Media clips
-
“I think workers are aware of NAFTA, they are aware of the phenomenon of outsourcing, they see their plants closing, and they blame it on NAFTA because that is what they know,” said Robert Scott, senior economist of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute… Scott estimates that the U.S. lost more than 670,000 jobs as a direct result of NAFTA between 1993 and 2010. However, he said the U.S. lost more than 3.2 million U.S. jobs due to outsourcing to China over roughly the same period. “It’s not just NAFTA, it’s China, it’s trade with Japan, it’s the other Asian countries that are proposing to join us with TPP,” Scott said… “It would be pretty negative (for the U.S. economy) because it would not address our fundamental trade problems,” Scott said. “All it does is raises cost of imports.”
Detroit Free Press November 2, 2016 -
“Trade creates winners and losers. The winners think it’s a great thing,” said Robert Scott, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “Unfortunately, we’ve created many more losers than winners.”… Scott, the senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, calculates that the United States lost 5.2 million manufacturing jobs since 2000 from trade deals. It’s a statistic that Trump likes to use. But beyond opposing TPP, Scott differs greatly with the billionaire developer. “Trump is totally mistaken in calling for new or tougher trade deals,” he said. “The last thing we need is more trade deals, and I have zero confidence in the ability of a Trump administration to negotiate better trade deals.” Neither Trump nor Clinton has focused on “the critical issue of currency manipulation,” the ability of China, Germany and other countries to lower the value of their currency to make their products cheaper than U.S. goods. “Currency manipulation is the largest single cause of our $600 (billion) – $700 billion manufacturing trade deficit that’s cost millions of jobs,” Scott said. He said the Peterson Institute “grossly overvalues” TPP’s economic benefits, and points to an International Trade Commission report that indicates small gains over 15 years. “It’s a set of rules designed to shift an enormous amount of money from wages to profits,” he said. “This will increase the concentration of income and leave less money in the pockets of workers to buy anything else.”
Des Moines Register November 2, 2016 -
According to a 2013 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, 29.9 percent of cooks in US restaurants are noncitizens, as are 33 percent of dishwashers and 25.8 percent of table-bussers.
Mother Jones November 2, 2016 -
From an economic point of view, studies show there is little contest: The pay gap between people with four-year college degrees and everyone else is bigger than ever.That gap has been growing since the 1980s, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, not so much because wages for college graduates have risen, but because the average wage for everyone else has fallen.
The New York Times November 1, 2016 -
“The fact is we have weakened unions and workers have less leverage,” Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a non-profit group that analyses the economic impact of policy policies on lower-income Americans, told Salon. “Labor’s share of private-sector income looks like it’s coming back a little bit, but it’s still far below where it could be at this point in the recovery.” Gould points mainly to the opportunities squandered by Congress to implement more stimulus spending measures, such as investing on public school teachers (there are fewer now than before the Great Recession) and much-needed public-works projects. The opportunities were squandered even as record-low interest rates would have made these jobs project cheaper.
Salon November 1, 2016 -
Casey referenced a 2015 study published by the Economic Policy Institute that said wages consistently grew with the rise in productivity starting from the end of World War II until 1973. Since then, wages stagnated as productivity continued to increase, creating a lot of frustration for American workers. “If you’re at the end of 40 years with 11 percent wage growth, you’re going to have a lot of anxiety because people’s economic security is really at stake,” said Casey. “Then, they see the dysfunction in Washington, a government shutdown, arguments over the debt ceiling and whether or not we should pay the bills. When you combine those, you can see where people have a lot of anxiety.”
The Intelligencer November 1, 2016 -
What is the correct figure for how much women are paid relative to men? Is it 80 cents to the dollar? Or is it 83 cents? The answer, it turns out, is both: There are alternative methods for measuring the gender wage gap, and a Wednesday panel discussion at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., focused on the myriad ways the gap shortchanges female workers. The event centered on a new EPI report entitled “What is the gender pay gap and is it real?” “Different gender wage gaps are answers to different questions,” said EPI senior economist Elise Gould, a co-author of the report, during the discussion. “It doesn’t mean [the wage gap] is not real.” While 80 cents to the dollar reflects the median discrepancy for women working full-time, Gould said that EPI uses the 83 percent figure because it looks at per-hour wages and includes part-time workers.
The American Prospect October 28, 2016 -
Some argue that the U.S. is basically at “full employment” now, which economists consider the lowest rate of joblessness that doesn’t cause price inflation ― although they don’t agree what the rate should be. So what accounts for the persistence of very-long-term unemployment when the official jobless rate has been hanging around a comparatively healthy 5 percent for a whole year? Maybe it’s a clue that full employment is more elusive than it seems. “We’re still probably a year away” from full employment, said Elise Gould, an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute. She said more months of steady job growth will eventually lead to jobs for those who’ve been looking the longest, a group that can face discrimination in hiring. “As jobs continue to increase and the labor market tightens, those workers are going to be pulled in along with everyone else,” Gould said.
The Huffington Post October 28, 2016 -
For every dollar men make, women make 83 cents, and progress toward closing it has largely stalled in recent years. If there’s good news, it’s that the gap has closed considerably since 1979, when women made 62 cents for every dollar earned by a man, according to a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute. Unfortunately, one reason the spread has narrowed is not because women are earning more, although they are, but because men are making less. According to the EPI’s analysis of US government wage data, men’s inflation adjusted hourly wages have fallen 6.7% since 1979, even as women’s have increased 24%.
Quartz October 28, 2016 -
Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute said that stripping out the volatile inventory components of GDP suggests the economy is growing at a more modest pace than the third-quarter data indicates. Still, economists believe the rebound raises the odds that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates later this year.
October 28, 2016