Justin Wolfers
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Economic news, like the talking heads on CNBC and so on, don't.
But actual economies move slowly.
And so you heard a lot of doom and gloom, but actually the economy kept on keeping on.
Now, when I say it kept on keeping on, we didn't enter recession.
Things didn't turn south.
The world is still here.
But it's also been a year in which the unemployment rate has continued to rise.
You know, what do we want?
We want to get the unemployment rate as low as we can get it.
And then we just want it steady.
So anytime it's rising, we must be doing worse than what we can do.
So that says we're not producing as much stuff.
We're not employing as many people as we might otherwise.
That's one part of the economy.
I think it's the most important.
Jobs are a big part of how we define ourselves.
They have an important social meaning.
They're how we look after ourselves and our families.
Being unemployed sucks.
And when there's not enough jobs, it's not just a question of those who lose their jobs.