What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis

Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by debatem1 on Monday July 30, 2018 @03:20PM (#17647178)

Adjusted household income has been essentially flat since the 70s. The percentage of those households with two earners has gone from 25% to 60% during that time. Productivity has grown nearly every year during that time.

This, combined with our rising income inequality, means that the economy is not okay for most people even if a few widely-watched numbers are high. It should not come as a surprise that such an economy would be more fragile than those high numbers would indicate.

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by nickik on Monday July 30, 2018 @03:41PM (#17647343)

Whatever the truth is about the numbers you present.

The argument that the recession happened because of a fragility of inequality is a highly speculative theory. I have not heard a single economist make that claim.

Also, it fails as an explanation because you are explaining a momentary event with a long term situation.

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by mcguire on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:03PM (#17647517)

"Also, it fails as an explanation because you are explaining a momentary event with a long term situation."

Yes. This is why plate tectonics is widely known to be false.

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by nickik on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:16PM (#17647605)

The earth quake does not just happen because of tectonics. You need some sort of translation mechanism how a long term buildup can lead to a event.

Just saying, 'there are plates' is not an acceptable explanation of earth quakes.

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by throwaway1909 on Monday July 30, 2018 @03:25PM (#17647220)

Could you give some citations?

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by debatem1 on Monday July 30, 2018 @04:13PM (#17647594)

Sure. This is pretty much my point in two charts:

https://www.financialsense.com/sites/default/files/users/u61...

http://www.pewresearch.org/ft_dual-income-households-1960-20...

If you want to zoom in on more recent events wikipedia has a pretty compelling chart here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by faet on Monday July 30, 2018 @07:36PM (#17649227)

"Real Output" is misleading as capital inputs/investing can greatly change it. Multifactor productivity vs Compensation is pretty equal.

http://i.imgur.com/5mOQARo.png

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Re:What Economists Still Don’t Get About the 2008 Crisis by debatem1 on Monday July 30, 2018 @08:23PM (#17649509)

Might just be me but I'm missing the relevance. The point is that a household which has already maxed out its possible number of workers no longer has the option of sending someone else to work to deal with a sudden expense, so a two worker household is more fragile than a single worker household at the same income. The only reason I bring up productivity is to mention that it hasn't come down in proportion, which this graph doesn't show either.

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