Business thrives while consumers languish

Post date: Jul 23, 2011 10:1:27 PM

Via Curious Ellie's TypePad Annex: Business investment is doing fine, July 23 2011.

Residential construction investment is still profoundly depressed. Commercial real-estate isn't thriving either. Yet businesses aren't feeling any pain. Why? Well, wages are flat due to recession. Corporate taxes are not overly burdensome. There is capital available for businesses to invest in equipment and software.

This observation from Professor Bradford de Long is troubling news, specifically in the context of the U.S. economy. It doesn't bode well for a speedy recovery any time soon.

Businesses are surviving, even prospering

Have a glance at the chart. The same con't be said for consumers. The general population is not faring well. Not at all."

I was reading someone's blog the other day. Might have been Slope of Hope's ursine leader, Mr. Knight (Tim Knight, maybe?). Or it could have been that nice start-up attorney in Seattle. The one with good manners and the least irascible temperment I have seen in an experienced law professional who deals with technology-savvy, common-sense impaired types EVER! William Carlton, I think. I just know him as w-a-c or @wac7 on Twitter.

So while I was there, I noticed this guest lecture delivered by non other than... Professor Bradford de Long! It was prescient, reasonably correct, in my always humble opinion, and worth a glance, two years after the fact.

Reed College Public Policy Lecture

By Professor Bradford de Long

December 2009

Edit: view directly on Scribd via link above.

Embedding in Google gadgets is unreliable.

Problems remain the same as in 2009. Worse. Sigh.

* I guess this post could be considered a Bradford de Long Two-Part Extravaganza.