Hunter Blair, a budget analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, noted in a Tuesday blog post that investment has actually declined in the wake of Trump’s tax cuts.
“Last week’s GDP data showed that for the first time since the Great Recession, investment has declined for three straight quarters,” Blair wrote. “Given that boosting business investment was the primary stated goal of the TCJA, this seems like an unambiguous policy failure for working people, benefiting only the rich and corporations.”
Newsweek
February 6, 2020
For those wondering why – given the data – the answer is simple, said Dr. Jhacova Williams, an economist for the Economic Policy Institute. They’re “scared.”
“There’s this whole urban legend, this myth that alumni donate so much money to the school, and if you don’t admit their kids, they’ll stop giving this money,” she said. “They’ll stop encouraging their kids to attend these schools.”
Diverse Education
February 6, 2020
“Trump has not brought these jobs back, nor will his present policies change the status quo,” the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank, said in a statement.
Markets Insider
February 6, 2020
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump extolled the “blue-collar boom” in the economy along with his purported “great American comeback.” He made this claim based in part on two recent signature trade deals—the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and a “phase one” deal with China. Unfortunately, both agreements will likely to lead to more outsourcing and job loss for U.S. workers, and the facts just don’t support Trump’s claims about the broader economy.
In These Times
February 6, 2020
Union membership continuing to tick down year by year doesn’t just affect unions. It leads to rising economic inequality, the Economic Policy Institute reminds us. The share of workers covered by a union bargaining agreement is less than half of what it was in 1979, and “Research shows that this de-unionization accounts for a sizable share of the growth in inequality over that period—around 13–20 percent for women and 33–37 percent for men.”
Daily Kos
February 5, 2020
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, the mean retirement account amount of workers in their 50s has stagnated over the last decade, compared with previous generations. The median retirement account savings in 2016 hovered just around $21,000.
Yahoo Money
February 5, 2020
Key findings in a 2019 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that fewer than 20% or one-fifth of young adults ages 21-24 have a bachelor’s degree. Even more so, approximately 53% of those that do graduate programs are unemployed or working in a job that doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree according to the University of Washington. Realistically, most young graduates are not getting hired for the job of their dreams right out of college.
The West Georgian
February 5, 2020
In 2015, college graduates, on average, earned 56% more than those with high school diplomas alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That’s a sizable gap. And while federal student loans do allow borrowers to apply for income-driven repayment plans, where their monthly loan payments are recalculated as a small percentage of their income, even that could prove burdensome for low wage-earners. Plus, not all student loans are federal in nature. Private loans don’t offer official income-driven repayment plans, so those in that camp may be more likely to default on their debt.
The Motley Fool
February 5, 2020
A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that a typical full-time worker in states with “right-to-work” laws earns wages that are 3.1% lower than comparable workers in states without these laws—and this drop in average wages is greater for workers of color. The study also found that states with “right-to-work” laws have a 5-percentage point difference than non-“right-to-work” ones.
The Economic Policy Institute endorses the Nationwide Right to Unionize Act.
“Research shows that so-called right-to-work laws lower workers’ wages–which is no surprise, given that unions raise wages and the intended effect of right-to-work laws is to hamstring unions. Working people are now losing around $200 billion per year as a result of the erosion of union coverage in recent decades. Banning right-to-work is a crucial step in halting and reversing those trends and creating an economy that works for all, not just for the people who already have the most.” — Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute
Elizabeth Warren
February 5, 2020
In 2016, Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, was named the 11th-best place to live in the United States, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
At the same time, it was ranked as the third-worst city for African-Americans.
ABC News
February 5, 2020