No, We're Not At Full Employment
OurFuture.org's Isaiah J. Poole interviews CBPP's Jared Bernstein on "What Robert Samuelson (And Others) Get Wrong About Full Employment": "Bernstein says that his new book will call for policies that would address the 'jobs for all' plank in the 'Building the Movement for People and the Planet' platform that has been drafted for the Populism2015 conference co-sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future, which will take place in Washington the weekend of April 18. That includes a program of federally funded direct job-creation. 'It’s widely argued that we need a Federal Reserve that is the lender of last resort when credit markets fail...,' he said. 'I would argue that we need the government to be the employer of last resort when labor markets fail.'"
GOP turning against the Fed. NYT: "Republicans ... argue the central bank needs to be reined in because they say it has abandoned caution in its continuing effort to stimulate faster economic growth. They say the Fed was granted considerable autonomy so it could keep inflation under control, and it is now abusing that independence ... Democrats once proposed most bills to change the Federal Reserve but in recent years Republicans have taken their place..."
Weak jobs report may help Fed keep rates low, argues Dean Baker: "The business pages have become obsessed in recent months over the date at which the Federal Reserve Board will start raising the short-term interest rate it controls from the zero level it has been at for the last six years. There had been growing pressure on Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other doves to pull the trigger. The recognition of slower growth will help to alleviate the pressure."
Some hopeful signs for wage growth, says W. Post's Catherine Rampell: " In March, average hourly earnings for private employees rose 7 cents, or about 0.3 percent, to $24.86. Sure, it’s not much, but it’s more than analysts forecast. Other recent Labor Department releases have also shown compensation quietly rising ... consumers and employers have become increasingly likely to say they expect compensation to rise in the coming months ... To attract and retain talent, especially in a tightening labor market, employers know they need to start offering better pay."
Factory jobs no longer pay well. Bloomberg's Justin Fox: " In November, the average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees in durable-goods manufacturing dropped below the average hourly earnings of all private nonfarm production and nonsupervisory employees for the first time on record ... In other words, factory workers don’t make more than other workers any more ..."
Rahm Faces Chicago Voters Today
Polls close at 7 PM CT. Chicago Tribune: "Garcia's camp is counting on the work of a ground team consisting of Chicago Teachers Union members to help turn out the vote from a variety of regional campaign offices. And he dismissed the effect of Emanuel's financial advantage over him on the election outcome. 'To the conventional thinkers, there's a big surprise in store,' Garcia said."
Key alderman's race symbolic of Chicago divide. TNR's Ben Austen: "[Tara] Stamps is running against an incumbent named Emma Mitts, but in many respects her opponent is the mayor himself ... She is representative of the city’s broadly drawn battle lines in this election. Downtown versus the neighborhoods. Teachers and unions versus private interests."
Rand Paul '16 Starts Today
Sen. Rand Paul announces presidential bid today. W. Post: "...the Kentucky senator is expected to [say] that the Republican Party needs to broaden its appeal to voters who have traditionally shunned it ... He has co-authored bills on reforming the criminal justice system with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and legalizing medical marijuana with Booker and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) ... Paul's been looking to broaden his appeal off Capitol Hill as well, with some his more notable libertarian stances inching into more traditionally conservative territory..."
"Rand Paul Will Break Libertarian Hearts, Just Like Reagan Did" argues TNR's Jeet Heer: "Unlike his father, he didn’t leave the Republican Party and return as a blistering libertarian voice. He has always been a Republican, albeit one that spoke with a libertarian lilt, so his current move to the party’s center is entirely predictable."
Breakfast Sides
"Few California workers win back pay in wage-theft cases" reports LAT: "A 2013 UCLA Labor Center study found that workers in California collected only 42% of the back wages the state said they were owed from 2008 to 2011. Only 17% of workers who obtained a judgment against their employer saw any money at all during the three-year period..."
Hollywood allies with Obama on TPP. LAT: "The U.S. entertainment industry is joining in a last-ditch push to sway wavering Democratic lawmakers to back President Obama's pro-trade agenda ... Hollywood and the music industry see the potential for lucrative enhanced-copyright protections in the 12-nation trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership."
New food safety regulations underfunded. NYT: "The Congressional Budget Office said the F.D.A. would need a total of $580 million from 2011 to 2015 to carry out the changes required by the Food Safety Modernization Act. So far, Congress has appropriated less than half of that amount, even as the agency is moving to issue crucial rules under the law this year."
