 20 percent, it would still be spending just over half as much per person as the United States. The enormous disparity in spending is an important fact that should be included in any serious discussion of the quality of care in the UK system.
That is a fairly important point that somehow was missing from an NYT article telling readers that the UK’s National Health System (NHS) is in crisis. The Conservative government has cut back spending on NHS from levels that were already very low by international standards. According to the OECD, the UK spends a bit more than 40 percent as much per person as the United States.
In purchasing power parity terms, the UK spent $4,200 per person in 2016. This compares to $9,900 per person in the United States. If the UK increased its spending by 20 percent, it would still be spending just over half as much per person as the United States. The enormous disparity in spending is an important fact that should be included in any serious discussion of the quality of care in the UK system.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is apparently confused about rule by governments and rule by rich people. In response to questions about whether Donald Trump was catering to elitists by attending the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, he said that he didn’t think the group of people there was any more elite than the group attending the Group of 20 finance ministers meetings.
The Group of 20 meetings of finance ministers are meetings of people who are there because they represent governments, most of which were democratically elected. The people at Davos are there because they are rich. Apparently, Mr. Mnuchin does not recognize this distinction.
It might have been worth pointing this out to readers.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is apparently confused about rule by governments and rule by rich people. In response to questions about whether Donald Trump was catering to elitists by attending the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, he said that he didn’t think the group of people there was any more elite than the group attending the Group of 20 finance ministers meetings.
The Group of 20 meetings of finance ministers are meetings of people who are there because they represent governments, most of which were democratically elected. The people at Davos are there because they are rich. Apparently, Mr. Mnuchin does not recognize this distinction.
It might have been worth pointing this out to readers.
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
The Washington Post had an editorial titled “Trump is trying to dismantle free trade. That is almost impossible.” Of course, the Post is not actually talking about free trade, it is talking about a policy of selective protectionism.
This is the policy of deliberately exposing less-educated workers to competition with low paid workers in the developing world while protecting the most highly educated workers like doctors and dentists. It also involves increasing protectionism in the form of longer and stronger copyright and patent monopolies.
The predicted and actual effect of the Post’s selective protectionism is to redistribute money from most workers to the richest people in the country. The Post uses both its news and opinion pages to try to convince people that this was a natural outcome (and then it wrings its hands over this unfortunate situation) rather than the result of deliberate government policy that it strongly supports.
(Yes, this is the topic of my [free] book Rigged: How Globalization and the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.)
The Washington Post had an editorial titled “Trump is trying to dismantle free trade. That is almost impossible.” Of course, the Post is not actually talking about free trade, it is talking about a policy of selective protectionism.
This is the policy of deliberately exposing less-educated workers to competition with low paid workers in the developing world while protecting the most highly educated workers like doctors and dentists. It also involves increasing protectionism in the form of longer and stronger copyright and patent monopolies.
The predicted and actual effect of the Post’s selective protectionism is to redistribute money from most workers to the richest people in the country. The Post uses both its news and opinion pages to try to convince people that this was a natural outcome (and then it wrings its hands over this unfortunate situation) rather than the result of deliberate government policy that it strongly supports.
(Yes, this is the topic of my [free] book Rigged: How Globalization and the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.)
Read More Leer más Join the discussion Participa en la discusión
