James Pethokoukis

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

James Pethokoukis is the Money & Politics columnist-blogger for the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, he was the Washington columnist for Reuters Breakingviews. Pethokoukis has written for many publications including USNews & World Report, The New York Times, The Weekly Standard, Commentary, USA Today, and Investor's Business Daily. Pethokoukis is also an official CNBC contributor. In addition, he has appeared numerous times on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, The McLaughlin Group, CNN, and Nightly Business Report on PBS. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism, Pethokoukis is a 2002 Jeopardy! champion.

Pethokoukis, Economics, U.S. Economy

America’s broken jobs machine and the long-term unemployed

James Pethokoukis | May 13, 2013, 4:00 pm

When an economy is humming, there are lots of job openings and low unemployment. When the economy is malfunctioning, there are few openings and unemployment is high. The regular relationship between job openings and unemployment is called the Beveridge Curve. If … read more >

Economics, Entitlements, Pethokoukis

Here’s a possible way to shrink those disability insurance rolls

James Pethokoukis | May 13, 2013, 1:04 pm

Many more Americans are getting Social Security disability payments today than before the Great Recession, nearly two million. But that upturn also reflects long-term trends. About 5.4% of the civilian workforce ages 25 to 64 are on disability insurance, according … read more >

Image Credit: Medill DC (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Economics, Monetary Policy, Pethokoukis

So what would the US economy look like without the Fed’s QE bond buying? Like the EU’s

James Pethokoukis | May 13, 2013, 11:48 am

The economic news out today shows retail sales expanded, in the words of JPMorgan, “solidly” in April, with figures for both February and March revised higher. And last week, the four-week average of jobless claims fell 6,000 to 33,700, the lowest … read more >

Economics, International economy, Pethokoukis

Japan’s Abenomics really isn’t about competitiveness or currency wars

James Pethokoukis | May 13, 2013, 11:19 am

A common critique of Japan’s monetary policy experiment is that it’s just a repackaging of old-fashioned “beggar-thy-neighbor” policy. Print lots of money, devalue the currency, and boost exports. And with the yen breaking through the 100-to-the-dollar barrier, the critique isn’t … read more >

Pethokoukis, Economics, U.S. Economy

Record stock market, record corporate profits. But record jobs — not so much. Is technological unemployment the reason why?

James Pethokoukis | May 10, 2013, 1:32 pm

After-tax corporate profits and stocks are doing great: Jobs not so much: As I noted earlier, the bulk of the drop in the labor force participation rate seems to be the result of weak labor demand. And why is demand … read more >

Also of Interest

The IRS and big government

The expanding Internal Revenue Service scandal could hardly be any more Drudgeriffic.

read more >
Ferguson's blooper on Keynes

It was an unusually feisty weekend in corners of the blogosphere and Twitterverse where dwell economists and economic-policy wonks.

read more >
The upside of economic pessimism

The disappointing first-quarter GDP report dashed hopes that 2013 might prove a breakout year for the U.S. economy.

read more >

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