Dean Baker
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of several books, including Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better bargain for Working People, The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive, The United States Since 1980, Social Security: The Phony Crisis (with Mark Weisbrot), and The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer. He also has a blog, "Beat the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage of economic issues.
Articles by this author
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Views Tuesday, March 19, 2019 Trillion Dollar Wall Street Bailouts, Bernie Sanders, and the Washington Post Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post Fact Checker gave Bernie Sanders two Pinocchios yesterday for saying that the Wall Street banks got a trillion dollar bailout. Kessler raises several points of contention. First, whether the Wall Street banks actually got that much money. Second, whether it can... Read more |
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Views Monday, March 18, 2019 On Paying for a Green New Deal with Modern Monetary Theory Much of the Democratic Party, including almost the entire pack of contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, has embraced the concept of a Green New Deal (GND). This is an ambitious plan for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time creating good-paying jobs, improving... Read more |
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Views Friday, March 15, 2019 Worry About the Old, Not the Rich, HuffPost Tells Readers There continues to be a large market for pieces saying the big conflict in the US is generational rather than class. The HuffPost ( 3/11/19 ) made its latest contribution this week. The piece is more than a bit confused, but its headline explicitly gives the intention: “America’s Defining Divide Is... Read more |
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Views Saturday, February 23, 2019 Why Do the Media Provide Cover for Austerity Cranks, Like the Folks Running the EU? It’s not uncommon to read new stories that quite explicitly identify economic mismanagement. For example, news reports on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe routinely (and correctly) attribute the cause to the poor economic management by its leaders. We will see similar attributions of mismanagement to... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, January 23, 2019 No One Said Rich People Were Very Sharp: Davos Tries to Combat Populism Let's see, cattle ranchers are against vegetarianism, coal companies are against restricting CO2 emissions, and the Davos crew is trying to combat populism, according to The Washington Post . It is kind of amazing that the rich people at Davos would not understand how absurd this is. Yeah, we get... Read more |
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Views Saturday, January 19, 2019 Washington Post Forgets to Mention, Scott Walker Misled Fifth Graders About Taxes The Washington Post had an article about how Republicans and right-wingers have become obsessed with trying to attack Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected representative from New York. At one point it refers to former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's attack on Ocasio-Cortez's position... Read more |
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Views Monday, December 24, 2018 No, Donald Trump Is Not Leaving Us Poorly Prepared for the Next Recession There is a popular theme in the media these days that the Trump administration is leaving us poorly prepared for the next recession. The basic story is that high deficits and debt will leave us less room to have a large stimulus when the next recession hits. This is wrong, at least if we are talking about the economics. Read more |
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Views Saturday, December 01, 2018 Our Elites Refuse to Accept Responsibility for Leaving Behind the Left Behind There have been several analyses of the 2018 election results showing that the Republican regions are disproportionately areas that lag in income and growth. In response, we are seeing a minor industry develop on what we can do to help the left behinds. The assumption in this analysis is that being... Read more |
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Views Monday, September 03, 2018 Unions in the 21st Century: A Potent Weapon Against Inequality The topic of economic inequality can appear complex, with many nuanced causes and outcomes. But while the two of us actively engage in that debate, we also strongly believe that there is one overarching factor that must not be, but often is, overlooked: worker bargaining power. On Labor Day, this... Read more |
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Views Friday, August 03, 2018 The Trump Administration's Giant F**k You to Working People: Playing Games with Capital Gains Tax Rates Okay, I'm going to plead guilty to playing lawyer without a license. The NYT reports that the Trump administration is proposing to unilaterally (as in no congressional action) change the way that capital gains are calculated for tax purposes. The plan is to allow people to index capital gains for... Read more |