Tag Archives: 2008 Recession

What’s not surprising about the Unemployment Rate

IN doing some research for my piece on the weaknesses masked by Maine’s unemployment rate (UER), I noticed two interesting things about the UER.  These two things should be kept in mind during the current campaign season. The state’s economy is certainly one of the central issues in the campaign season, and with that candidates […]

An often ignored aspect of the Clinton Administration

WITH former President Bill Clinton in town to stump for the Maine Dems, some are recounting the highs and lows of his administration.  A booming economy, welfare reform, the Lewinsky scandal, impeachment and the like are often mentioned.  What, unfortunately, is often neglected is the role the Clinton Administration played in the rise of high […]

An Oddity in the Maine Economic Recovery

BINYAMIN Appelbaum at the New York Times has a new article arguing that measuring the recent economic recovery should focus on the number of employed rather than the unemployed.  Specifically, rather than focusing on the unemployment rate (which can be misleading since it does not count discouraged workers who give up looking for a job […]

Friday Chart(s): Economy contracts, slow growth persists. Does it matter?

THE Bureau of Economic Analysis released its second estimate of economic growth in the U.S. for the first quarter, revealing that GDP was down 1%.  This latest release comports with the anemic economic recovery as well as the decade and a half of tepid economic growth: And of course, most of the responses both to […]