No, not of people this time, of businesses:
More businesses are failing now than are being created, a first for the American economy since the Carter era, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution. That has become even more true during the Obama “recovery” than during the Great Recession.
Also:
Another nugget in that Brookings paper: “older and larger businesses are doing better relative to younger and smaller ones”
The younger and smaller ones don’t have the financial resources to buy (or, actually) rent the grifters and grafters in DC.
[Update a couple minutes later]
This is probably related; how bad is the job market for 2014 grads? This bad:
Today’s crop of new B.A.s are staring at roughly 8.5 percent unemployment, 16.8 percent underemployment. Close to half of those who land work won’t immediately find a job that requires their degree, and for those stuck in that situation, there are fewer “good” jobs to go around. Welcome to adulthood, class of 2014.
A lot of them wasted borrowed money on their degrees, loans that are currently not dischargeable in bankruptcy. So they have that going for them, too.
Maybe this has something to do with dn-guy’s theory of “Cartel Capitalism”? Or does that only apply to the pharmaceutical sector?
Given the graph starts in 1978 it is a misleading statement to say it started in the Carter Administration, it could have well started earlier but the data just doesn’t go back any further.
It is also interesting when actually looking at the graph to see the sharp decline in business entry and sharp increase in business exit that created the trends leading to a cross over started about 2006 when the housing bubble started bursting, while the graph shows the number of business entries actually started increasing in 2010. It would be interesting to see what the graph looks like when the data from 2012 and 2013 is added in.
BTW for those just interested in the report without the right wing spin here is the direct link to it on the Brookings Website.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/05/declining-business-dynamism-litan
“BTW for those just interested in the report without the right wing spin here is the direct link to it on the Brookings Website.”
Ahh yes, it is important to get left wing spin too.
Of course, Moby! Because if I’m going to give credence to anyone’s statements about economics, it’s a gang whose politico-economic philosophy is based on legalized looting and pocket-picking.