Sudeep Reddy does a very nice job of extracting substance from the latest Economic Report of the President. For example,

“The ‘labor share’ is the fraction of income that is paid to workers in wages, bonuses, and other compensation. … The labor share in the United States was remarkably stable in the post-war period until the early 2000s. Since then, it has dropped 5 percentage points. Because capital income is distributed more unequally than labor income, the decline in the labor share accounts for some, but not all, of the rise in inequality…”

The accompanying chart shows that this has been a worldwide phenomenon.

Overall, this year’s ERP continues to represent a step down from the quality of reports prior to the Obama Administration. It used to be that after patting the President on the back in the first chapter, the ERP would settle down to serious, careful analysis suitable for recommending to upper-level undergraduate economics majors. The decline of the ERP and the emergence of the blogosphere have combined to reduce the significance of the ERP, particularly for economic education.