Floyd Norris of the New York Times noted that the U.S. unemployment rate could surpass Europe's for the first time in memory. Does this indicate that the European approach of greater job protections could sustainably deliver more employment, in addition to its other arguable advantages in pay and benefits? How should we think about this data and what it says about labor policy in each place?
-- John Maggs, NationalJournal.com
3 responses: James K. Galbraith, Desmond Lachman, Nicolas Véron
CEA Chairman Christina Romer has provided some details about how the Obama administration plans to count the 3.5 million jobs it predicts will be created or saved under the $787 billion economic stimulus plan, reopening a debate about whether that achievement can ever be verified. As Greg Mankiw argues here, with the economy doing worse than when that prediction was first made, judging the results of the stimulus may be even more difficult. Was it wise to set such goals? Should economists always avoid them?
-- John Maggs, NationalJournal.com
With job losses slowing to 539,000 in April, has employment turned a corner? Christina Romer, the president's chief economic adviser, said Sunday that job losses did seem to be slowing but would continue through 2009, even if the economy starts growing in the final three months of the year. In which sectors would an employment recovery manifest itself? What factors, such as auto industry layoffs, might drive a renewed job loss later this year? What role would the apparent stabilization of finance play?
-- John Maggs, NationalJournal.com
5 responses: John S. Irons, James Sherk, Grover Norquist, J.D. Foster, Gary Burtless
President Obama has embraced the idea of tax reform and created an independent commission, but told its members to work within the confines of current policy. Can there be meaningful reform that doesn't raise income taxes on 95 percent of taxpayers? How might Obama and the commission escape these handcuffs? Other than the general goals of broadening the base and lowering rates, what should the commission focus on? If freed from its handcuffs, should tax reform be a vehicle for higher taxes to reduce the deficit, perhaps through a new Value-Added Tax? Should it seek to lower or abolish corporate taxes to spur investment?
-- John Maggs, NationalJournal.com
8 responses: Norbert Walter, Grover Norquist, Ryan Ellis, Mark Bloomfield, Rob Atkinson, Jeffrey Frankel, William Gale, J.D. Foster
