Don't forget inflation!!

What if the US gets caught in the deflationary whirlpool that Europe is currently in? Pervasive economic weakness in the rich world and a slowdown in Chinese growth are leading causes for the sinking rate of inflation over the last few years, and oil prices haven't been much help either, pushing inflation into negative territory across much of the euro area. With inflation rates have dropping below 1%, the possibility is out there that the US may soon join Europe in deflation.

Besides that, inflation definitely deserves an observation for reasons beyond the possibility of deflation. When we think about jobs and the employment scene, we think a lot about looking at unemployment rates, underemployment rates and even job growth rates, but inflation matters in this too. When the economy is strong, we should be seeing signs of inflationary pressures, but with these inflation rates, that is a big sign that there's room for improvement in the economy. One of those improvements ought to be in wages.

Wages are positively related to labor productivity, which means that when labor productivity increases, so do wages, hypothetically speaking. If nominal wages increase faster than increases in labor productivity, then we will have inflation in the economy, or should have inflation in the economy, assuming that we're not dealing with stagnant wages (which we are!).

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An Interesting find on Stay-at-Home Dads

This is pretty much it in a nutshell (click on the picture for the full report):

According to this PewResearch graphic, there has been a steady growth in stay at home dads which have spiked for a bit since the Great Recession. Not very surprising there, economically speaking.

Here are some key points I found by reading this report:

1. In 1989, 4% of these fathers were at home. In 2013, that percentage was at 7.
2. Black fathers stay at home more: since the Great Recession the biggest increases occurred among blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans; and a more modest increase occurred among whites.
3. In contrast, Hispanic and Asian-American mothers are the most likely to be at home by about 1/3 each. After them in staying at home is 27% of black mothers and 26% of white mothers. 
4. It does not really matter if you were born in the country: The likelihood of being a stay-at-home father is similar for both native-born and foreign-born fathers. 
5. Reasons dads stay at home: 23% can't find a job, 21% to care for home or family, 35% due to illness, disability.
6. Your chances of staying at home are greater with lower levels of education: 14% of fathers who lack a high school diploma are at home, as are 10% of those with just a high school diploma. 
7. Of all fathers who live with at least one of their children, stay-at-home fathers are less worse off financially than their working counterparts. 
8. The stay-at-home fathers are quite a bit older than working fathers. About 43% of stay-at-home fathers are ages 45 years or older: that is 33% among employed fathers. 
9. In a stark contrast, stay-at-home moms tend to be younger than their counterparts in the workforce.

I wonder if these findings are correlated with the emergence of many stay-at-home types of jobs: jobs that may require an enhanced technical ability, whether it be computer science related or graphic design jobs, where one can stay at home. 

If you want to read more on the topic, you can either click that picture (like I mentioned) or you can just click here. 

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