Archives: September 2005

Real Net Household Wealth Hits a New High

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 30, Categories: Macro

The wealth of Americans just keeps rising. I like to keep track of what I call "real net household wealth". That is, household net worth, subtracting out federal government debt,...

Big gains for biomedical research

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 29, Categories: Health

Randall Parker at Future Pundit picks up on new research that biomedical research spending has doubled (in real terms) over the past ten years (the original press release can be...

The Road to Ruin?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 28, Categories: Growth

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture writes about the path to ruin: The fastest way to economic destruction is the debasement of the engine of growth. In this country, that's...

Why Savings is Overrated

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 28, Categories: Macro

Mark Thoma, whom I like, is quoting from the Economist on the virtues of saving. But just how big are those virtues? Not as big as you think. Let's do...

Are Retailers really that efficient?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 27, Categories: Growth

While everyone is nittering and nattering about trade deficits, the real news is happening under their collective noses. Just look at the retailing sector. According to new data from the...

Who's Working At Home Without Extra Pay?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 23, Categories: Labor Market

A new survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Work at Home in 2004, confirms that educated workers are the ones putting in the work-related hours at home without extra...

Our Hours Lie Over the Ocean

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 22, Categories: Employment

I've been thinking a lot about overwork recently (see my new cover story, "The Real Reasons Why You are Working So Hard"). The U.S. has grown much faster than Europe,...

Hurricane Coming: Improvisation vs Planning

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 22, Categories: Organizations

With another killer hurricane about to hit the U.S., I want to note that Arnold Kling has two very relevant essays on how to deal with disasters, wars, and other...

New Topic Coming

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 21, Categories: Labor Market

Having beaten the poor college graduates into the ground, at least for the moment, I'm about to shift to a new topic--overwork. Stay tuned....

Good time to learn accounting?

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 15, Categories: Education

Yesterday the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) released their final salary report for the College Class of 2005, listing the average starting salary offers to new grads, by...

Bad News for College Professors

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 14, Categories: Education

The four year decline in the real earnings of college graduates is bad news for their professors. The past 10-15 years has been a golden age for college faculty--there was...

Bad News for Young College Workers: Part III

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 08, Categories: Labor Market

I'm sorry for obsessing about this, but I can't help it. I really do wonder whether we've passed over a critical threshold where a college degree alone is no longer...

Resilience

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 06, Categories: Macro

In the aftermath of 9/11, one of the most surprising things was the resilience of the U.S. economy. The terrorist attack took out perhaps the single most concentrated productive area...

Bad News for Workers with College Degree: Part II

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 02, Categories: Labor Market

The unemployment rate for college graduates fell to 2.1% in August, the lowest since 2001, and about the same level which prevailed at the beginning of the last recession in...

The Continuing Decline in College Wages

Posted by: Michael Mandel on September 01, Categories: Labor Market

I did some calculations based on the new income statistics released by the Census Bureau, and it turns out that the real earnings of workers with only a bachelor's degree...