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Federal Workforce Trend, 2000-2010

Federal Employment Grows Despite Downturn
Veronique de Rugy
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
2011
03

"This week’s chart by Mercatus Center Scholar Veronique de Rugy shows the growing number of federal government employees. Using the latest data for annual government employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the chart shows that relentless growth in public sector employment largely overshadows private sector employment.

In 2010, there were 22,482,000 government employees. That’s an increase of 1,692,000 employees since 2000. During the examined time period, public employment has grown at an average rate of 0.8% each year—in contrast to the -0.3% average annual rate of private employment decline. From 2000 to 2010, the plummeting employment has been concentrated in the private sector. A total of 3,658,000 private sector jobs have been lost. All the while, public employment continues to increase."

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Library Topic: 2007-2009 Recession: Boom, Bust, and Beyond

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Chart or Graph

This chart presents the various types of rescue efforts the government engaged in during the 2008 financial crisis and their associated costs. It also includes other federal budget items for comparison.

This chart shows the number of banks that failed from the mid 1920s to 1933.

This chart shows a ranking of the biggest U.S. financial institutions in light of Fed organized bailouts during the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

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This interactive chart shows how stimulus funds have been spent.

Table 3 shows the delinquency rates of the NTMs [non-traditional mortgages] that were outstanding on June 30, 2008. The grayed area contains virtually all the NTMs. The contrast in quality, based on delinquency rates, between these loans and Fannie and Freddie prime loans in lines 9 and 10 is clear.

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...

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Analysis Report White Paper

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Video/Podcast/Media

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Cato Institute Director John Samples discusses the passing of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and Congress' "abdication of responsibility" to the executive branch.  Samples calls Congress' lack of oversight over the TARP funds a "breakdown of the rule of law."

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Put yourself to the test. See if you can outwit the Rebel...

Higgs discusses the Great Depression and the parallels, especially in terms of government action and failure, to the 2008 recession.

"The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was aimed at correcting a number of problems relating to the market woes of the last few years. Among other things, it specifically sought to address issues pertaining to the idea that some entities were too big and intertwined with the economy to be allowed to fail. Our panel will discuss the legal (and potential constitutional)...

"All 2,300 pages of the Dodd-Frank Act are now law, representing a vast regulatory expansion. A measure creating as much government intervention as this act does will be debated for years, perhaps even generations. Was this legislation necessary? Will its effects, overall and with respect to specific provisions, be good or bad for the financial system and the...

Primary Document

"When the President signed the Recovery Act in February 2009, every American was feeling the impact of a massive recession. The floor was falling out from under the American economy. Over the last decade, failed economic policies left unemployment rising dramatically. Clean energy, research and technology projects were starved of working capital and the nation’s infrastructure – the roads,...

"In its first report to Congress on December 10, 2008, the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP or the Panel) posed ten basic questions – in effect asking for an explanation of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s goals and methods for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Panel’s questions, in turn, included a number of subsidiary questions, which sought...

Making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009....

This blueprint "presents a series of short-, intermediate- and long-term recommendations for reform of the U.S. regulatory structure. The Blueprint, announced in June 2007, is a key part of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr.'s efforts to improve the competitiveness of the U.S. capital markets in the increasingly global marketplace.

...

"The sharp downturn in housing markets across the country, which undermined the solvency of major financial institutions and severely disrupted the functioning of financial markets, has led the United States into a recession that will probably be the longest and the deepest since World War II. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) anticipates that the recession—...

In this statement SEC Chairman Christopher Cox explains the decision to end the Consolidated Supervised Entities (CSE) program:

"The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work. When Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, it created a significant regulatory gap by failing to give to...

"This publication offers a program for financial institutions seeking to apply their mortgage lending standards in accordance with equal opportunity goals and to expand their activity in underserved minority markets. Banks, mortgage companies, and other lenders subject to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) are referred to as 'financial institutions' or '...

"To reauthorize and amend the Commodity Exchange Act to promote legal certainty, enhance competition, and reduce systemic risk in markets for futures and over-the-counter derivatives, and for other purposes."

"This bill is a central element of Congress' overhaul of financial regulations. It would establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency with the authority and accountability to supervise, examine, and enforce consumer financial protection laws. Financial transactions falling under the agency's jurisdiction would include mortgages, credit cards, student loans,...

"This dissenting statement is organized as follows: Part I summarizes the main points of the dissent. Part II describes how the failure of subprime and other high risk mortgages drove the growth of the bubble and weakened financial institutions around the world when these mortgages began to default. Part III outlines in detail the housing policies of the U.S....

"We have identified ten causes that are essential to explaining the crisis. In this dissenting view:

  • We explain how our approach differs from others’;
  • We briefly describe the stages of the crisis;
  • We list the ten essential causes of the crisis; and
  • We walk through each cause in a bit more detail....

"This is comprehensive legislation to overhaul regulations in the financial sector. It would establish a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate products like home mortgages, car loans and credit cards, give the Treasury Department new authority to place non-bank financial firms, like insurance companies into receivership, regulate the over-the-counter...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke provided his semiannual monetary policy report and discussed the financial markets and the general state of the economy in the wake of the continuing financial crisis.

"The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has been called upon to examine the financial and economic crisis that has gripped our country and explain its causes to the American people. We are keenly aware of the significance of our charge, given the economic damage that America has suffered in the wake of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression....

"Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.  Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. ...

"The agreements we have reached today, to treble resources available to the IMF to $750 billion, to support a new SDR allocation of $250 billion, to support at least $100 billion of additional lending by the MDBs, to ensure $250 billion of support for trade finance, and to use the additional resources from agreed IMF gold sales for concessional finance for the poorest countries, constitute an...

This act was passed by Congress in order "To revitalize the housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home mortgage loans." The FDIC notes that this law "[e]xpanded FDIC powers to assist...

This is the full text document of the General Motors bankruptcy filing.  

"General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009, a move that is expected to result in a drastic downsizing of the company. Judge Robert E. Gerber is hearing the case in United States Bankruptcy Court in New York."

"The global financial system remains under severe stress as the crisis broadens to include households, corporations, and the banking sectors in both advanced and emerging market countries. Shrinking economic activity has put further pressure on banks' balance sheets as asset values continue to degrade, threatening their capital adequacy and further discouraging...

Among other things, the FDIC declares that this law effectively "[r]epeal[ed the] last vestiges of the Glass Steagall Act of...

Mises explained economic phenomena as the outcomes of countless conscious, purposive actions, choices, and preferences of individuals, each of whom was trying as best as he or she could ... to attain ... wants and ... avoid ... consequences.

"Reductions in loan-loss provisions underscored improvement in asset quality indicators during second quarter 2010. The industry’s quarterly earnings of $21.6 billion are up dramatically from the year-ago loss of $4.4 billion and represent the highest quarterly earnings since third quarter 2007. Almost two out of three institutions (65.5 percent) reported higher...

In this hearing, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Jr., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and SEC Chairman Christopher Cox testified about their request to give the Treasury the authority to make an unspecified line of credit available to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the ability to purchase equity in either of these government-sponsored enterprises.

"Summary of the Report

  • Fannie Mae senior management promoted an image of the Enterprise as one of the lowest-risk financial institutions in the world and as 'best in class' in terms of risk management, financial reporting, internal control, and corporate governance. The findings in this report show that...

This is a compilation of economic data from the financial, labor, housing and business sectors leading up to and surrounding the time of the crisis.

"The Troubled Asset Relief Program ('TARP') represents a massive and unprecedented investment of taxpayer money designed to stabilize the financial industry and promote economic recovery. The long-term success of the program is not assured. Success — or failure — will depend on whether the Department of the Treasury ('Treasury') has spent, and will spend in the...

"Appropriately, the problem of too-big-to-fail, and the policies that the government uses to address that problem, will be a particular focus of your forthcoming report and in the hearing today. In my view, the too-big-to fail issue can best be understood in the broader context of the financial crisis itself. Accordingly, this testimony provides an overview of the...

"I fully support your important mission, and I hope that my testimony today can assist it. I will start by giving my views on the fundamental causes of the financial crisis, and then turn to the specific topic of today’s hearing—the so-called 'shadow banking' system. My views are based on my long experience in the financial markets, my time as Secretary of the...

"We have proposed a program to remove troubled assets from the system. This troubled asset relief program has to be properly designed for immediate implementation and be sufficiently large to have maximum impact and restore market confidence. It must also protect the taxpayer to the maximum extent possible, and include provisions that ensure transparency and...

"Market stability and support for housing finance are among my highest priorities during this time of stress in our markets. Therefore, after consultations with the Federal Reserve, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Congressional leaders we are asking Congress, as it completes its work on a...

"First, I will describe, in general, the 'cultural revolution' that Moody’s senior management imposed at Moody’s and compelling evidence of its impact. Second, I will describe the techniques Moody’s senior management used to implement this revolution and why they were successful. Finally, I will describe a particularly egregious example of how the revolution...

"I've analyzed banks since the late 1980s, worked at 6 of the largest brokerage firms, currently work in affiliation with one of the most independent research platforms, and wrote critical research on the banks - in excess of 10,000 pages over the past decade. The more critical issues that I focused on have been the negative implications of slower economic activity...

"You have asked me to address several wide-ranging topics in my testimony today. I will attempt to address those topics by providing you with an overview of Bear Stearns and how we managed our organization, our funding policies and their evolution during 2006 to 2007 and the events leading up to our sale to JP Morgan Chase & Co."

"The Commission has asked me to address several topics related to Bear Stearns, including the historical growth of particular business units at Bear Stearns, certain practices at the company in the years leading up to my departure in August 2007, and various strategic decisions made at Bear Stearns. My career at Bear Stearns spanned over two decades and I was at...

Text of the Community Reinvestment Act which requires financial institutions, among other things, to "demonstrate that their deposit facilities serve the convenience and needs of the communities in which they are chartered to do business."

"The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 precipitated what, in retrospect, is likely to be judged the most virulent global financial crisis ever. To be sure, the contraction in economic activity that followed in its wake has fallen far short of the depression of the 1930s. But the virtual withdrawal, on so global a scale, of private short term credit,...

Also know as TARP. "To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy produc- tion and conservation, to...

"his website was created under the Recovery Act to show the American public how Recovery funds are being spent by recipients of contracts, grants, and loans, and the distributio​n of Recovery entitlements and tax benefits."

"Treasury today announced a voluntary Capital Purchase Program to encourage U.S. financial institutions to build capital to increase the flow of financing to U.S. businesses and consumers and to support the U.S. economy.

Under the program, Treasury will purchase up to $250 billion of senior preferred shares on standardized terms...

"The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would...

"Lehman’s demise was caused by uncontrollable market forces and the incorrect perception and accompanying rumors that Lehman did not have sufficient capital to support its investments. All of this resulted in a loss of confidence, which then undermined the firm’s strength and soundness. Those same forces threatened the stability of other banks -- not just Lehman....

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Use Social Media to Advance Freedom
Okay, so your friends and family keep telling you to jump on the social media bandwagon, but you have no idea what the fuzz is about. Here’s the deal: The Internet gives liberty-loving folk like us an opportunity we have never had before: to make the case for individual liberty, limited government and free market economics instantly and globally. But with the vast amounts of information...
Send Freedom Viral
At Intellectual Takeout, we think it's about time freedom went viral. Before our generation is the opportunity to embrace freedom, to unleash each individual's potential, and to have a prosperous future. And yet it seems that almost everyone running our cities, states, and federal government is intent on destroying freedom and burying us in debt to pay for it. If you, like us, believe that...

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Host a Movie Night
Let's face it, most of us love to watch TV and movies. A wonderful way to spread ideas is to embrace our love of the cinema by hosting a movie night with friends and family.  There are numerous documentaries that do a fantastic job of sharing the ideas of liberty. You can pull a small group of friends together at your house or even consider asking a local restaurant or tavern to let you...
Supplement Your Education
Curiously, not a few individuals are realizing that their education (K-12 and even college) neglected to provide them with as much understanding of the world as they would like. At Intellectual Takeout, we believe that however you feel about your education, there is still much to be learned. To that end, we'd like to refer you to one book and a collection of "study guides" that serve as...
Supplement Your Child's Education
Are you concerned your child isn't getting the education necessary to compete in the global economy or even, perhaps, to carry on the lessons and learning of Western Civilization? If so, you have a number of choices. You could, of course, consider changing schools to a charter school, private school, or even homeschooling. If that's overwhelming for you right now, you can always supplement your...
Get Involved: Intern with ITO
Looking for an internship? If so, Intellectual Takeout has an opportunity for you. We have plenty of work to do as well as ideas to spread, and we need your help to get it done. If you're interested in an internship with Intellectual Takeout, you likely share our passion and you're excited about the possibility of working for a great cause. That said, you might have a few questions about what "...
Keep Learning
How often do you hear conservatives being called a bunch of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals? Here's the reality: Conservatism, classical liberalism, and libertarianism have a rich, intellectual heritage reaching back many millennia. Our ideas are not just some historical relics from bygone eras; they are the very foundation of Western Civilization in general, amd the United States in particular....
Freedom After College
Sadly (or happily for some), life goes on after college. So does the fight for freedom. Building friendships, networking, and growing the movement is critical after college. If our ideas are to be preserved and promoted, you need to stay involved. Plus, in a time when the individual seems to be ever more isolated and adrift, these groups can help plug you into social networks you can use....
Kill Your TV
Okay, so we don't expect you to drive a wooden stake into your flat screen. Plus, we're total hypocrites since we watch some TV. But here's the point: People waste a ton of time watching TV. If you're cool with government taking over your future, than keep watching Dancing with the Stars. If you consider yourself to be a free man or woman and want to live in a free society, then watch what you...
Tutoring
A great way to make a difference on your campus by spreading the ideas of individual rights, limited government, and free markets is to tutor. Plus, you can occasionally make a little bit of money. Depending on the subject matter, you will be discussing a variety of ideas, key thinkers, and theories. As anyone who has tutored knows, there are almost always opportunities to expand upon a topic....
Don't Talk to Cops
In a highly regulated society such as ours, it's very easy to get yourself in trouble with the law. Learn more about how to protect yourself with the 5th Amendment and how to interact with the police.
Teachers: Consider the Association of American Educators
The Association of American Educators (AAE) advances the teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection, as well as promoting excellence in education so that our members receive the respect, recognition and reward they deserve.

On Campus

Get Your Story Out
Whatever activism you choose to do on campus, you need to get your story out. A popular tactic used by the Left is to isolate and intimidate freedom-loving students. You're not alone and there are a lot of people in your city, state, and country that can probably support your efforts. They just need to know what is happening. Whenever you can, record in-class bias, discrimination against...
How to Debate in Class
The reality is that most students (and people for that matter) won't speak out. It's called human nature and it was recognized in the Declaration of Independence: "...all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." While you might feel alone when debating a teacher,...
Join a Student Group
If you're not happy with the direction of the country and you want to take back your future, at some point you will have to do something. It's not enough to just know that we're going in the wrong direction. You actually have to step out and get involved. Most college campuses have conservative and libertarian student groups. Find one of them to join. Below is a list of some of the larger non-...
Say No to Student Fees
When it comes to campus life injustices, student fees rank high on any list. On most campuses across the country a mandatory student fee is assessed to each student at the beginning of the year. A portion of this fee, which may be several hundred dollars, will go toward funding various political, religious, and interest groups.  A college requiring you to support groups espousing ideas which...
Running for Student Government
Running for office isn't easy, even in college. Not everyone is cut out for it, either. For those of you who are, this completely non-partisan section is for you. If you are inclined to pursue student government, we're not going to spend time on telling you how to get elected. A good place to go for ideas and training is CampusReform.org. Rather, we want to help you in office, as a believer in...
Using Intellectual Takeout in Class
We've built Intellectual Takeout to provide you with quick, easy access to information. In time, we hope to become your one-stop-shop for the ideas of freedom. If your professor allows you to bring your laptop to class (if not, you can use an iPhone), we recommend keeping a tab open to Intellectual Takeout. As we continue to generate new content on the site, you will be able to fact check the...