Media clips
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The system accelerated urban decline and ghettoization. It also prevented a generation of black citizens from gaining the wealth that typically flows from homeownership. Writing of Baltimore just last month, Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, argued that “the distressed condition of African-American working- and lower-middle-class families” in Maryland’s largest city and elsewhere “is almost entirely attributable to federal policy that prohibited black families from accumulating housing equity during the suburban boom that moved white families into single-family homes from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s — and thus from bequeathing that wealth to their children and grandchildren, as white suburbanites have done.”
The New York Times May 11, 2015 -
According to a brief by the Economic Policy Institute, the Walton Family’s total wealth equals that of 79 percent of the combined wealth of all African American families (or almost 78 percent of the combined wealth of all Latino families).
The Washington Post May 11, 2015 -
The average U.S. worker hasn’t done as well. For the 12 months ended in April, wages rose 2.2%. That’s well above inflation but below the 3.5% to 4% that marks a healthy economy, said Josh Bivens, the research and policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank focused on the needs of low- and middle-income workers.
The economy needs stronger jobs growth to increase demand for workers and push up pay, he said. “It’s too slow to have spurred any increase in wage growth yet, and I still think it’s going to be a while,” he said of April’s employment gains. Given that the economy appears to be stuck in another year of modest 2% to 2.5% economic growth, Bivens said, the Fed should not raise its benchmark interest rate yet.
Los Angeles Times May 11, 2015 -
Barack Obama’s petulant criticism last Friday of Democrats who do not support his proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership reminds me of the old tongue-in-cheek advice to young lawyers: “If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If the law is on your side, pound the law. If neither is on your side, pound the other lawyer.” The facts are definitely not on the President’s side. For two decades the trade deals negotiated by the last three presidents have lowered U.S. wages, lost jobs and generated a chronic trade deficit that requires our country to borrow more money every year in order to pay for imports. The president’s main argument that exports have risen, without mentioning that imports have risen much faster, is now transparently deceitful to anyone who can add and subtract.
The Huffington Post May 11, 2015 -
Overall, the national unemployment rate fell to 5.4% Friday, its lowest point since 2008. But unemployment is still higher for blacks than any other race — 9.6% in April. “That definitely is a positive step in the right direction,” says Valerie Wilson, an economist who covers race and ethnicity issues at the Economic Policy Institute. “But it’s also an indicator of how much more progress needs to be made for African Americans.” Despite being almost six years into a recovery, the employment picture for blacks looks particularly grim in some states. Blacks in Illinois have an unemployment rate of 12.5% — more than double the national average. Michigan, Pennsylvania and California are above 12% too, according to an EPI report. The good news is that those rates have been steadily going down in the past year.
CNN May 11, 2015 -
In general, wages for new college graduates, as for US workers, have stagnated since the recession. On average, entry-level wages for graduates are expected to be no better than 15 years ago, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington.
The Boston Globe May 11, 2015 -
Previous trade agreements have failed miserably in living up to the promise of new jobs. In fact, the North American Free Trade Agreement cost the United States 650,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
San Francisco Chronicle May 11, 2015 -
But advocates fighting for better wages and working conditions at McDonald’s argue that most fast-food workers are not in fact teenagers and struggling actors. “If he thinks McDonald’s provides opportunities for people who need to find a job quickly, I can’t argue with that,” said David Cooper, economic analyst with the Economic Policy Institute. “But you have a lot more people taking jobs at McDonald’s who aren’t struggling actors or students. It’s people trying to support a family.” A study by Cooper shows that workers earning less than $12 an hour today are 36 years old on average and more than one in four are supporting children. Only 11% are teenagers.
CNN Money May 8, 2015 -
Black America’s problems, like America’s, are unevenly spread. Many African-Americans live white-picket-fence lives, but some cluster in districts of utter dysfunction, especially in cities where old industries have vanished. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank, 45% of poor African-American children live in areas where 30% or more of their neighbours are poor. Only 12% of poor white children live amid such concentrated poverty.
The Economist May 8, 2015 -
First, the good: black unemployment has recovered in several states. The bad news? Those states had some of the highest black unemployment rates in the first place, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. The black unemployment rate during the first quarter of this year was at or below its pre-recession level in six states: Connecticut, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee, according to the analysis. But the rates in those states were also among the highest in the country before the recession. EPI notes.
The Washington Post May 7, 2015