Dean Baker: Don't Worry About the Robots; the Fed Might Take Your Job

It is rare that a week goes by when we don't hear a story warning us that robots are going to be taking our jobs. (For example, here, here and here.) This is bizarre even as measured by a standard of economic reporting that allowed an $8-trillion housing bubble to grow largely unnoticed.

The basic point is a simple one: there is no real evidence that robots are displacing workers on any substantial scale. The other part of the story that makes the robot discussion so annoying is that the Federal Reserve Board is actively debating policy that has the explicit purpose of taking away people's jobs and almost no one seems to care.