[OPE] Fudging Data to Prove Markets Are Fair

In The Confiscation of American Prosperity, I looked at the career of
Martin Feldstein, until recently longtime director of the National
Bureau of Economic Research, chief economic advisor during the Reagan
administration, and inveterate foe of Social Security.

In the recent issue of the NBER digest, you can read a short discussion
of Martin Feldstein's "proof" that wages have kept pace with productivity.

http://www.nber.org/digest/oct08/w13953.html

In case you do not want to purchase the article, you can read an earlier
version here

http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2008/2008_111.pdf

The result is a display of incredible virtuosity. By selecting the
appropriate deflators [a measure of inflation], including benefits as
part of wages, and comparing wages with National Income rather than the
Gross Domestic Product, voila, Feldstein manages to get a relatively
constant wage share of national income.

more at
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/fudging-data-to-prove-markets-are-fair/

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
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