Ralph Baker: The unemployment rate is very low, but it does not include people who are at the employable age but no longer looking for work. It’s now below 63% … In 2011 Ben Bernanke said it was a national crisis the fact that long-term unemployment was so high. At that point the labor participation rate was at 64%; it’s even lower now. It hasn’t been this low since the Carter administration.
Professor Brofman: The best data point to use … shows it’s all time record lows … The key thing to watch is so-called prime-age men … It was actually lower in the Carter years because there has been a long trend of higher female participation rates. That’s a secular trend … If you just concentrate on males 25-54 – prime working age males – that number is the lowest it has ever been. It’s lower than France; it’s lower than just about any other country.
The record low labor participation rate paints a completely different picture vis-a-vis the picture painted by President Trump and Invanka Trump. That can only mean one thing – somebody doesn’t know what he or she is talking about. Stay tuned …
Trump And The Global Economy (“Trump And The GE”) featuring Missouri Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Professor Lance Brofman was a mood. While President Trump has exclaimed the economy is strong the panel begged to differ. Everyone from Ralph Baker to Ms. Chappelle-Nadal to Professor Brogman agreed the U.S. economy is headed for another recession.
Their explanations may have been a little different, yet they came to the same conclusions. The question now is how do we prepare for it?
