Dean Baker

Progressives need a fundamentally new approach to politics. They have been losing not just because conservatives have so much more money and power, but also because they have accepted the conservatives' framing of political debates. They have accepted a framing where conservatives want market outcomes whereas liberals want the government to intervene to bring about outcomes that they consider fair. This puts liberals in the position of seeming to want to tax the winners to help the losers. This "loser liberalism" is bad policy and horrible politics. Progressives would be better off fighting battles over the structure of markets so that they don't redistribute income upward. This book describes some of the key areas where progressives can focus their efforts in restructuring the market so that more income flows to the bulk of the working population rather than just a small elite.

Making Markets Progressive

The End of Loser Liberalism

recovering from the bubble economy

False profits

There has been an enormous upward redistribution of income in the United States in the last four decades. In his most recent book, Baker shows that this upward redistribution was not the result of globalization and the natural workings of the market. Rather, it was the result of conscious policies that were designed to put downward pressure on the wages of ordinary workers while protecting and enhancing the incomes of those at the top. Baker explains how rules on trade, patents, copyrights, corporate governance, and macroeconomic policy were rigged to make income flow upward.

How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer

Rigged

In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of "nanny state" policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It's time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes - decent wages, good jobs and affordable health care. Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer

The Conservative Nanny State

Robert Pollin

Gerald Epstein

Prominent economists analyze the impact of the emerging global economy on national sovereignty and standards of living.

Globalization and Progressive Economic Policy

A leading economist's exploration of what our economic arrangements might look like if we applied basic principles without ideological blinders. There is nothing wrong with economics, Dean Baker contends, but economists routinely ignore their own principles when it comes to economic policy. What would policy look like if we took basic principles of mainstream economics seriously and applied them consistently? In the debate over regulation, for example, Baker—one of the few economists who predicted the meltdown of fall 2008—points out that ideological blinders have obscured the fact there is no “free market” to protect. Modern markets are highly regulated, although intrusive regulations such as copyright and patents are rarely viewed as regulatory devices. If we admit the extent to which the economy is and will be regulated, we have many more options in designing policy and deciding who benefits from it. On health care reform, Baker complains that economists ignore another basic idea: marginal cost pricing. Unlike all other industries, medical services are priced extraordinarily high, far above the cost of production, yet that discrepancy is rarely addressed in the debate about health care reform. What if we applied marginal cost pricing—making doctors' wages competitive and charging less for prescription drugs and tests such as MRIs? Taking Economics Seriously offers an alternative Econ 101. It introduces economic principles and thinks through what we might gain if we free ourselves from ideological blinders and get back to basics in the most troubled parts of our economy.

Taking Economics Seriously

Economic Policy Institute

One of the hottest debates in economics today is being waged over the accuracy of the consumer price index. The outcome of this debate will have enormous implications for national economic policy and the future of economic research. Getting Prices Right presents the work at the center of this debate - the report of the congressionally appointed Advisory Commission to Study the Consumer Price Index, popularly known as the Boskin Commission - and critically evaluates its findings and implications.

The Debate Over the Consumer Price Index

Getting Prices Right

They say everyone has a book inside them; well Rick Bateman has a whole library bursting to get out. Told in amusing style, through letters, emails and diary entries, Rick quits his lucrative sales job to devote his daylight hours to writing The Great Novel. But as the weeks go by and the rejection letters start flooding in, Rick’s bruised ego elicits increasingly vehement rants on everything from the publishing industry to reality TV stars. Doggedly persistent, Rick begins to drastically ramp up the wow factor in his ideas which become ever more ridiculous and increasingly plagiaristic. Losing the plot asks the questions: How far would you go to achieve a dream? And how far is too far?

Dean Baker

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