There is no one under 50 among the Biden nominees. There are few progressives among the Biden nominees. A glimmer of hope lies in the fact that the Council of Economic Advisers leans somewhat left and is also labor-centered, with the nominated chair, Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University labor economist. The others, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey, have past relationships with the Economic Policy Institute, a worker-focused think tank in D.C. (I serve on their board). It is also hopeful that Janet Yellen has been nominated as Treasury secretary. She is worker-focused and the first woman to hold the position. But in retreading Vilsack and Kerry, choosing international expert Susan Rice to lead the Domestic Policy Council and choosing other mainstream moderates, Biden has thrown ice water on the hopes and dreams of the progressives who put their interests aside to unite around him.
The Washington Informer
December 17, 2020
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America recovers a forgotten history of how federal, state, and local policy explicitly segregated metropolitan areas nationwide, creating racially homogenous neighborhoods in patterns that violate the Constitution and require remediation. It’s author, Richard Rothstein, is a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Policy Institute and a Senior Fellow (emeritus) at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Metro Columbia CEO
December 17, 2020
Economic Policy Institute research director Josh Bivens also called for the new administration to focus on economic policy that supports what some consider the country’s moral obligation. Shortly before the election, Bivens co-authored a blog post with the leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign, writing, “There are discrete, ambitious policy changes that could happen quickly and would be transformative, especially for the 140 million poor and low-income people who were facing multiple pandemics even before COVID-19.”
Sojourners
December 17, 2020
In late October as the coronavirus pandemic raged, the Economic Policy Institute released a study showing that it isn’t just morally right but an economic necessity to deal with poverty in this country and fast. “If America does not address what’s happening with visionary social and economic policy,” as that study put it, “the health and well-being of the nation are at stake. What we need is long-term economic policy that establishes justice, promotes the general welfare, rejects decades of austerity, and builds strong social programs that lift society from below.”
Truthout
December 17, 2020
According to the Economic Policy Institute, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would increase the salary of 20% of wage-earning Americans. But this increase could also have a negative effect on employment. A report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that this extra cost to businesses would indeed cause a drop in people living under the poverty line, but also the loss of 1.3 million jobs nationwide.
The Conversation
December 17, 2020
Las autoras del estudio son Emma García, economista del Economic Policy Institute y Teachers College, de la Universidad de Columbia, y Elaine Weiss, directora de políticas de la National Academy of Social Insurance e investigadora del Economic Policy Institute. / Europa Press
Ocio Latino
December 17, 2020
And now, a new report shows, their bosses are more likely to stiff them on wages. Between 2000 and 2019, the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) conducted more than 31,000 investigations of farm employers, and 70 percent of them detected violations, according to data analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. That led to employers coughing up $76 million in back wages to 154,000 farmworkers, and $63 million in civil penalties for violations related to inadequate housing, transportation, and record-keeping.
The Counter
December 17, 2020
But the overall cost of childcare in Colorado is not likely to change anytime soon. Even before COVID-19, the expense far exceeded the amount of money people have to spend on it. According to 2019 data from the Economic Policy Institute, Colorado ranks eighth in the United States for the most expensive infant care. “A slot for a year for an infant was, on average, more than a year of college, but you didn’t have 18 years to save up for it,” Franko says. “It was and still is a huge chunk of people’s income. For a minimum wage worker, it would take 30 to 33 weeks of their pay to afford a year of infant care.”
5280
December 17, 2020