Media clips
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So, Where Are All Those Robots?
The Atlantic/Derek Thompson
Companies don’t seem to be investing in technology nearly as much as they used to. The growth in capital investment—one measure of how much companies spend on new equipment and technology—is at its lowest rate in 60 years. “Capital investment in the workplace has grown more slowly since 2002 than in any other postwar period,” write Lawrence Mishel, the longtime president of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and Josh Bivens, the director of research there, in a compelling new paper. “This is the opposite of what we would expect with a looming robot apocalypse based on automation.” Software may be eating the world, in some people’s estimation. But by Mishel and Bivens’s count, new investment in information technology and software has never been lower on record. (whole story)
The Atlantic June 1, 2017 -
Study says investors could lose big if Trump administration deep-sixes ‘fiduciary rule’
St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Chuck Raasch
The liberal think tank, Economic Policy Institute, says it has looked at savers who have money in investments that receive “conflicted advice.” The study concluded that U.S. savers annually lose $17 billion to high fees, high trading costs, bad risk decisions, and other factors, based on advice from advisers who may not be putting savers’ interests first. Illinois savers lose $932 million annually from such advice, according to the EPI study. (EPI cited throughout)
St. Louis Post Dispatch June 1, 2017 -
This Map Shows the Real Cost of Conflicted Financial Advice
Time Money/Megan Leonhardt
Now the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute has broken that amount down by state—and finds that investors in some of the biggest states like California and Texas may be collectively losing over a billion dollars every year. Even small states like Rhode Island rack up $87 million in annual investor losses, the EPI found. To calculate the cost of financial conflicts by state, the EPI looked at the underperformance of individual retirement account assets that are invested in products for which investors received “conflicted” advice. The EPI then considered the state distribution of the market value of IRA accounts. (Fiduciary map graphic included)
Money June 1, 2017 -
Wage theft claims common at area restaurants, food trucks, experts say
Austin American-Statesman/Nolan Hicks
“What we’re finding is that this is happening in the food service industry far more than any other industry,” said David Cooper, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute who tracks labor law violations. “In Texas, about 11 percent of workers in food and drink service report getting paid less than the minimum wage,” he said, adding that the tally does not include complaints about overtime or failure to pay. (Dave quoted throughout)
Austin American-Statesman May 31, 2017 -
The Fight for $15 local made its claims based on a study from the progressive National Employment Law Project and Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The study found that the national $15 minimum wage proposal would phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers. EPI tells InsideSources that fraud and abuse often interfere with the federal protections. The EPI found in a separate study that 83.8 percent of the restaurants investigated between 2010 and 2012 violated the rule in some way or another. Some employers might not be aware of the law, while others purposely ignore it. Employees have the ability to report violations directly to the Department of Labor (DOL).
Inside Sources May 31, 2017 -
The history of the federal minimum wage dates to 1938 when it was first instated at 25¢ per hour. “The federal minimum wage was established in 1938 to help ensure that all work would be fairly rewarded and provide a decent quality of life,” the progressive Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said in a statement when the bill was being introduced. “The current minimum wage falls far short of this goal. Thanks to congressional inaction, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has been eroded by inflation.” The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 has been in place since 2009. Workers who work 40 to 60 hours per week at this wage fall below the federal poverty level and often rely on Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) to make ends meet. (EPI cited throughout)
Nonprofit Quarterly May 31, 2017 -
On top of the somewhat opaque nature of their consortiums, public-private partnerships can be misleadingly pitched as a means of relegating what would otherwise be taxpayer-funded expenditures to the private sector, said Hunter Blair, a budget analyst at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute. Raising taxes, he noted, can be politically unpopular while embracing industry is much less so. “Public-private partnerships — they never really act as a funding mechanism. At the end of the day, the actual funding has to come from roads, from tolls, that kind of thing … in return for providing that upfront financing, usually during construction,” he said, adding that how beneficial those partnerships can be varies on a case-by-case basis, with some bringing wonderful results and others taking a turn for the disastrous. “You give the private provider a lot of market power to drive up rates or reduce quality.” (Hunter quoted throughout)
International Business Times May 31, 2017 -
The Racial Segregation of American Cities Was Anything But Accidental
Smithsonian Magazine/Katie Nodjimbadem
Interview with Richard Rothstein about The Color of Law
Smithsonian Magazine May 31, 2017 -
Start renegotiation of Nafta with a focus on workers’ rights
The Financial Times/Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.)
As a result, there is extreme downward pressure on US wages and US jobs. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the US lost nearly 700,000 jobs between 1993 and 2010 because of Nafta. And, with the share of auto production in Mexico projected to double by 2021 there is no way we can rely on the faulty conclusion that we have maintained “advanced, higher-skilled work”.
The Fiscal Times May 28, 2017 -
Ramping up deportations puts city’s economy at risk
Crain’s Business New York/Greg David
Not all the numbers are comforting. Some employers benefit too much from hiring undocumented workers because they cheat them. Many restaurants pay less than the minimum wage—sometimes a lot less, like $7 an hour. New research from the Economic Policy Institute shows a similar impact in nonunion construction, where undocumented workers are concentrated and the average yearly pay is a pretty miserly $35,000. Research by the Building Congress shows few of them have health insurance.
Crain's New York May 28, 2017