The U.S. and developing economies such as China and India have major structural differences that lead to the differences in GDP growth that Trump mentioned. Economists with viewpoints as diverse as Trump’s adviser Peter Navarro, Heritage Foundation fellow Salim Furth and left-leaning researcher Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute all agree on this core point…Bivens said the U.S. economy is unlikely to grow at a faster annual rate than 2.5 percent over the long run, given existing trends. This would still be faster than growth projections in other major economies such as Germany and Japan, he noted…There isn’t unanimous agreement that Trump’s plan would lead to the type of long-term, sustained growth that Navarro has predicted. Bivens said any reform to tax or trade policy could precipitate a small spike in growth, but the uptick would not be long-lasting. “If we did some policy maneuver to reduce our trade deficit, we’d get a year or two of a percentage point faster growth, and then we’d converge again onto our long-run trend,” Bivens said.
Morning Consult
October 21, 2016
This morning, a new study was released by the Economic Policy Institute that detailed new findings about the gender pay gap. The research was done in an effort to disprove the surprising number of people who don’t actually believe that the gender pay gap is real. (It’s real.) The authors of the report write that a “typical, or median” woman working full-time gets 80 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This is why they say there can be variables to that number.
New York Magazine
October 21, 2016
“The Fed should perhaps hold off on an interest-rate increase because the groups that benefit most late in a recovery are just now starting to see those gains materialize,” said Valerie Wilson, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute think tank. “We need to allow these types of gains to continue as long as possible so people can experience a full recovery.”
Wall Street Journal
October 21, 2016
Take what’s called the prime age employment rate. It’s a very simple measure, telling us how many 25- to 54-year-olds have jobs. But over time it has proved to be an extremely accurate indicator. And it suggests that Massachusetts has made up for all the losses of the Great Recession. Right now, 81.1 percent of 25- to 54-year-olds have jobs, according to calculations from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income workers. In 2007, before the financial crisis, it was 81.2 percen
The Boston Globe
October 21, 2016
According to the Economic Policy Institute: “In line with the Department of Labor, our estimates suggest that between 694,000 and 1,053,000 employees of federal contractors may directly benefit from additional paid sick leave, including an estimated 450,000 to 775,000 who currently receive no paid sick leave.”
The Hill
October 21, 2016
The gender pay gap is one of those issues that sparks debate, not the least of which is whether it even exists. To those deniers, economists have an answer: The data clearly show that women are paid less than men for doing the same work, even after controlling for issues such as education and experience. One of the reasons why some may debate its existence is that the gap can be measured in different ways, although the results consistently show depressed earnings for women, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
CBS Moneywatch
October 20, 2016
A major research report out Thursday from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) aims to inform the national discussion about workplace policies with a new analysis showing the gender wage gap is real. “We’re basically saying we’ve measured it a lot of different ways, and it exists, and it’s real, and unfortunately it has not gone away,” said Elise Gould, an economist with the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank EPI, in a phone interview with Rewire. Drawing on national and regional surveys of pay, occupational categories, and educational attainment, the report drills down on different aspects of the gender wage gap to measure it across race, education, work experience, and other factors. Among the key takeaways: Unequal pay hits women of color the hardest, and the “motherhood penalty” is real. Mothers earn roughly 4.6 percent less per hour than women who are not mothers, even after controlling for education and experience.
Rewire
October 20, 2016
Let’s start with the job market. This has been another brutal year in which to graduate. Research from the Economic Policy Institute finds that young college graduates’ underemployment rate is nearly a third higher today than it was in 2007. Everyone is looking for an edge.
October 20, 2016
A 2015 GOBankingRates.com survey of 5,000 Americans found that more than half of those surveyed had less than $1,000 in a savings account. This amount doesn’t factor in retirement or other accounts, though other studies show many people aren’t putting away enough for retirement either. A 2016 analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute based on data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances showed that retirement savings have stagnated over time.
U.S. News & World Report
October 20, 2016