Media clips

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• No One Is Actually Sure If The ‘Sharing Economy’ Even Exists

  Another report published this week by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says the freelance economy is far smaller — and that it actually shrank over the last year, from 19.6 million independent contractors to 18.1 million.

  The Huffington Post December 11, 2015
• 48 percent of millennials think the American dream is dead. Here’s why.

  The first is student loan debt, which continues to be a massive burden to recent college graduates. The second is wage stagnation. In analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, for example, wages for young college graduates have been dropping since the year 2000. The trend is more widespread and older than that, but this number certainly might make a new graduate pessimistic.

  The Washington Post December 11, 2015
• An Illustrated Guide to Income Inequality in America
  KQED December 11, 2015
• Trade rows brew as China helps home team tackle slowdown

  The Economic Policy Institute in Washington said in a December report that the decline of American manufacturing over the past 15 years was due to currency manipulation and unfair trade, including China’s “huge investments in ‘leading and pillar’ industries”.

  Reuters December 11, 2015
• Walmart imports from China drain 400,000 jobs from U.S.

  Imports from China by Walmart have eliminated or displaced more than 400,000 jobs, according to a estimate from the Economic Policy Institute.

  CBS News December 10, 2015
• Study Says America Lost 400,000 Jobs Because of Walmart’s Imports

  The Economic Policy Institute recently published a study estimating how many jobs Walmart has effectively eliminated or displaced as a result of its contribution to the U.S. trade deficit with China. The study states that between 2001 and 2013, the inflated deficit eliminated or displaced 3.2 million U.S. jobs. As the world’s largest retailer, it seems to follow that U.S.-based Walmart would be a key contributor to the climbing deficit and subsequent job losses. The EPI estimates that the retailer’s Chinese imports account for 15.3% of trade deficit growth in that time period.

  Fortune December 10, 2015
• Walmart’s imports from China cost 400,000 jobs, says study

  The flood of Chinese imports purchased by Walmart shoppers has cost the U.S. economy about 400,000 jobs since 2001, according to a liberal think tank. The Economic Policy Institute, which has long been a critic of U.S. trade policies with China, saysWalmart (WMT) has been a major factor in the growing trade gap with China. It estimates that Walmart sold at least $49 billion worth of Chinese-made goods between 2001 and 2013, and said that its estimate of 400,000 jobs lost is conservative.

  CNN Money December 10, 2015
• America’s Middle Class Meltdown: Core shrinks to half of US homes

  Incomes for teachers vary sharply depending on where they work, and Pew’s data suggest that the profession still has more members of the upper and middle tier than the employed population as a whole. Still, belt-tightening among many in the US has left a shortage of 375,000 public school teachers, according to estimates by The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think-tank.

  Financial Times December 10, 2015
• Walmart’s China syndrome: The loss of U.S. jobs

  One of the economic themes of the last few decades has been the hollowing out of the American manufacturing sector. But how has that happened, and how is the world’s largest retailer playing a part? A new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute takes a look at what it calls “the Walmart effect,” by which it means the giant retailer’s growing trade deficit with China. With Walmart importing more cheap goods from China than it exports to that country, the retailer’s actions may be implicated in an estimated loss of at least 400,000 U.S. jobs from 2001 to 2013, the study finds.

  CBS Moneywatch December 10, 2015
• Walmart’s Imports From China Displaced 400,000 Jobs, a Study Says

  Imports from China by Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and biggest importer, eliminated or displaced over 400,000 jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2013, according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies. The jobs, mostly in manufacturing, represent about 13 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced over those same years that the study attributes to the United States’ goods trade deficit with China. Walmart’s Chinese imports amounted to at least $49 billion in 2013, according to the study, which was based on trade and labor data. Over all, the United States’ trade deficit with China hit $324 billion that year. “Walmart is one of the major forces pulling imports into the United States,” said Robert E. Scott, an economist at the institute and the study’s author. “And the jobs we’re losing are good-paying manufacturing jobs, which pay higher wages and provide better benefits.”

  Walmart has long been the subject of criticism from groups like the Economic Policy Institute over its role in flooding the United States with cheap imports. Under pressure, Walmart in 2013 announced that it would increase its sourcing of American-made products by $50 billion over the next 10 years.

  The New York Times December 9, 2015