To defend globalization in the 2010’s, then, they must increasingly assert what is provably false. Today saw publication of not just continued lackluster CPI estimates and weak retail sales, both for the US where a “running hot” inflationary boom contains neither inflation nor a boom, but also the BLS release of Real Average Weekly Earnings (which by its nature is tied to the CPI).
The unemployment rate has been low for years now, the basis for almost every boom declaration. And yet, real average weekly earnings for American workers are down in January 2018 when compared to January 2016. That’s right, since the bottom of the last downturn, real pay for consumers has gone nowhere.
