“I would much rather have the Fed engage in slowdown and recession prevention by getting us to reach levels at which a rate hike would not be premature,” Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, said earlier this week.
The Huffington Post | September 1, 2015
In 2013, Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, responded strongly to Duncan’s arguments, pointing out that “no education secretary has been as deft as Arne Duncan in creating incentives—both carrots and sticks—to get states to follow his favored policies that are technically voluntary.”
“Only in this area, apparently, does Secretary Duncan believe that progress must be entirely voluntary, unforced by carrots and sticks,” Rothstein wrote. There have been plenty of opportunities to incentivize racial integration, such as rewarding states that prohibit all-white suburbs from excluding poor people through zoning ordinances, or withholding No Child Left Behind waivers from states that allow landlords to discriminate against families using federal housing vouchers. “Adoption of such ‘voluntary’ policies could make a contribution to narrowing the academic achievement gap that is so much a focus of Secretary Duncan’s rhetoric,” Rothstein said.
The American Prospect | September 1, 2015
According to an updated family budget calculator created by the Economic Policy Institute, the District leads the nation in how much parents pay for child care. For a family of four — two parents and two children — child care costs in the city average $2,597 per month, or $31,158 per year.
WAMU | September 1, 2015
The Economic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank founded in 1986 to study the needs of low- and middle-income workers, this week provided a more accurate measure of what it truly costs to secure an “adequate but modest standard of living” in the United States, circa 2014.
Tampa Bay Times | September 1, 2015
A new Economic Policy Institute report finds that, no matter where they live in the United States, minimum wage workers earn far less than they need to make ends meet. (Tweet This) Compiling data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Highway Administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and several other sources, the nonpartisan think tank found that the average cost of living in the U.S., excluding discretionary spending, is more than $65,000 a year for a family with two adults and two children. That’s roughly $50,000 more than what a minimum-wage worker earns. The EPI also looked at the cost of living for single adults and found similar disparities.
CNBC | September 1, 2015
The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has ignited a nationwide conversation about racial polarization and civil unrest when it comes to relationships with minorities and the police. During this River to River interview, host Ben Kieffer talks with Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and the author of The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Root of Its Troubles. Rothstein says the racial tension is due in part to housing policies and government programs that created an “invisible fence” to segregate metropolitan communities around the country.
Iowa Public Radio | September 1, 2015
Wall Street Journal | August 28, 2015
Now, the Economic Policy Institute has developed a nifty new tool that shows exactly how much money you have to shell out to live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and other regions throughout the country. Here’s what the think tank found it takes for a family with two adults and two children to survive here…One interesting takeaway? At $14,630, a family’s estimated annual child care costs in the Philadelphia metro are higher than its housing costs, which are approximately $13,620. CityLab reported that Philly is not unique in this way: “In 500 out of the 618 areas analyzed, child care costs more than housing for such families, says Elise Gould, senior economist and director of health policy research at the institute.”
Philadelphia Magazine | August 28, 2015
The analysis, released by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, is an annual update of the think tank’s Family Budget Calculator that reflects new 2014 data. The Family Budget Calculator is a formula designed to determine the income “required for families to attain a secure yet modest standard of living” in 618 different communities across the country that the U.S. Census Bureau defines as metropolitan areas.
The Huffington Post | August 28, 2015
According to a new paper by the left-leaning think tank the Economic Policy Institute, most families subsiding on minimum-wage jobs would struggle to achieve a modest but secure quality of life, no matter where in the United States they reside.
Fortune | August 28, 2015
Josh Bivens, the progressive Economic Policy Institute’s research and policy director, applauded the Fed’s move away from an interest rate hike, but said the reason for the Fed’s decision confirmed the need for more grassroots activism. “A week ago the case against raising rates for the labor market was clear as day, but all of a sudden when wealthy people lost money in the stock market the tide turned against a rate increase,” Bivens said at Thursday’s press conference. “I’m happy rates are less likely to go up because of that, but it is a terrible reason.”
The Huffington Post | August 28, 2015
But an even more nuanced measurement of economic well-being is the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, which was updated yesterday to include 2014 numbers. The EPI calculator estimates how much it costs to “attain a secure yet modest living standard,” and provides data on ten different family sizes (one or two parents, with zero to five children) across 618 distinct geographic areas and cities.
The American Prospect | August 28, 2015
But among black communities nationwide, DeKalb has actually fared relatively well. The area was hit hard by the downturn, but it remains the second-most affluent black-majority county in the country. By contrast, in Washington, D.C., a majority-minority city, black unemployment is a staggering 15.8 percent, more than five times the rate for whites, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The American Prospect | August 28, 2015
A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal advocacy group, found that the children of parents who worked unpredictable schedules could have inferior cognitive abilities, in areas like verbal communication, and struggle with anxiety and depression. “Parents’ variable schedules require irregular family mealtimes and child bedtimes that interfere with children’s healthy development,” the study said.
The New York Times | August 27, 2015
Think your city is expensive? Maybe you can use a little perspective. The Economic Policy Institute has updated its family budget calculator, which estimates what it would cost for someone to live what they describe as a “modest but comfortable” life in 618 metro and rural areas across the United States.
The Washington Post | August 27, 2015
Many workers in the Dallas area do not make enough money to support themselves or their families in a “secure yet modest standard of living,” according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute. It costs $27,617 for a single person with no children to meet his or her basic needs in the Dallas area, based on an updated Family Budget Calculator released today by EPI. That’s much higher than what a minimum-wage worker earns a year.
Dallas Morning News | August 27, 2015
Many workers in the Dallas area do not make enough money to support themselves or their families in a “secure yet modest standard of living,” according to the liberal Economic Policy Institute. It costs $27,617 for a single person with no children to meet his or her basic needs in the Dallas area, based on an updated Family Budget Calculator released today by EPI. That’s much higher than what a minimum-wage worker earns a year.
Business Insider | August 27, 2015
The comparison of the three cities was part of a study of 618 U.S. communities by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research center. For the family of four, health care was the most affordable in Pittsburgh, at $621 a month, compared to $895 in Sacramento and $896 in Austin. The full report is online at www.epi.org.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette | August 27, 2015
Such concerns are not academic. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, the U.S. lost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013 after China was given entry in the World Trade Organization. Three-quarters of those positions were higher paying manufacturing jobs.
CBS Moneywatch | August 27, 2015
Where do you think it costs more to live: D.C. or New York City? The Economic Policy Institute released a new report showing that in an economic comparison between the two cities, it’s cheaper to get by in the Big Apple. EPI created a calculator and entered in actual monthly costs for a family of four on things like housing, which in D.C. costs $1,469 a month and $1,440 a month in New York City, according to the report. When child care, transportation and health care are factored in, it ends up costing $106,493 a year to live in D.C. and $98,722 in New York City.
Fox 5 DC | August 27, 2015
The past week has been a dramatic one on Wall Street, but as a general rule, policy makers — particularly those at the Federal Reserve — should not overreact to short-term movement in the stock market. The market is a not a good gauge of overall economic health, and even large swings do not by themselves provide much ground for assessing economic health. Stock market volatility significantly affects the wealth of only a select group of the U.S. population — around 90 percent of stock wealth is owned by only 10 percent of Americans (this drops to a bit over 80 percent if you include indirectly owned stock wealth), and more than half of Americans own no stocks at all. In short, the stock market simply does not have a significant effect on the spending power of the vast majority of American households, and therefore provides little insight into the overall health of the economy.
The New York Times | August 27, 2015
A family of four can meet its basic needs for $49,114 a year in Morristown, Tenn.—about half the income needed to raise a family in New York or Washington. There are 140 communities and regions where a family can meet basic needs such as rent, health care and taxes for less than $60,000 a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator released Wednesday. The data also shows how families in any part of the country can struggle to make ends meet, said Elise Gould, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Even in Morristown, two adults working full-time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour would fail to provide for their family without assistance.
Wall Street Journal | August 26, 2015
The average ratio, meanwhile, was 204 times median employee pay. That’s significantly less than past average ratios calculated by the AFL-CIO or the Economic Policy Institute, where the ratios topped 300 times median worker pay and were calculated using worker pay data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Washington Post | August 26, 2015
The amount my family could expect to spend with another child would increase by about 21% to about $94,500, according to the Family Budget Calculator from the Economic Policy Institute. Of course these results are generalized and certain line items may not apply to you — you’ll spend less on child care, of course, if a family member watches your kids.
Time Magazine | August 26, 2015
A June report from the Economic Policy Institute said the chief executives of the nation’s largest companies make three times as much as they did 20 years ago, or 300 times more than typical working stiffs. Between 1978 and 2014, inflation-adjusted CEO compensation increased 997%, while a typical worker’s compensation increased 10.9%.
“This is not just something that might seem aesthetically displeasing to some,” said Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s a matter of this group grabbing a larger share of our national pie, and by doing so, there’s less pie available to other people.” You hear the argument that CEOs are merely reaping the benefits of their brilliant leadership, but Mishel says compensation has been nearly double the growth of the stock market in recent decades. And don’t forget this: “People who make a lot of money get to keep most of it these days compared to Walt Disney. If you had doubled his salary, 70% or more of it would have gone to the treasury,” Mishel said, because that’s how high the income tax rate was before President Reagan came to the rescue of the wealthiest Americans.
Los Angeles Times | August 26, 2015
Just getting by. Working class. Living paycheck-to-paycheck. Such often-used terms rarely have dollar amounts attached to them. So one person’s living paycheck-to-paycheck could be another’s middle class. In the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro area a two-parent, two-child family needs to bring in $60,900 a year “to secure a decent, yet modest standard of living,” according to the Economic Policy Institute’s online family budget calculator released Wednesday.
Cleveland Plain Dealer | August 26, 2015
Robert Scott, the director of trade and manufacturing policy research at the Economic Policy Institute—a labor-affiliated think tank—said Walker could have gone much further in pushing back against China. Scott said Walker could have filed an unfair trade practices complaint with the World Trade Organization or pressured the Treasury to do more about China’s currency manipulation. “I’ve heard no efforts from the governor or anyone else on that front, until last week,” Scott said.
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin governor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on if Walker had (or could have) pursued any of those remedies. Scott added that canceling Xi’s state visit “could cause China to overreact.” “The Chinese are very sensitive to saving face,” he said, “and I think if you were just to insult the Chinese president, just for the sake of insulting him, I don’t think it would be useful in improving the relationship.” “I think it could cause China to dig in his heels,” he added.
The Daily Beast | August 26, 2015
Somehow, the opposite happened. According to the Economic Policy Institute, between 2001 and 2013, the trade deficit with China “eliminated or displaced 3.2 million U.S. jobs, 2.4 million of which were in manufacturing. These lost manufacturing jobs account for about two-thirds of all U.S. manufacturing jobs lost or displaced . . .”
New York Daily News | August 26, 2015
“Does the recent stock market decline make it more likely the Fed holds off? Probably not. The Fed really shouldn’t be reacting to bad financial market days in setting interest rates. But, the Fed should hold off regardless. A September rate hike was a bad idea a week ago, and remains a bad idea today.” — Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute
Wall Street Journal | August 25, 2015
There is ample evidence that, beyond the stock market hit, the U.S. economy is on solid ground. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.3 percent, inflation remains low, and economic growth has rebounded from a disappointing first quarter to indicate the recovery is still underway. “The underlying health of the U.S. economy hasn’t really changed over the past week,” wrote Josh Bivens, research and policy director for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “The stock market is a terrible gauge of overall economy-wide health.”
The Hill | August 25, 2015