[Moonman62]

As usual you do some really nice charts. I think the weak dollar must be a killer on real wages. The early 70's were marked by the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and a devalued dollar. Carter ran an extremely weak dollar policy. Reagan had one during his second term. In contrast Clinton had a very strong dollar policy that started in 1995. Interestingly 1996 is when Greenspan gave his "irrational exuberance" speech. Exuberance yes, irrational no.

I wonder where real wages and our economy would be if the misconception that full employment is the worst fate mankind could face wasn't held as a universal, but unsupported truth.

[remember]

As usual you do some really nice charts. I think the weak dollar must be a killer on real wages. The early 70's were marked by the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and a devalued dollar. Carter ran an extremely weak dollar policy. Reagan had one during his second term. In contrast Clinton had a very strong dollar policy that started in 1995. Interestingly 1996 is when Greenspan gave his "irrational exuberance" speech. Exuberance yes, irrational no.

Regarding the charts, thanks. I actually generated that chart using the online graphing options at the Bureau of Labor Statistics site. As you probably know, I posted a number of similarly generated charts at http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/jobs.html.

Also, thanks for mentioning the apparent connection of wages and the strength of the dollar. I did look at some exchange rate data off the Federal Reserve site and saw the steep drop from 1970 to 1980, the partial recovery through 1985, the drop to new lows through 1991, and the partial recovery through 2002. Since then, it's dropped to its prior lows. In any case, I had not thought of the likely connection with wages.