Media clips
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The trend is especially bleak since the financial collapse. Black households overall experienced a major income decline with the recession as well as the subsequent years, according to Economic Policy Institute: “the weak labor market of the 2000–2007 business cycle, along with the Great Recession, have wiped out all improvements in median black income since 1994.”
The Nation August 30, 2016 -
The first complication here is that, even from a technical perspective, it’s hard to see why the Fed is even contemplating another interest rate hike in December. Rod Adams, a neighborhood organizer from Minneapolis, noted in a particularly impassioned moment that there’s essentially no indication that inflation is on the rise. Fed officials’ own projections show inflation will just barely touch 2 percent through 2018. Josh Bivens, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute who joined Fed Up at Jackson Hole, argued that fully healing the damage from the Great Recession will require a prolonged period of overshooting the Fed’s inflation target…There are practical policy changes the Fed could make as well. Bivens has released work on alternative tools the Fed could develop to pop bubbles without causing all that collateral damage: Higher capital requirements for banks, more use of its research powers and public relations to alert the markets to bubbles, and other ideas that already lie in the scope of the Fed’s powers. Rosengren said the Fed should use all tools at its disposal to fight financial instability. But if Fed officials are looking for practical ways to build Fed Up’s concerns more fully into its ways of doing business, it could start by developing those tools and explicitly rejecting interest rate hikes as a way to combat bubbles.
The Week August 30, 2016 -
A 2015 study by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute on the employment effects of President Obama’s climate change policies found that over all, the initiatives would cut jobs in industries like coal mining, but increase jobs in industries like wind and solar development, leading to a net gain of 24,342 jobs by 2030. But that number, the study showed, includes a loss of 202,238 jobs associated with coal mining and coal-fired power generation in regions where they might not be replaced by the 256,177 new jobs associated with the manufacture of energy-efficient lighting and heating and cooling systems.
The New York Times August 29, 2016 -
The larger challenge for schools, however, may be longer-term: attracting teachers. Tight school budgets — and the broader pushback against public-sector payrolls in many states — have squeezed teacher salaries. Average weekly wages for public school teachers have dropped 5 percent over the last five years, according to a new analysis by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Moreover, teacher salaries are falling further behind those of other professions that require a college degree; the trend holds up even after accounting for more generous public-sector benefits. The growing gap could have serious consequences: As my former colleague Hayley Munguia wrote last year, evidence shows that fewer top students are going into, or staying in, teaching.
FiveThirtyEight August 29, 2016 -
On taxes, Boushey’s major points have included that the tax code has not kept up with income inequality, that tax increases meant to alleviate income inequality won’t necessarily harm economic growth, that a more progressive tax code could help taxpayers across the board and that there’s no evidence that the top marginal rate has much of an impact on job growth. (Boushey, executive director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, also wrote a book recently on the economic impact of families struggling with work-life balance, and has advocated a higher minimum wage and closing the gender pay gap.) “Her passion these days is about helping individuals balance work and family,” Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute told MarketWatch. “And that is really an important part of the Clinton agenda.”
Politico August 29, 2016 -
“There is still a lot of hope that Janet Yellen is more ally than adversary,” said Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank that was involved in the protest. “But we also realize that the Fed has a lot of cross-cutting political pressures.”
Washington Post August 26, 2016 -
In other words, most of the 401(k) asset value is concentrated in a small minority of big accounts. That’s why the Economic Policy Institute finds that pensions are a substantial source of income for many groups even as they slowly disappear, while retirement accounts are a tiny fraction for just about everyone — even rich people, because they have so many other sources of income.
The Week August 26, 2016 -
Economic Policy Institute Budget Analyst Hunter Blair believes the credit shouldn’t be used to replace the minimum wage. He notes the credit is powerful on its own but should be used in conjunction with the minimum wage rather than as a potential replacement. “It is a very good program on its own,” Blair told InsideSources. “There are also significant complementaries with the minimum wage, and so it can be more beneficial in conjunction with an increase of the minimum wage.”… Those in support admit that the credit has been used as a welfare spending program. Nevertheless they note even with the refundable negative tax credit, it is still a better policy for addressing poverty. Blair adds lower income workers still face other taxes and expenditures the program helps offset too. “You certainly get the refundable portion of it but that’s important because a lot of these lower income households pay payroll taxes as well,” Blair stated. “The EITC is helping them offset the payroll taxes that might be taxing them into poverty.”
Inside Sources August 26, 2016 -
Some research has raised questions about whether visa-holding guest workers fare much better than unauthorized workers, however. An Economic Policy Institute study released last year found no significant difference in pay or conditions between the two groups.
The Huffington Post August 26, 2016 -
“We asked the Fed presidents to keep distressed communities in mind when they make their interest-rate decisions,” said Dan Crawford, a spokesman for the liberal Economic Policy Institute, one of the groups in the coalition.
The Associated Press August 26, 2016