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Dean Baker

Dean Baker

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The Impact of Trump Tariffs on the Trade Deficit

It is always dangerous to try to get into Donald Trump’s head, and there probably is not much point to the exercise, but Trump says the purpose of...

latest 9

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

In Trump’s Competition with China, China is Winning

Donald Trump doesn’t have much interest in numbers and the real world, but that is where the rest of us live so it is worth checking in...

yesterday 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Trump’s Team of Cowards

Donald Trump’s decision to fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), brought his administration to a new...

07.08.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Remember When the Democrats Lost the Elections Because of Fears About Inflation? The NYT Doesn’t

As usual, the New York Times gets things exactly wrong in a piece headlined “Trump’s Tariffs are Making Money. That May Make Them Hard to Quit.”...

06.08.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Proud Republican History of Paranoia and Anti-Semitism About Government Statistics

Donald Trump’s decision to fire Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), brings back memories of Richard...

05.08.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Jobs Report: Why July Was Bad News

I always caution not to make too much of a single report or single month’s data, but I think we can look at the July report and say it was...

04.08.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Trump’s Craziness On The Fed – OpEd

Trump’s Craziness On The Fed – OpEd

The second quarter GDP report came in roughly in line with expectations. The surge in imports from the first quarter

02.08.2025 7

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Bringing Back Stagflation, Lower Growth, and Higher Prices

01.08.2025 5

The Nation

Dean Baker

Reality Check: The Hard Economic Data Are Not Good – OpEd

I was listening to this NPR piece on the continuing rise in the stock market Sunday morning and was struck to hear

01.08.2025 10

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Reality Check: The Hard Economic Data Are Not Good

I was listening to this NPR piece on the continuing rise in the stock market Sunday morning and was struck to hear this: “Despite the concerns about...

31.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

When It Comes To Tariffs And Trade, Trump Is Not Playing With A Full Deck

Trump often makes allusions to card playing when discussing his negotiations on various issues, but in the case of trade,

30.07.2025 10

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

When It Comes to Tariffs and Trade, Trump Is Not Playing with a Full Deck

Trump often makes allusions to card playing when discussing his negotiations on various issues, but in the case of trade, it seems he is the one...

29.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Midsummer Economy: Going Downhill Slowly

It’s easy to look at the Trump administration and point to all the serious economic mistakes it is making. However, economic mistakes do not...

23.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

‘Crypto’ Is Silicon Valley Speak For Waste, Fraud, And Abuse – OpEd

‘Crypto’ Is Silicon Valley Speak For Waste, Fraud, And Abuse – OpEd

The Republicans in Congress, along with many Democrats, are rushing ahead with legislation to promote crypto currencies in various ways.

23.07.2025 7

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

“Crypto” is Silicon Valley Speak for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

The Republicans in Congress, along with many Democrats, are rushing ahead with legislation to promote crypto currencies in various ways. Their...

22.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Contrary To What Trump Tells You, Higher Tariffs Mean Higher Prices – OpEd

Donald Trump is putting in place the largest tax increase in the country’s history with his big import taxes (tariffs).

22.07.2025 4

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Contrary to What Trump Tells You, Higher Tariffs Mean Higher Prices

Donald Trump is putting in place the largest tax increase in the country’s history with his big import taxes (tariffs). We won’t know the full...

21.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Trump Hits Amazon With 50 Percent Tariffs – OpEd

Since we seem to again be in a tariff-crazy phase of Donald Trump’s presidency, it is worth explaining the meaning

18.07.2025 5

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Trump Hits Amazon with 50 Percent Tariffs

Since we seem to again be in a tariff-crazy phase of Donald Trump’s presidency, it is worth explaining the meaning of a tariff so that even Treasury...

17.07.2025 30

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Trump Confuses Telling Blatant Lies With a Straight Face With Competence

We all know and expect that a president’s top appointees are picked in large part because of their willingness to carry out a president’s agenda....

16.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Cheap Drugs Matter: Why Make Them More Expensive With Patent Monopolies?

Drugs are almost invariably cheap to manufacture and distribute. It would be rare that a drug would sell for more than $30 per prescription without a...

15.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Message to Trump: Incompetence Is Not Virtue. Also, People Will Die

14.07.2025 4

Common Dreams

Dean Baker

Trumpian Excuses on the Texas Flood Deaths

Donald Trump may not be very good at running things, but when it comes to shifting blame, he is truly world class. As the magnitude of the disaster in...

14.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

From Texas to Covid, Trump Washes His Hands of Deaths on His Watch

10.07.2025 3

Common Dreams

Dean Baker

Trump’s Tariffs and Price Gouging Restaurants

There is a simple problem professors sometimes challenge their intermediate econ students with on the first day of class. Popular restaurants often...

10.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Days After Giving Big Tax Cuts To Billionaires, Trump To Hit Workers With $2 Trillion Tax Increase – OpEd

Donald Trump seems to be doing everything possible to show his contempt for ordinary working people, many of whom voted

10.07.2025 5

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Days After Giving Big Tax Cuts to Billionaires, Trump to Hit Workers with $2 Trillion Tax Increase

Donald Trump seems to be doing everything possible to show his contempt for ordinary working people, many of whom voted for him last fall. Just after...

09.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Can We Stop Calling Them Populist Tax Cuts? – OpEd

It is infuriating to see the media and politicians, including Democratic ones, refer to some of Trump’s campaign promises as

08.07.2025 3

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Days After Giving Big Tax Cuts to Billionaires, Trump to Hit Workers With $2 Trillion Tax Increase

07.07.2025 4

Common Dreams

Dean Baker

Can We Stop Calling Them Populist Tax Cuts?

It is infuriating to see the media and politicians, including Democratic ones, refer to some of Trump’s campaign promises as “populist” tax...

07.07.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Bad News In The Republicans’ Huge Bill – OpEd

The Republicans’ big tax and spending bill has all sorts of gifts – almost all of them for the rich.

04.07.2025 4

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

How Many People Have to Die to Keep a 79-Year-Old Man Suffering from Dementia Happy?

That’s the question Republicans in Congress will be debating as they struggle to put Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill (BBB)” in final form...

03.07.2025 40

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

May Consumption Data Looks Pretty Bad

Sorry, I’ve been on the road, so not much time for writing. I did want to quickly mention a couple of points about the data on consumption for May...

02.07.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Continuing US Unemployment Claims Rise Again – OpEd

The number of new unemployment insurance claims edged down last week to 236,000. This brought the four-week average to 245,000,

01.07.2025 5

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Continuing Unemployment Claims Rise Again

The number of new unemployment insurance claims edged down last week to 236,000. This brought the four-week average to 245,000, just over 4.0 percent...

29.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

When Will Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Show Up In The Data? – OpEd

Many of us have been following the inflation data closely for evidence of Trump’s tariffs. Along with most other economists

27.06.2025 5

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

When Will Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Show Up in the Data?

Just as we are waiting for more evidence on where the tariffs are hitting, we are also waiting for clearer evidence of the impact of Trump’s mass...

26.06.2025 7

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

ThePatriotOasis, Elon Musk, and Defamation in a Reformed Section 230 World

Many people might have seen the tweet from the person who posts under the name “ThePatriotOasis,” which claimed that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz...

25.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Don’t Buy the Scare About Social Security

The release of the 2025 Social Security Trustees Report led to lots of hyperventilating in the media as well as dire warnings about the program facing...

24.06.2025 20

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The New York Times Lies Bigly About Iran

The New York Times gave us an analysis piece on Iran by Roger Cohen, a longtime reporter who covered Iran for the paper more than a decade ago. The...

23.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Trump’s Big Tax Hike – OpEd

While everyone is talking about the Republicans’ big tax cuts for Elon Musk and other billionaires, he also is hitting

21.06.2025 10

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Trumpcession Watch: Unemployment Claims Move Higher – OpEd

Continuing claims have been on a modest upward path since last summer, but we just saw a big jump in

19.06.2025 4

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Trumpcession Watch: Unemployment Claims Move Higher

Continuing claims have been on a modest upward path since last summer, but we just saw a big jump in last week’s data. The levels are still not...

18.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

Inside the MAGA Mind: Musk Could Apologize to Trump, But Not to the American People

Elon Musk put his tail between his legs and apologized to Donald Trump. In a tweet on X, Musk said, “I regret some of my posts about President...

17.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

China Now Projected To Grow Three Times As Fast As The United States – OpEd

The World Bank came out with its updated projections for economic growth for 2025. They showed slower growth for pretty much the

14.06.2025 20

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Will Deficits Created By Trump’s Tax Cuts Leave US Unprepared To Deal With Recession? – OpEd

The May jobs report indicated that the labor market is still solid, even if there are some concerning signs like

12.06.2025 7

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

Will the Deficits Created by Trump’s Tax Cuts Leave the US Unprepared to Deal With a Recession?

The May jobs report indicated that the labor market is still solid, even if there are some concerning signs like the rise in unemployment among Black...

11.06.2025 7

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Bad News About The May US Jobs Report – OpEd

Most coverage of the May jobs data said the picture was pretty good, an assessment with which I largely concurred. The

11.06.2025 5

Eurasia Review

Dean Baker

The Bad News About the May Jobs Report

Most coverage of the May jobs data said the picture was pretty good, an assessment with which I largely concurred. The economy added 139,000 jobs and...

10.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker

The Amazing Story About AIDS in Africa that Elon Musk’s Chainsaw Killed

In the 22 years of the program’s existence it has saved tens of millions of lives. It also has also allowed for these countries to have some chance...

05.06.2025 10

CounterPunch

Dean Baker