Extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich would would boost the economy by an almost negligible amount, according to a recent analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute — far less for GDP growth than continuing stimulus measures. Letting the tax cuts expire wouldn’t hurt job growth either, according to data from a University of California at Berkeley economist, cited by Mother Jones.
Huffington Post
September 25, 2012
But separate surveys by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Generation Opportunity found little evidence that young people were going back to school when unable to land a job.
One deterrent is the rising cost of education and record levels of student debt. About two-thirds of 2012 college graduates left school in debt, owing on average $28,700 in student loans, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org.
“Young people dropping out of the labor force to go back to school would be a silver lining if it were true,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior EPI economist, adding that enrollment had gradually been increasing for decades.
Reuters
September 25, 2012
Social Security remains most boomers’ hope for retirement income. On average, U.S. workers are beginning to take their Social Security benefits at age 63.8. That average fell by more than five years between 1945 and 1970. After that, though, the average has stayed fairly stable, noted Monique Morrissey, an economist who wrote “The Myth of Early Retirement” last year.
But Morrissey cautions against measuring “retirement” by Social Security take-up rates alone. Forty-five percent of eligible Social Security households continue to earn money from a job or jobs.
Buffalo News
September 25, 2012
“Who is expected to gain confidence from rising share prices? Presumably the dreaded one-percenters — the most likely group to personally own stocks. Or maybe we should expand that to the ten-percenters, who, according to the Economic Policy Institute, own 81 percent of our stock market.”
Fiscal Times
September 21, 2012
EPI health policy director Elise Gould explained to Kaiser Health News’s Phil Galewitz how health reform has been essential to reducing the uninsurance rate among young adults, as it allows them to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26. “I have no other explanation for that decline than the health law because the economy has not been particularly kind to that age group, and it’s not likely that they all got great jobs,” said Gould.
Kaiser Health News
September 21, 2012
“Politicians of both parties have supported bills aimed at ending Chinese currency manipulation. The topic also could appeal to an electorate hurting for jobs. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimated earlier this month that the U.S. had lost more than 2.7 million jobs over 10 years as a result of its trade deficit with China.”
U.S. News and World Report
September 21, 2012
In a video segment for Reuters, EPI Vice President Ross Eisenbrey commended the United States for filing another trade case against China, with the latest complaint focused on China’s illegal subsidies to exporters of auto parts. “Waiting any longer [to take action] would have been bad for U.S. workers,” said Eisenbrey.
Reuters
September 21, 2012
Health experts credit a provision in the federal health law which took effect in September 2010, which allows families to keep adult children on their health plans until age 26. The Obama administration said about 3 million people have gained coverage from this provision.
“I have no other explanation for that decline than the health law because the economy has not been particularly kind to that age group, and it’s not likely that they all got great jobs,” said Elise Gould, director of health policy research at the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute.
Kaiser Health News
September 18, 2012
“Austerity will increase poverty both through cuts in programs, like unemployment insurance extensions, and through job loss,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank based in Washington.
MarketWatch
September 13, 2012
For a more detailed examination, see the Economic Policy Institute’s new edition of The State of Working America (pp. 99-106). The authors attribute fully one-third of the one percent’s doubling of U.S. income share since 1979 to the shift from capital to labor. That’s money that used to go to working people.
The New Republic
September 13, 2012