At 1:48 PM 1/29/97, Max B. Sawicky wrote: >We would like to mobilize people, including economists, around >the notion that UE could be less than 5 percent. We have not >done a separate petition because a) the other petitions were >politically pressing; b) doing the work of the other petitions was >financed; and c) it's not obvious such a petition would be >successful. > >On the last point, a petition almost requires a news "hook" to >attract attention. If we were in deep recession such a petition >would be a more likely activity. Meaning that EPI - or the US left in general - must always be in a reactive mode? Why not say that some of the modest reduction in inequality we've seen over the last couple of years, and the modest average real wage increase, and the modest improvements in social indicators (esp for African Americans) are the result of modestly taut labor markets (taut, that is, by post-1973 standards)? Encouraging recognition of this would make it modestly more difficult for the Fed to tighten, which it almost certainly will do later this year? Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
