Article is here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/09/05/obama-outperforms-reagan-on-jobs-growth-and-investing/

And yes I know Reagan should have an A. TWW doesn't allow titles to be changed which sucks.

[Edited on September 7, 2014 at 2:46 PM. Reason : .]

9/7/2014 2:45:58 PM

is this before or after we correct the fake initial numbers?

9/7/2014 4:13:00 PM

http://brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=556098

9/7/2014 5:30:04 PM

This is good I guess, but it's now becoming a bigger problem to address inequality and class mobility (and growing computerization).

9/7/2014 7:00:58 PM

didn't read the article (yet), but my guess is that it's mostly a case of both Reagan and Obama looking really good on these statistics due to taking over a depressed economy and presiding over the recovery.

With Obama's Presidency starting in the middle of the worst downturn since the Great Depression, even a rather tepid but steady recovery is enough to make your numbers the best.


^ I will agree to an extent about income inequality, but probably disagree on how to fix it (or rather, you'd probably like my solutions of freeing up markets and reducing/eliminating loopholes and corporate welfare. I don't know if you'd like lowering the nominal corporate tax rate along with those measures. We could probably agree on setting a cap, probably even a very generous one, on how much individual income could be taxed at the long-term capital gains/dividend rate, although in exchange, I'd want no increase and maybe even a slight decrease in the top marginal rates).

I would reject the active manipulation and wealth redistribution that you would probably want.



[Edited on September 7, 2014 at 9:05 PM. Reason : ^specifically what about growing computerization?]

9/7/2014 8:58:18 PM

^
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/34757480-31a0-11e3-a16d-00144feab7de.html#axzz3Cgsv01WA
This covers most of what I would say.

i don't think they emphasize enough that it's middle-class white collar jobs that are threatened by this. You can barely get paid minimum wage for knowing how to use excel now, when 40 years ago, the types of people doing those calculations had to be well educated and intelligent.

IBMs Watson is looking to be able to diagnose diseases better than your typical doctor. These technologies are going to drive down wages, while the demand for these services increases, causing greater pooling of wealth as the owners of these machines collect this money. Scientists, engineers, lawyers, doctors, programmers (soon, writing an app is going to be as easy as doing a regression in Excel), even teachers are all going to have their wages threatened by artificially intelligent software in the coming decades.

Just think of what would happen to jobs and the economy if we brought slaves back, but the slaves had very low overheard, and were faster and smarter, and far more profitable than most paid workers could be. Do you really think giving more tax breaks to the companies using these slaves will encourage them to hire non-slave labor? For the old retired people who have made a lot of money already, reducing their tax burden or encouraging them to liquidate their wealth will only do so much.

i don't see any apt policy that doesn't include some redistribution, in the face of this impending economy. There are other options and ways to approach this problem, but practically none of them rely on classical ideas of "tax cuts to stimulate growth."

What will most likely happen in the middle-long term is that our middle class will end up emigrating to other countries (Canada for example for the first time ever has a wealthier middle class than us), even to Mexico and the "3rd world" as demand for skilled humans remains high and "unskilled" people can afford a high quality of life, leaving America with a massive gap between rich/poor while politicians continue to ignore some types of redistribution as a solution.

9/8/2014 12:05:12 AM

Just another nail in the coffin of supply-side economics.

9/8/2014 9:41:03 AM

To continue my robotics rants...

This came up on a This Old House (the TV show) Ask Me Anything today in response to what's going to be the biggest boost to productivity:

Quote :

" Richard: Get rid of smartphones! Everybody's on the job site tweeting and redditing and ... Roger: From my point of view, it's going to become robotics to the point of getting rid of empoyees for robots. They don't get hangovers, they show up to work every day... Richard: ...And they don't complain. Norm: I think at least in the construction of homes, and we've already seen some of this, is pre-fabrication. Richard covered a great story in the Jersey Shore where a house was prefabbed in 2 parts and was up and ready to go in just a few hours, so I think we'll see a lot more of that. Richard: The days of taking a truckload of 2x4s and dumping them in a snow pile and hoping you'll get a perfect house built - we'll increase seeing by building in a temperature controlled factory with perfect wood. You'll also see the new building & energy codes become more strident. "

http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/2ft6yw/hi_reddit_greetings_from_this_old_house_master/ckchniy

9/8/2014 1:41:49 PM

hah, I'm pricing out factory-built prefab homes right now

9/8/2014 1:47:40 PM