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In the four decades after World War II, manufacturing jobs paid more than other jobs for given skills. But that is much less true today. Increased international competition has forced American manufacturers to reduce costs. As a result, the pay premium for low-skilled workers in manufacturing is smaller than it once was.

Christina Romer

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Christina Romer
Age: 65
Born: 1958
Born: December 25
Economist
Professor
University Teacher
Alton
Illinois
Christina Duckworth Romer
World
American
International
Reduce
Less
Result
Smaller
War
Skills
Costs
Jobs
Paid
Forced
Manufacturers
Given
Cost
Decades
Premium
True
Pay
Lows
Skilled
Today
Results
Workers
Manufacturing
Much
Four
Competition
Increased

More quotes by Christina Romer

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AS an economic historian, I appreciate what manufacturing has contributed to the United States. It was the engine of growth that allowed us to win two world wars and provided millions of families with a ticket to the middle class. But public policy needs to go beyond sentiment and history.
Christina Romer
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If you think about it, candidate Obama, Sen. Obama, was running on sort of long-run economic issues, like restoring prosperity to the middle class, dealing with the perennial problem of health care in the United States. He talked a lot about the budget deficit, about the need to transition to clean energy.
Christina Romer
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I think where I differ a little bit, we absolutely have to think about the deficit looking down the road. And certainly that's something the president has said that we need to, as the economy recovers, have a plan in place for getting it down.
Christina Romer
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Honest talk about the deficit is risky. Voters are more enthusiastic about the abstract notion of deficit reduction than about the painful details of accomplishing it.
Christina Romer
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A successful argument for a government manufacturing policy has to go beyond the feeling that it's better to produce 'real things' than services. American consumers value health care and haircuts as much as washing machines and hair dryers.
Christina Romer
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Tax increases appear to have a very large sustained and highly significant negative impact on output.
Christina Romer
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There's a joke in economics about the drunk who loses his keys in the street but only looks for them under the lightposts. When asked why, he says, 'because that's where the light is.' That's the problem with the deficit.
Christina Romer
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Climate change and dependence on foreign oil are problems that won't go away on their own. Tabling plans to deal with them doesn't make it easier for companies to plan and invest it makes it harder.
Christina Romer
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You know, I think the, the crucial thing, you know, we have put in place what is, is just simply the biggest, boldest recovery package in history, right the stimulus package, biggest ever the financial rescue, absolutely comprehensive a housing plan - that is incredible medicine for the economy. And we fully expect it to work.
Christina Romer
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President Obama has repeatedly urged Congress to let the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning more than $250,000 a year. Increasing rates on top earners is an obvious way to raise revenue from those who can afford it most.
Christina Romer
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Making labor less expensive helps firms hire people.
Christina Romer
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Cold-turkey deficit reduction would cause a significant recession. A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that going headlong over the cliff would cause our gross domestic product, which has been growing at an annual rate of around 2 percent, to fall at a rate of 2.9 percent in the first half of 2013.
Christina Romer
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I think something that forces financial institutions to write down underwater mortgages, I think, would be a sensible thing to do.
Christina Romer
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Most arguments for instituting or raising a minimum wage are based on fairness and redistribution. Even if workers are getting a competitive wage, many of us are deeply disturbed that some hard-working families still have very little.
Christina Romer
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A natural way that an economist approaches a problem is to say, here's where I think the economy is going this is what we need to deal with the problem.
Christina Romer
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Many of my students assume that government protection is the only thing ensuring decent wages for most American workers. But basic economics shows that competition between employers for workers can be very effective at preventing businesses from misbehaving.
Christina Romer
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Fewer people working means permanently lower tax revenues.
Christina Romer
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If every other store in town is paying workers $9 an hour, one offering $8 will find it hard to hire anyone - perhaps not when unemployment is high, but certainly in normal times. Robust competition is a powerful force helping to ensure that workers are paid what they contribute to their employers' bottom lines.
Christina Romer
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Recent research suggests that New Deal programs may actually have had their primary impact on the economy by influencing consumer and business expectations of future growth and inflation.
Christina Romer
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Our estimates suggest that a tax increase of 1 percent of GDP reduces output over the next three years by nearly 3 percent. The effect is highly significant.
Christina Romer