Weekly Economic Snapshot 2/13 - 2/17
Economic Facts for this Week on the Hill
- If confirmed, Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder will be America’s top watchdog against employer wage theft, which robs workers of more than $50 billion annually. An investigation of DOL data found around 60 percent of Mr. Puzder’s fast food restaurants had Wage and HourDivision violations.
- As the Senate considers confirming Rep. Mick Mulvaney as OMB Director, consider that his opposition to raising the debt ceiling in 2011 and 2013 will cost taxpayers roughly $19 billion. Republican failure to raise the debt ceiling in a timely and predictable manner this year, leading to a technical government default, could cost the overall U.S. economy more than $191 billion.
- An estimated 92,000 more Americans would be prematurely dead today from pollution-related health issues had EPA Administrator nominee Scott Pruitt gotten his way in lawsuits against EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.
- Fed Chair Janet Yellen will discuss with Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (2/14) and House Financial Services (2/15) whether the FOMC may raise interest rates this year, a move that will disproportionately harm African-American workers: historically, a 1 percentage point increase in unemployment for whites is associated with about a 2 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate for black workers.
Chart of the Week: Wealth Disparity Between Black Families and White Families
- The median black family’s net worth reached a high of $25,951 in 2004 (adjusted for inflation), increasing steadily since data began in 1989, but fell by more than half as of 2013. While the 1990s saw the median black family closing the wealth gap with the median white family, progress peaked at 16.3 percent of white wealth in 1998, before falling to a mere 8.3 percent by 2013 (the last year available). Wealth disparity translates into unequal access to quality education, health care, and child care, often resulting in the transmission of low socioeconomic status onto the next generation, making upward mobility even more challenging.
ICYMI
- America’s yawning racial wealth gap cannot be fully explained by differences in education levels, family structures, work effort, or profligate consumption, new analysis by researchers at Brandeis University and Demos shows. http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Asset%20Value%20of%20Whiteness.pdf
- Restrictions on low-wage immigrant workers from Mexico did not improve wages or increase employment for U.S. workers, according to economists at the Center for Global Development and Dartmouth University. http://www.nber.org/papers/w23125
Data to Watch
- Wednesday, 8:30am: Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2017 - https://www.bls.gov/cpi/
