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Federal funding cuts: Oklahoma will be one of the states least affected by reductions in federal grants caused by sequestration and general spending cuts, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute.
EPI estimates sequestration will cost states $5.1 billion in federal grants during the current budget year. That’s less than 1 percent of the more than $600 billion – about 25 percent of all state spending – in such grants states receive each year, but it can still be significant, especially for specific areas of state government.The EPI report, though, says federal grants to Oklahoma will increase $289 million, or 4 percent. This may be a reflection of higher eligibility for programs protected from sequestration cuts, such as Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance.
Tulsa World June 4, 2013 -
Bi-state proponents of federal belt-tightening are getting their wish, albeit at the cost of less federal money back to the Midwest.
A report by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank in Washington, places Missouri (6th) and Illinois (9th) among the top ten states losing federal money this year as a result of the automatic sequester cuts and the 2013 budget passed by Congress.
St. Louis Post Dispatch June 4, 2013 -
This report from the Economic Policy Institute describes the impact of the federal sequestration on state budgets, focusing on the over $600 billion in grants and loans from the federal government to state budgets to address everything from the construction and rehabilitation of public infrastructure to payments for police and fire services.
According to EPI, the sequester will result in a cut of $5.1 billion from the previous year’s funding level from the continuing resolutions in federal aid to states. The five states taking the biggest percentage hits, as compared to the continuing resolution that was in place at the time of the sequester’s going into effect, (March 1st) are Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, and South Dakota. The five states with the biggest percentage losses due to the combined effects of sequestration and the subsequently passed continuing resolution (signed March 26th) are Louisiana, Indiana, Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
Nonprofit Quarterly June 4, 2013 -
And we have a pretty good idea, based on careful statistical studies, of where that optimal top rate lies; 73 percent, say Diamond and Saez, maybe 80 percent, say Romer and Romer.
The New York Times June 4, 2013 -
Looking at those two factors, there’s a strong argument that the Fed stands behind growth in inequality, particularly when it comes to wealth. But the picture is murkier when it comes to income. And experts sounded a note of caution about trying to work out the distributional effect that the central bank’s policies might be having more generally.
“I don’t think we know that much about it,” said Josh Bivens, an economist at the left-of-center Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research group. “It would be interesting to have a really determined academic look at the effect on all these asset groups and try to figure it out from there.”
Even if the Fed had stoked some wealth inequality through the stock and housing markets, he said, that would not be the full picture. How much did the Fed’s policies account for the housing turnaround, or the stock-price rebound? That would be hard to say. In the case of the stock markets, corporate earnings seemed the main factor, Mr. Bivens said.
Moreover, the fuller picture would need to take into account how the Federal Reserve might have eased earnings inequality by reducing unemployment. “High unemployment is much more destructive to wage growth for low-income workers than for high-income workers,” Mr. Bivens said. “The Fed might have done quite a bit to keep wages from falling even further at the low end.”
The New York Times June 4, 2013 -
Second, there is now a lot of hard empirical work on the incentive effects of high top tax rates. None of it shows the kind of huge negative effects that figure so prominently in right-wing rhetoric. In particular, none of it suggests that we are anywhere close to the point where raising taxes on the rich would reduce revenue as opposed to increasing it.
The New York Times May 31, 2013 -
Michigan has the highest rate of unemployment among black Americans in the country. Nearly 1 in 5 blacks there — 18.7 percent — is out of work.
That’s about more than twice the rate for whites in the state, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
NPR May 31, 2013 -
Between 2000 and 2012, inflation-adjusted wages for college graduates fell 8.5 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That trend is likely to continue. The left-leaning think-tank expects college grads in the class of 2013 to earn less than previous grads for at least the next decade. And when young people start their career at a lower wage, it can take years to catch up.
CBS Moneywatch May 31, 2013 -
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the inflation-adjusted wages of young college graduates declined 8.5 percent from 2000 to 2012. Graduating in a poor job market has long-lasting negative consequences.
The New York Times May 31, 2013 -
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute said unemployment and underemployment for recent college graduates remained high and the millennial generation will face lower earnings for 10 to 20 years.
Los Angeles Times May 31, 2013