The gains of economic recovery have certainly been beneficial to those of great wealth – including the culprits behind the crash – but have meant little to the average American. Of course, that has everything to do with the structure of the US economy since Ronald Reagan swept to power. Consider this: according to the Economic Policy Institute – a thinktank close to the embattled US labour movement – between 1979 and 2007, the top 1% seized 53.9% of the entire increase in US income.
The Guardian
January 14, 2016
If you look over the last 10 years, even after recent losses, the S&P 500 is up more than 50%. During that same time, an employee who managed to remain employed through the recession and earned nine 2.5% raises is earning just 25% more now. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that “workers’ share of corporate income hasn’t recovered” since the recession.
Fortune
January 14, 2016
Others, still, argue that artificially dirt cheap currencies in Asia – including in China, whether it’s a TPP party or not – could wipe out all of the economic gains from a ratified trade deal. Notes Rob Scott, from the Economic Policy Institute: China, as the world’s largest currency manipulator, could affect trade in the TPP in at least two ways. First, as a result of relatively weak rules of origin, the U.S. and other countries would be vulnerable to increased imports from China through the TPP. Second, currency manipulation by China could influence other TPP members to adjust or manipulate the value of their currencies, in order to remain competitive with China, and thereby nullify some or all of the benefits of the TPP to the United States.
Alliance for American Manufacturing
January 14, 2016
Larry Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, took issue with the president’s assessment of the root causes in wage stagnation. Instead of blaming technological improvements, Mishel told CNBC, Obama would have done well to point to “policy choices over many decades that worked to lessen the ability of the typical workers to get a good deal from their employer: lowered minimum wage, rules that make it harder to collectively bargain, bad trade deals, excessive unemployment and failure to enforce wage standards.”
CNBC
January 13, 2016
The American economy still has major weaknesses. As organizations like the Economic Policy Institute have pointed out repeatedly, wages aren’t rising that quickly.
The Huffington Post
January 13, 2016
David Cooper, senior economy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, which researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people, gave the TradeWinds move luke-warm approval. “Even though $1.50 an hour doesn’t seem like much, if someone is working full time year-round, that’s more than $3,000,” he said. “If you’re annual income at $8.50 was $17-18,000, that $3,000 raise can be significant.” But he noted that EPI calculates that a single adult with no children would require an annual income of just over $28,000 to achieve a “modest yet adequate” standard of living in the Tampa Bay area. At just over $20,000, “they’re just not going to get there,” Cooper said.
Tampa Tribune
January 13, 2016
Interview with Elise Gould.
Minnesota Public Radio
January 13, 2016
The Economic Policy Institute released a report last week detailing just how much impact a $15 minimum wage in New York—a policy that Governor Cuomo has proposed—would have. The findings? More than 2.4 million workers (more than 75 percent of them over the age of 25) would directly benefit from a $15 minimum.
American Prospect
January 12, 2016
Stronger unions have not only helped ensure that essential public services are more efficient and effective; they have also led to higher wages and better benefits for workers. According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, public employees in states with fair-share fees enjoy nearly the same compensation as their private-sector counterparts, while those in states that have banned such fees get 9 percent less.
The New York Times
January 11, 2016
Nearly half of public employees in states with such provisions were represented by unions, compared with 17% in states that prohibit the fees, according to an October report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Of the latter group, between 2000 and 2014 about 20% were workers who declined to pay dues, the institute said.
Wall Street Journal
January 11, 2016