First the facts and then my comments. Calculated Risk Blog reports from the BLS: From the BLS: Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+54,000) in May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains continued in professional and business services, health care, and mining. Employment levels in … Continue reading The Economy Is Stalling – Employment Report for May 2011
recessions
Recessions Are Matters of Life and Death
I think it's always important for policy wonks, politicians, and tenured professors to careful when discussing recessions and unemployment. It's very easy from the safety of a secure income to focus on the data and the numbers. But behind the data and numbers are real humans. Recessions and high unemployment have real, human costs. It's … Continue reading Recessions Are Matters of Life and Death
Gold Standard Not Attractive
Paul Krugman observes how life under a gold standard is not pleasant: Anyway, one alleged fact I keep hearing is that recessions were short and shallow under the gold standard. I don’t know where that’s coming from, but it just ain’t so. The data aren’t as good for the pre-1933 era as they are now, … Continue reading Gold Standard Not Attractive
EconProph 