In real sciences, when a researcher claims to have made a major discovery, the researcher has to make the data he or she used public and other scientists immediately test it to see if it can be replicated. The results aren't accepted as valid, let alone acted on or relied on, in fields where people could get hurt—like medicine or engineering—until they are tested. And if you withhold the data from your colleagues, you are not a scientist, you are a quack. And then there is economics.

The most striking feature of the U.S. economy over the last three decades has been the upward redistribution of income. The top 1.0 percent of households has managed to pocket the vast majority of gains over this period. That is a sharp contrast with the three decades immediately following World War II when the benefits of much more rapid growth were broadly shared.

While media pundits raise faux concern every time the Social Security trustees release their annual report, falsely declaring the program is in dire trouble—even though the future modest funding shortfall can easily be fixed by scrapping the cap—it's important we take a look at a major factor in Social Security's finances: rich people. 

We asked economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), to expand upon recent reports that show a marked improvement in the nation’s jobs picture. In January, 243,000 jobs were created and unemployment dropped significantly for some of the hardest-hit workers. Baker’s intepretation of the data presents a still-mixed economic picture, but one bright point stands out clearly: President Obama’s support of the U.S. auto industry has been key to improving job creation for America’s workers. Be sure to pick up a copy of Baker’s latest book, The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive.

Three years into the nation’s brutal recession, America’s workers continue to suffer from massive joblessness, skyrocketing foreclosures and weak buying power. But Wall Street—with corporations sitting on $2 trillion in cash—hasn’t paid for its role in causing the near-collapse of the U.S. economy.

Even though 216,000 jobs were created in March and the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent overall, the jobless rate for blacks rose from 15.3 percent to 15.5 percent.

This a cross-post from TPM by Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

We now have even more evidence that inept policies from Washington are causing enormous suffering across the country. It is not quite the line that the right-wingers are pushing. The new evidence is that the stimulus worked and was, in fact, more effective than had been predicted.

If you work for a living, then you expect to be paid what you are owed and on time. But if some members of Congress have their way, public employees will be denied the pensions they worked years to earn.