Economic Report of the President

Discussion in 'Business & Economics' started by Tiassa, Feb 13, 2004.

  1. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    I haven't done enough reading to make any real comment, as the Economic Report of the President is 400+ pages in PDF form. However ....

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    David Horsey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 13, 2004.

    • Levey, Collin. "Crying 'wolf' over jobs won't help grandma." Seattle Times, February 12, 2004. See http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001855823_collin12.html
    • Weisman, Jonathan. "2004 Economic Report of the President." Washington Post.com, February 10, 2004. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25935-2004Feb9.html
    • Government Printing Office. Economic Report of the President. See http://www.gpoaccess.gov/eop/index.html
    • Groshen, Erica L., and Simon Potter. "Has Structural Change Contributed to a Jobless Recovery?" Federal Reserve Bank of New York, August, 2003. See http://www.ny.frb.org/research/current_issues/ci9-8.html

    Levey's article goes on to point to a job-creation number of 73,000 starting in August, and notes that Bill Clinton "embraced, championed, and defended" competitive change.

    But I think this assertion is ill-pointed inasmuch as Bush needs a ridiculous number of jobs per month ... nearly 400,000 ... just to break even.

    Jonathan Weisman, staff writer at the Washington Post held an online discussion about the 2004 economic report.
    At any rate, there's a few interesting points in that discussion, including wage stagnation and deflation, credibility of the numbers, and the disparity between the economic theory of the "recovery" and the economic reality of job growth. Weisman also offers a link on structural and cyclical jobs in the figures. There's also a snooty joker from Virginia that gives him a Sciforums-styled rub at the end.

    Anyway, it's a nice messy topic, and I think that's how it's supposed to be.
     
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  3. Eluminate Registered Senior Member

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    who is it written by?
    is it a recognized source? are there sitings of material thats
    accepted as factual?

    I personally rather listen to Greenspan then any report that comes
    out right now because he is usually much more right about things
    then any reports.
     
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  5. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    It's written by the White House Economic Advisers, released under the authorship of its chairman, N. Gregory Mankiw. The report bears the president's signature as an endorsement--it is the president's report to Congress on the state of the economy.

    It's a recognized source in political circles, and has largely remained obscure for press dissemination to the public; it's a weighty document. The PDF is 417 pages long, and I'm searching for the bibliography and notes. Right now, I'm caught up in informational tables, including one that starts on PDF page 394 that tracks "Corporate Profits and Finance, 1959 - 2003."

    Most people don't hear of the ERP because it's so complex. With over 100 pages of informational tables including footnotes, it seems to be the report people should look to when they hear Greenspan say something and ask, "Why?"

    The textual report can be politicized, as the presence of the ERP in the news--introduced, apparently, by Bush--is based around political arguments. The data tables, though, would be an obscure exercise in difficult politicking.

    In the sinister, one could accuse that politicians could exploit this report by politicizing small but salient portions and causing those who oppose them to dredge through the hundreds of pages just to find the context. In other words, not even the press enjoys that.

    It's an annual report from the executive; that we're paying any attention to it this year seems to be the result of Mr. Bush's statements to the press and people.

    It's got some interesting information, including hints at the government's regard for things like intellectual property. But I'm going to check prior reports now in order to find out if the textual portion has always been written in such an instructional manner:
     
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  7. Deadwood Registered Senior Member

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    At uni I did an economics course and the text book was written by Mankiw. Interesting to note is that the lecturer thinks he's a bit of a fool. He follows the economics school of thought of Kaines(spelling?-forgot his name) rather than Adam Smith which Mankiw follows.

    Isn't Mankiw aware that fast food chains employ people based on how many facial pimples they have?

    Ok, let me see now. Creating products more cheaper and selling at the same high price will equal greater profit. But greater unemployment will equal less willing and able people to buy product at same high price.

    Further if queried about greater unemployment Mankiw will simply state that the natural rate of unemployment has raised. However the natural rate of unemployment only assumes that everyone is between jobs in the short term and not out of work in the long term. The bottom line being that 3 million new people out of work does not make for the efficient market/capital system that Mankiw purports.

    PS: I actually did like Mankiws version of an efficient economic system when I studied it, but reading this I can see what my lecturer was really talking about when he said he was "a bit of a dill". 3 million jobs gone and wanting more jobs to go shows his system is out of touch with the people it is supposed to benefit in the short and long term. Well they did warn us at uni about this "natural rate of unemployment" term which really means "excuse".
     
  8. goofyfish Analog By Birth, Digital By Design Valued Senior Member

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    5,331
    Fast Food Reclassified As Manufacturing Job!

    Some of our Congressional critters have a
    sense of humor. Here's a letter from Dingell.

    :m: Peace.
     
  9. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    37,882
    That's the really effed-up thing about life in America. Whenever things get really ugly, there's always a Congressman to bring you a smile.

    How the hell does that work?

    Thank ye, kind Fish.

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