Economists on jobs and other links

Just a reminder, I will be on BBC Radio Five Live sometime around noonish tomorrow ET. I will post the links to my BNN piece from last week later today.

The topic of today is jobs. There were a number of posts in which economists and media outlets mentioned jobs.  The two that I found most interesting (but also somewhat discouraging) were the ones on zero marginal product and job training. You’ll see them in the topic of the day list below.

My overall take from them is the same one I had regarding eastern Germany. Stimulus is no panacea in a situation where the economy is ‘recalculating.’ Time seems to be a critical factor in redeploying resources that allow people to find jobs. meanwhile people suffer. is there anything government can do about that?  These two articles suggest not as much as we would like

Topic of the day: Jobs

• The New Poor – Job Training Struggles to Keep Pace in an Economy in Flux – NYTimes.com
• Marginal Revolution: Zero marginal product workers

Deficits

• FT.com – Larry Summers – America’s sensible stance on recovery  (should be about jobs, not deficits)
• Marginal Revolution: What Germany knows about debt
• Economist’s View: Is Galbraith Right that Deficits are Never a Problem?
• More Stimulus Despair – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com
• FT.com – Martin Wolf – Why the battle is joined over tightening

The Usual Fare