Media clips
-
The price tag would jump in recessions as laid-off people flock to the program. That is a feature, not a bug: By automatically injecting public money into the economy, it would prop up spending, private employment and tax revenue, lessening the recession’s severity. And unlike universal basic income, another fashionable idea for reducing inequality in which everyone gets a check regardless of whether they work, a jobs guarantee gets the taxpayer something in return: workers. That, however, is also the problem. Here’s why. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 39% of the workforce, some 54 million people, now earn $15 an hour or less. All would have an incentive to quit and join the federal program. Of course, most wouldn’t because their employers would, grudgingly, raise pay to keep them, then pass the cost on to customers, a de facto inflation tax. Indeed, advocates say the job guarantee accomplishes the same thing as a $15 minimum wage without the job loss.
The Wall Street Journal May 3, 2018 -
In the United States, too, many of Chomsky’s worries have become reality. Rob Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), estimates that between 1993 and 2010, 682,900 U.S. jobs have disappeared due to trade with Mexico. An additional 3.4 million jobs—75 percent in manufacturing—were lost due to trade with China between 2001 and 2015. “Trade is the single most important cause of manufacturing job loss,” Scott says. “It is an urban myth that it is caused by improvements in technology. “The growth of trade, particularly imports from low-wage countries, explains 90 percent of the suppression of wages of non-college educated workers since 1995.” (Rob and EPI quoted throughout)
In These Times May 3, 2018 -
More than 60 million employees in the U.S. have signed mandatory arbitration agreements. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, one-third of these affected workers have also signed class action waivers—meaning that not only can they not bring a suit against their employers on their own behalf, they also may not join a class action as part of an aggrieved group. More common in low-wage workplaces, mandatory arbitration clauses and class action waivers have a disproportionately adverse impact on women and minority employees. … If the Court sides broadly with employers in NLRB v. Murphy Oil, the Economic Policy Institute’s Alexander J.S. Colvin warns, “this will signal to businesses that the last potential barrier to their ability to opt out of class actions has been removed.”
City Lab May 2, 2018 -
Germany, therefore, has effectively found a way to lower the value of its currency. The result is that “Germany is exporting unemployment to the rest of Europe,” said Robert Scott, senior economist and director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.
The Washington Post April 30, 2018 -
“I don’t think that jobs in the public sector that produce valuable investments should ebb and swell in the way that would be necessary for them to be part of a ‘job guarantee,'” wrote Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, in arguing that a large investment in public sector jobs would be better than an outright jobs guarantee.
The Washington Post April 30, 2018 -
A recent paper from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute points out that people often switch jobs in low-wage industries, so even a 3% loss in jobs could just mean that all workers end up with 3% fewer total hours — but if they were paid 10% more for those hours, everybody comes out ahead. … “Employers have the power to set wages,” says Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “And when it’s not completely determined by perfect competition, they are going to set wages too low, and they will always complain that they can’t find enough workers at the going wage.”
CNN Money April 30, 2018 -
U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2018, the government reported today, well below the White House’s target of 3 percent. GDP fell from 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 but nonetheless exceeded economists‘ expectations. A Bloomberg panel of economists had predicted 2 percent growth. The numbers signal the economy hasn’t been hurt by President Donald Trump‘s tariffs or fluctuations on Wall Street, but has yet to be helped significantly by the passage of the GOP tax bill late last year. The drop-off was largely attributed to a slowdown in consumer spending growth, which fell to 1.1 percent — the lowest since 2013. Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist of Northern Trust, told the New York Times that the overall GDP growth is “moderately encouraging,” but warned the immediate effects of the tax bill would fade down the road. Left-leaning economists cited the slowed growth as evidence that the tax cuts aren‘t working. “The evidence from past tax cuts strongly suggested there would be little-to-no economic payoff in this form,” the Economic Policy Institute said in a written statement. “Today’s GDP data largely confirms this.“
Politico Pro April 30, 2018 -
The 2.3 percent increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) over the first three months of 2018 marked the second consecutive quarterly decline and proves President Donald Trump’s tax cuts are a failure, critics charged. “The evidence from past tax cuts strongly suggested there would be little to no economic payoff in this form,” wrote Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. “Today’s GDP data largely confirms this.”
Lifezette April 30, 2018 -
According to a report from the Economic Policy Institute, 67 percent of private employers within California have forced arbitration. While the practice is mainly associated with large corporations, nearly 50 percent of employers with fewer than 100 employees also have mandatory arbitration policies.
San Francisco Business Times April 30, 2018 -
Unfortunately, Democrats do not yet have a proposal that can bring these aspirations to life. One problem to work through is the traditional Democratic question of how to finance their new program. (Republican policy ideas never have this issue —they just put everything on the credit card and stick the next president with the bill.) It’s quite a large expenditure, perhaps half a trillion dollars a year, depending on the exact contours. Progressives have circulated polling showing support for a job guarantee financed by a 5 percent income tax hike on earnings over $200,000 a year, but Josh Bivens at the liberal Economic Policy Institute notes that that would cover less than a fifth of the cost.
New York Magazine April 26, 2018