Many economists agree that slashing government spending too quickly hurts economic growth. State and local austerity has deprived the economy of 2.3 million jobs over the past three years, according to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
The Huffington Post
November 1, 2012
“Growth rates this low will not reliably lower joblessness in the years to come,” said Josh Bivens, research and policy director for the Economic Policy Institute.
CNNMoney
November 1, 2012
Josh Bivens, research and policy director a the Economic Policy Institute, called the 2 percent, “too slow to support solid job growth.”
The Hill
November 1, 2012
While almost everyone in politics, from presidential candidates to local elected leaders, takes the opportunity to praise teachers, it’s obvious they are rich on words but stop short when it comes to providing fair compensation. A 2011 Economic Policy Institute study revealed that teachers make 14 percent less, on average, than people in other professions requiring similar levels of education. This disparity would stand even wider if the study were to somehow quantify the exceptional level of dedication that teaching requires. This unfair dynamic is largely responsible for high turnover among quality teachers, and a devastating recruitment challenge when it comes to filling the big shoes left empty at the front of our classrooms.
New Jersey Star-Ledger
November 1, 2012
Democrats are fighting for a tax “cut,” while Republicans are pushing for a tax increase. CNBC’s Hampton Pearson explains. Andrew Fieldhouse, Economic Policy Institute policy analyst; and Alex Brill, American Enterprise Institute, weigh in.
CNBC
October 26, 2012
First, has China really stolen U.S. jobs? The numbers say yes. Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China “eliminated or displaced more than 2.7 million U.S. jobs,” according to a report published in August by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank.
CNN
October 26, 2012
In a recent study, Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., pointed out that in the three years following the recessions of 1990 and 2000, the government sector added jobs. In the three years following the Great Recession, 627,000 government jobs were cut.
“These public-sector losses are dominated by austerity at the state and local level, with federal employment contributing only about 6 percent of this entire gap,” the researchers wrote. Jobs being cut as budgets tighten include those of police officers, firefighters or even the 293 teaching positions eliminated this school year in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
October 26, 2012
Despite having enjoyed the benefit of government jobs her entire career — whether in the district attorney’s office and now as governor — Martinez hasn’t seemed to understand that, yes, government can, and should, create jobs. In fact, The New York Times quoted an Economic Policy Institute study in a recent editorial, “If not for state and local budget austerity, the report found, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, half of which would be in the private sector.” Forget jobs, New Mexicans. We need to have another debate about driver’s licenses. And that, citizens, is two years wasted, a textbook case of opportunity cost.
Santa Fe New Mexican
October 26, 2012
No swing state has seen its economy hammered as hard as Ohio’s since the U.S. joined the WTO in 1994, with employment in the manufacturing sector plunging by one-third, according to the consumer protection nonprofit group Public Citizen. According to a study by economist Robert Scott with the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank, Ohio shed 91,800 jobs between 2001 and 2010 due to the rising trade deficit with China.
The Huffington Post
October 24, 2012
That means the economy suffers when government cuts back. A report by the Economic Policy Institute examined the effect of recent cutbacks at the state and local level — including direct loss of government jobs and indirect loss of suppliers’ jobs; the jobs that should have been added to keep up with population growth; and the reduction in purchasing power from other cutbacks. If not for state and local budget austerity, the report found, the economy would have 2.3 million more jobs today, half of which would be in the private sector.
The New York Times
October 23, 2012