U.S. economic growth

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Responding to Ramesh Ponnuru on health care benefits and wage stagnation

James Pethokoukis | January 17, 2013, 2:33 pm

Ramesh Ponnuru in Bloomberg: Academic studies and news media regularly report that in recent decades the middle class has been stagnating economically. Conservative and libertarian analysts often downplay these stories by saying that while wages for people in the middle … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis, U.S. Economy

Why returning to trend GDP growth isn’t good enough

James Pethokoukis | January 15, 2013, 11:30 am

The economic consensus is that US growth is slowly returning to trend of around 3%, as this WSJ chart shows: So assuming the consensus is correct, why my constant push for pro-growth economic policies, both fiscal and monetary? For one … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Study: Making a tax code more progressive hurts economic growth

James Pethokoukis | January 4, 2013, 2:39 pm

From the “Macroeconomic Effects of Progressive Taxation” by Tae-hwan Rhee of the Samsung Economic Institute (via the American Economic Association annual meeting): In this paper, I analyze the progressivity of state income tax in the United States. Using the IRS public use file … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Is the U.S. economy on the right track? 3 charts give a worrisome answer

James Pethokoukis | October 1, 2012, 10:57 am

We had a flurry of bad economic news last week. And we have a critical — both economically and politically — jobs report coming up Friday. So I thought I would pull back the camera a bit and look where … read more >

Carpe Diem

The 85-variable Chicago Fed National Activity Index improves in July; We’re nowhere near a recession

Mark J. Perry | August 20, 2012, 11:49 am

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index is a weighted average of 85 individual indicators of U.S. economic activity. The indicators come from four broad categories of data: 1) production and income; 2) employment, unemployment, and hours; 3) personal consumption and … read more >

Pethokoukis

Sickly second-quarter GDP report puts U.S. economic recovery — and Obama’s reelection — in jeopardy

James Pethokoukis | July 27, 2012, 9:27 am

The U.S. economy is not doing fine. Earlier this year, the Obama White House predicted the economy would grow 3% in 2012. Today’s GDP report shows that ain’t going to happen. The Commerce Department said the economy grew at an … read more >

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