Most economists maintain that the labor market in the United States is 'tight' because unemployment rates are low. They … infer from this that there is potential for wage-push inflation. However, real wages are falling rapidly at present and …, prior to that, real wages had been stagnant for some time. We show that unemployment is not key to understanding wage …

Central bankers are raising interest rates on the assumption that wage-push inflation may lead to stagflation. This is … not the case. Although unemployment is low, the labor market is not 'tight'. On the contrary, we show that what matters …