Media clips
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“It basically violates the notion of ‘The free market knows best,’ ” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “It’s an unusual thing for a Republican, that’s for sure.” Mishel described the negotiations as “an important test” for Trump — of whether he can fulfill his bold promises to voters through a combination of experience in business and a new style of leadership. “I really hope the factory doesn’t close,” said Mishel, adding that Trump has “laid claim to a magic wand to be able to reverse” trends in global trade.
The Washington Post November 29, 2016 -
The liberal Economic Policy Institute argues the plan is unlikely to lead to much new investment because it’s driven more by ideology — that private enterprise always trumps direct public investments in infrastructure — than by rational policy. The funding scheme could result in fewer new projects than a direct-spending plan as state and local governments simply change how they finance improvements now in progress to take advantage of the credits, the EPI noted in a report this month. Another question: Will the plan provide a windfall to public-private partnership deals already in the works or provide incentives only for new ones? Public-private infrastructure deals are prone to devolve into “crony capitalism” — with developers securing bailouts when their projections for toll-collection totals prove too rosy, the EPI added. And often the most-needed improvements — say lead-free water pipes in Flint, Michigan — are unlikely to attract interest from private investors. “Trump’s plan frames the infrastructure problem as a lack of innovative financing options,” EPI analysts Josh Bivens and Hunter Blair wrote in the report. “This is nonsense. The problem is that politicians don’t want to ask taxpayers to pay for valued infrastructure.”
CBS Moneywatch November 29, 2016 -
PUZDER PEDDLES THE MISCONCEPTION that minimum-wage jobs are largely held by young people just entering the job market, and that increasing the minimum wage would price out these young workers and exacerbate youth unemployment levels. The reality is that the vast majority of minimum-wage workers are not teenagers; in fact, the average worker is 35 years old. More than one-quarter have children and the average minimum-wage worker earns half their family’s total income, according to the Economic Policy Institute…Ross Eisenbrey, the vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, who came up with the idea to raise overtime threshold, says that Puzder’s argument is bunk: Companies have absorbed higher overtime pay in the past without going out of business. “There’s no law of economics that says Puzder couldn’t raise the price of the sandwiches he sells by a nickel or two to pay for his employees’ overtime,” Eisenbrey wrote in 2014. “After all, his competitors will all be subject to the same rules. And, he could take it out of his pay, and the pay of his top executives.”
American Prospect November 29, 2016 -
NAFTA’s record, based on empirical data, is far from the caricature Trump drew of it, though substantive debate about its effect on inequality and on various sectors of all three countries’ economies continues to rage. A 2012 survey of leading economists conducted by The University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that 85% of them supported the notion that, on average, U.S. citizens benefited from NAFTA. Still, the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank linked to the union umbrella federation AFL-CIO, estimates that nearly 700,000 manufacturing jobs have been “lost or displaced” due to the agreement.
Forward November 29, 2016 -
Larry Mishel, president of the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute, said the incoming Congress “appears set on passing draconian economic laws meant to benefit Wall Street and big business at the expense of working families.” Mishel said working Americans need stronger unions and collective bargaining to achieve pay gains.
The Kansas City Star November 29, 2016 -
“I think that, at least in this election cycle, the perception has been that working class really refers to white males,” says Valerie Wilson, director of the program on race, ethnicity and economy at the Economic Policy Institute. “But the working class is much more diverse already than it is commonly portrayed in the media or in political discussions.”… As a June 2016 Economic Policy Institute report on the topic by Wilson notes, the wages of all gender, racial and ethnic groups have failed to keep pace with the nation’s economy-wide productivity growth between 1979 and 2014. The hardest-hit workers in this respect have been Latino men, who have seen their hourly wages decrease by an inflation-adjusted 9.8 percent over this period. Second were black men, whose wages have decreased by 7.2 percent. White males, in contrast, have seen their wages decrease by a significantly lower 3.1 percent over the same period.
The Times of Northwest Indiana November 27, 2016 -
“We can’t just wave a wand and undo NAFTA, slapping tariffs on Mexican imports will not solve any problems for American workers. Our economy is tightly integrated with that of Mexico and Canada,” said Robert Scott, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Epoch Times November 27, 2016 -
“He did run as an economic populist, and denying millions of workers shorter hours and raises seems to run counter to that,” said Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s too bad. It’s really too bad that people were going to be getting raises and shorter hours, and this throws it all into confusion at best and maybe undoes it.”… The U.S. Department of Labor estimates it would affect about 4.2 million workers across the country, including 67,000 in South Carolina. But the change could also clarify overtime eligibility for thousands more who might already be entitled to it, argues the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. By that measure, a total of 12.5 million people might be affected, including 219,000 here – almost a third of the state’s salaried workers.
The Post and Courier November 27, 2016 -
About 17 percent of U.S. workers have unstable work schedules, according to a 2015 study by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s why many groups see fair scheduling laws as labor’s next big fight. In one bright spot on November 8, voters in San Jose, Calif., passed a labor-backed ballot initiative that will require employers to give more hours to part-time workers before hiring additional employees. Such local initiatives could be one of the few openings for labor under a Donald Trump presidency.
In These Times November 25, 2016 -
Clinton’s plan, which ensured no family would spend more than 10% of its income on childcare, would deliver more money to American families. In April, the Economic Policy Institute published a state-by-state estimation of the median annual savings for low- and middle-income families under Clinton’s plan. Households with an infant saved between $350 (in Mississippi) and $8,304 (in Massachusetts). Households with an infant and a 4-year-old fared better yet — $4,289 (in South Dakota) to $21,085 (in Massachusetts) per year.
Mic November 24, 2016