Friday, May 22, 2015

Does David Stockman Want Women to be Barefoot and Pregnant?

Apparently uber-supply-sider David Stockman is back:
There are powerful domestic and international economic forces and welfare state policy impacts—-such as the huge increase in Social Security disability and food stamp recipients—– that are roiling labor force participation rates and weakening labor hours utilized and labor productivity. Yet the Fed is led by a clueless, paint-by-the-numbers Keynesian “conomist” who is trapped in a 1960s “full-employment” time warp. Did she notice this over the last several decades?
So Stockman refers to Janet Yellen as a conomist. Cute! Why did Reagan appoint a historian to head the OMB anyway? Of course those were the days when supply side hacks ruled the White House. But FYI Mr. Stockman – Dr. Yellen is excellent at labor economics. The drop in the employment to population ratio since 2007 has been the result of weak aggregate demand not some alleged change in transfer payment policies that did not happen. Yes, transfer payments rise when we have recessions as they did in 1982. But if Stockman had an ounce of integrity, he might have told his readers that the employment to population ratio for women start rising even before Reagan made the mistake of letting Stockman head the OMB. With more women in the work force, some men have decided to take up more of the responsibility of raising the kids. I guess Stockman wants to return to the 1950’s where women just stayed home – barefoot and pregnant.

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