Trump hasn’t brought back manufacturing jobs as he has repeatedly promised and boasted. At least 1800 factories have shuttered under Trump, whose much-promoted trade deals have done nothing to stem this long-term trend, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Common Dreams
November 2, 2020
According to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, young workers have been hit the hardest by the economic fallout of COVID-19. Unemployment for people between the ages of 16 and 24 hit a high of 26.9% in April, and as of September, it’s still higher than that of the rest of the population. In September, it was 12.5% for people between 20 and 24, and 15.9% for people 16 to 19, compared to a national unemployment rate of 7.9%. The unemployment rate for young people is partially so high because, like Zarate, many are in industries like food service and retail which have been particularly vulnerable. It has also affected young people of color more than their white peers: In spring of this year, the unemployment rate for young Black people was 29.6%; for young Asian-Americans, 29.7%; for young Latinx people, 27.5%. Women have been affected more as well: In September, a shocking 865,000 women left the U.S. labor market, roughly four times the number of men, many of them due to childcare or other caregiving duties.
Refinery29
November 2, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute reported that the minimum wage, if adjusted for inflation, should have exceeded $15 by 2020.
“Yet since the late 1960s, lawmakers have let the value of the minimum wage erode, allowing inflation to gradually reduce the buying power of a minimum wage income,” according to a 2019 report.
The Independent
November 2, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute’s study of Amazon fulfillment centers (Feb. 1, 2010, and updated March 2018) concluded they “do not generate broad-based employment growth.” The study “reinforces just how completely ineffective Amazon fulfillment center openings have been in providing any boost to overall local employment.” We should all be skeptical of the promises of job and local economic growth for this type of development.
Buffalo News
November 2, 2020
For a similar approach, see Josh Bivens, “Thinking seriously about what ‘fiscal responsibility’ should mean
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See Josh Bivens, “More FAQS on deficits and debt: Where is the money coming from?”, Economic Policy Institute, September 14, 2020
Center for American Progress
November 2, 2020
Groups are seeing an increase in the number of uninsured people across the U.S. during the pandemic. The Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington D.C., released a study in August that found that nationwide, as many as 12 million Americans may have lost their health insurance since February.
Anchorage Daily News
November 2, 2020
“The U.S. economy remains deeply depressed, and a reentry into outright recession in coming months is highly possible,” wrote Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute and others in a new blog.
“U.S. families are suffering: 225,000 lives have been lost, 30 million workers have lost either jobs or significant hours of work, nearly every state is facing sharp drops in revenue that will threaten even more cuts to essential social programs and jobs.”
Forbes
November 2, 2020
The list includes:
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Fiscal Times
November 2, 2020
A 2017 study by Josh Bivens, the director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, found that expanded trade has played a significant role in the rise of income inequality. In another study, Bivens found that trade with low-wage countries costs workers without a college degree nearly two thousand dollars a year in lost wages, even after accounting for the lower cost of consumer goods. “It’s true that, if you’re just looking at countries as a whole, national income in China and the United States is higher with fewer trade restrictions,” Bivens said. “But it’s not a win-win within the country. Most Americans are actually worse off because of globalization.”
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During Obama’s second term, Robert E. Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, started receiving calls from Stephen Miller, who was then working for Senator Jeff Sessions and is now a senior White House aide. “I’ve been publishing these studies on China trade and its effect on American job losses for decades now,” Scott told me. “Miller started calling me and asking me to explain them.” Miller, the architect of much of the Trump Administration’s immigration policy—including the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the southern border—saw early on the political valence of what Scott describes as the two-legged strategy of criticizing free-trade deals and blaming Black and Hispanic immigrants. “He’s a native-born fascist,” Scott said, “who clued into the negative effects of globalization and trade.” (The White House did not respond to requests for comment.)
The New Yorker
November 2, 2020
Heidi Shierholz, the Economic Policy Institute’s senior economist and director of policy, told Business Insider’s Madison Hoff that if congress extends unemployment insurance, more than 5 million jobs could be added.
Business Insider
November 2, 2020