Comparing Recoveries: Private Sector Job Growth
Weekly Economic Update: June 25-29, 2012
New home sales rose 7.6% in May as pending home sales rose 5.9%. The Case-Shiller home price index was up 0.7% in April and down 1.9% from a year ago. Durable orders rose 1.1% in May. Real GDP grew at an annual pace of 1.9% in the 1st quarter of 2012. Personal income increased 0.2% in May as spe...
New Health Care System Amended by Supreme Court
Response to “Winners and Losers ? Understanding the Ryan Plan’s Potential Tax Implications for America’s Workers”
The “report” by the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) on June 20, 2012, purports to show that taxpayers with income less than $200,000 would be harmed by tax policies developed by the House Ways and Means Committee and outlined by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan in th...
Economic Inequality: Causes and Solutions
What policies would ameliorate economic inequality and increase economic mobility? The first in this series of three commentaries discussed the difficulty of measuring economic inequality over time. The second commentary discussed economic mobility. This commentary examines the causes of economic in...
Weekly Economic Update: June 18-22, 2012
Existing home sales fell 1.5% in May as housing starts declined 4.8% and building permits rose 7.9%. The FOMC held constant its federal funds target rate and announced an extension of “operation twist.” Initial jobless claims edged down 2,000 to a level of 387,000 for the week ended 6/16.
Economic Inequality and Mobility
A critical component of the analysis of income inequality is a comprehensive picture of income and wealth mobility; this facet of the analysis provides more than just a snapshot of the income and wealth distribution at any particular moment. As economist Scott Winship mentions in his testimony befo...
Not “Doing Fine"
Three years have lapsed since the official end of the Great Recession: two years since Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner boasted, “Welcome to the recovery;” a year-and-a-half since President Obama said, “The next two years, our job now, is putting our economy into overdrive;” and less than a week sinc...
Identifying Economic Inequality
The misuse or mischaracterization of good economic data can lead to policy outcomes as poor as those made using bad or incomplete data. This is especially true on the issue of economic inequality.
Define “Fine”
Following on the heels of multiple disappointing economic reports, President Obama recently proclaimed that “the private economy is doing fine.” A closer examination of the data shows why President Obama has since retracted that statement.
