Bending the curve on... Wages

Last edited Tue Mar 11, 2014, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)

We want to see breaking the back of a rate of grow in healthcare costs. Not nominal declines, but a sharp bend in the angle of the rate of increase.

(And we are seeing some good news on the healthcare cost curve. Yea, healthcare.)

But this chart below is wages... and it sucks. But, yeah... this is what breaking the back of a rate of increase looks like.

Today’s employment report gives us another data point on private-sector wages, which continue to run well below pre-crisis levels:



As I said, at the very least policy should aim at pushing wage growth back up to pre-crisis levels, and in fact should aim higher. Meanwhile, there is no real sign of any pickup. So there is no reason at all to talk about tightening at this point.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/more-on-wages-and-monetary-policy/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=0