Flint was also victim to these practices: maps from that era show heavily African-American neighborhoods shaded in red, which made them far less likely to attract loans. The result was both an ease of entry for whites who wanted to move to the suburbs, plus subsidies for their home purchases from the federal government, and the concentration of black people stuck inside the city limits. “Whites were able to leave because the federal government financed the suburbs,” explained Richard Rothstein, research associate at the Economic Policy Institute. “African-Americans couldn’t leave because they were prohibited by federal policy from moving out of the city.”
Think Progress
February 3, 2016
Over the past 35 years, with the exception of a few golden years in the late 1990s, the wages of low- and middle-income American workers have taken a beating. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute highlights an often-overlooked consequence of this trend: Low-income workers are increasingly reliant on government assistance to get by. “Arguably the largest economic challenge facing the United States right now is the problem of wage stagnation,” says David Cooper, the report’s author. “For the vast majority of workers, wages have basically barely budged since the late 1970s, and, in the case of low-wage workers, their wages have actually fallen when you adjust for inflation since the late 1970s.”
Pacific Standard
February 3, 2016
Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, appeared to agree, and said “continuing economic weakness” was likely causing slow productivity growth. He recommended that the Federal Reserve refrain from making further interest rate hikes.
Politico
February 1, 2016
“This slow productivity growth is likely itself a function of continuing economic weakness,” Josh Bivens, research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, said in a statement Friday. “In short, today’s data highlights the need for policymakers – particularly the Federal Reserve – to make economic growth and full employment a top priority and the need to refrain from undertaking measures (like further interest rate increases) that would slow the pace of growth in the coming year.”
U.S. News and World Report
February 1, 2016
The Walton family, who own large shares of Wal-Mart stock, were recently estimated to be worth around $145 billion. Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute estimates that their net worth exceeds that of 1.7 million families earning the median income, combined.
The Huffington Post
February 1, 2016
As research by the Economic Policy Institute demonstrates, the growth of arbitration clauses has drastically diminished the ability of workers to assert their rights when those rights are violated by their employer. Private arbitrators are more likely to side with employers over workers, and when they do side with workers they typically award far less in damages than federal judges.
Think Progress
February 1, 2016
Child care is a big bummer. Putting a 4-year old in day care in Missouri or Illinois costs three quarters of the tuition needed to send an 18-year-old to a state college, according to a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute.
St. Louis Post Dispatch
February 1, 2016
James Parrott of the labor-backed Fiscal Policy Institute said Tuesday that the nonpartisan, labor-backed think tank called the Economic Policy Institute has found most “low-wage earners” now making less than $15 an hour are working full-time and struggling. The Washington-based organization also found that 34 percent of children in New York would have a parent who would benefit from the higher minimum wage.
Newsday
February 1, 2016
Such clauses are increasingly common in employment contracts — and, according to critics, often to the detriment of workers. Plaintiffs are more likely to lose claims in binding arbitration than in the federal courts, and when they do win, damages are substantially less, a recent report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found.
International Business Times
January 29, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute, a labor policy think tank, also examined the job and unemployment numbers for 2015 versus pre-recession levels.
Denver Post
January 29, 2016