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For several years now, we have heard economic commentators proclaim the United States had reached “full employment.” And yet the economy just kept adding jobs and the unemployment rate kept falling.
One economist who has consistently opposed that prognosis is Adam Ozimek, and it appears he’s been vindicated. So I invited him on the show to talk unemployment, wage growth, and all things economic policy. We also cover the jobs guarantee proposal, inflation, and Dr. Ozimek’s one out-of-the-box idea to boost US economic growth.
Adam Ozimek is an economist at Moody’s analytics, where he covers labor markets and other aspects of the US economy, and he blogs at Forbes under the name Modeled Behavior.
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Anyone who has examined the BLS Table A-1, and specifically “Not in labor force” line, knows we are nowhere near full employment. Until we get deep within the figures of “the unemployable”, then we are not at full employment. We have millions of people to go. Many who have not a job for years may need to be retrained, and threatened with losing their unemployment benefits, but there is a long way to go.
Oy. First and foremost, I don’t listen to conservative podcasts to find people who are dreaming up new and improved ways of confiscating the rest of the country’s wealth and streaming it into our betters in Washington who will put it to their warped idea of “good use.” Second, I haven’t fully thought it through but I think there’s a colorable argument that a federal property tax would violate the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. At least I bloody well hope so.
So, James, I’ve long wanted to know – with your intro music are you a Siouxsie fan?