“This is certainly welcome news after last month’s disappointing weather-driven top line figure,” Elise Gould, an economist at the left wing Economic Policy Institute, wrote. On average, 169,000 new jobs have been added per month this year, compared to 187,000 per month in 2016. The last time there was a net decrease in jobs was September, 2010.
Buzzfeed
November 6, 2017
“Its important to note that this [the drop in the unemployment rate] happened for all the wrong reasons—the result of workers leaving the labor force, not finding jobs,” warns Elise Gould, of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Quartz
November 6, 2017
It would take a lot of changes for a proposal like this to please progressives. Most groups who had called for reform, like the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, had proposed that the savings from reforming the mortgage interest deduction be invested back into housing for low and moderate-income people. That’s not where the savings from the cap would go in this proposal. “If this were just a plan that capped the mortgage interest deduction, I think we’d support that,” Hunter Blair, a budget analyst with the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told me. “But it’s a small piece of an otherwise huge tax cut for the rich and corporations.”
The Atlantic
November 3, 2017
Economists say there’s little relationship between post-tax profit rates and business investment that boosts productivity, while productivity and wages have grown faster in periods of higher taxes, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
CBS Moneywatch
November 3, 2017
The Economic Policy Institute, meanwhile, says the CEA is basing its argument on faulty data. A chart showing wage growth in the countries with the 10 highest and 10 lowest corporate tax rates rankles the EPI, in particular. “It is deeply puzzling just what a graph that shows correlation is supposed to prove about causation. … There is no claim that corporate tax policy changed in those years and hence drove the higher wage growth in low-tax countries,” the EPI writes. (EPI cited throughout)
The Cheat Sheet
November 3, 2017
To many critics, his nomination is a purely partisan move. “Today’s decision to not reappoint Janet Yellen as Chair of the Federal Reserve is the wrong one, and was seemingly rooted in simple-minded partisanship,” said Josh Bivens of the liberal-leaning think tank, the Economic Policy Institute. “That demanded a Republican president replace a Democratic appointee as Fed chair.”
Quartz
November 3, 2017
Hunter Blair, budget analyst for the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, agrees — to some extent. “This is a slight tax cut on average for most people,” he says. But, he adds, “It’s tilted to the top 1%” of income earners.” The top one-fifth of households would save an average 3.3% of their after-tax income, and the top 1% would save an average 8.5%, or $129,000.
USA Today
November 1, 2017
As the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens points out, “the gains from smart investments like early childhood education are more diffuse — they show up in thousands of kids doing a bit better throughout their entire schooling and working careers. But these latter benefits are bigger, and much more equitably shared.” … Becoming a member of the top 1% requires some serious loot — an income of about $390,000 in the U.S., according to data released last year by the Economic Policy Institute. And you’re far more likely to make it into that coveted group if you’re a man, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined the gender breakout of the 1% from 1981 – 2012.
Jacobin
November 1, 2017
Tip theft and other forms of wage theft is already a serious problem, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. It estimated workers lost more than $50 billion a year in wage theft in 2014, or far more than the cost of robberies, burglaries and other property crimes. About $1 billion in stolen wages and tips were recovered for workers in 2012, thanks to federal or state agencies and private lawyers. Wage theft ranges from failing to pay for overtime to skimming tips that should go to tipped workers.
CBS News
October 31, 2017
And beyond that, current law holds that when you die, your unrealized capital gains on assets you never sold are simply wiped away. Your heirs start fresh, a process known as “stepped-up basis.” For that reason, the only tax ever paid on such gains is the estate tax. If Congress repeals the estate tax, it’s unclear whether it would also change the stepped-up basis rules. Trump suggested such a change during his campaign—but that proposal hasn’t reappeared since he took office. If there’s no change, “that would be a huge benefit to very, very rich estates,” said Hunter Blair, a budget analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
October 31, 2017