The Majority Left Behind

Nov 1st, 2011

New data from the EPI and the CBO continues to support the arguments of the Occupy Movement.

via AlterNet:

"A report released this week by the Congressional Budget Office found that between 1979 and 2007, income grew 275 percent for the richest one percent of Americans, but by just 18 percent for those at the bottom. The federal government can do something about this — from investing in our infrastructure to improving education. It can help bolster demand and the Half in Ten Campaign offers some good ideas to get us started."

It Costs Us MORE To Pollute

Jun 10th, 2011

Imagine being able to prevent 300,000 American sick days annually. That is nearly 2 1/2 million hours of American labor. Think how much this costs in terms of productivity, strength and stability for everyone from the standalone shops to the large corporations. Now, imagine fighting not to do so.

As Republicans continue their campaign to gut the major EPA accomplishments and proposals of the Obama Administration, Isaac Shapiro has published a detailed cost-benefit analysis of these regulations. It is increasingly clear that the conservative position is not merely anti-science or even anti-health... it's bad for business.

From Shapiro's Economic Policy Institute paper:
"Two broad conclusions emerge from this analysis. First, the dollar value of the benefits of the major rules finalized or proposed by the EPA so far during the Obama administration exceeds the rules’ costs by an exceptionally wide margin. Health benefits in terms of lives saved and illnesses avoided will be enormous. Expressed in 2010 dollars:

The combined annual benefits from all final rules exceed their costs by $32 billion to $142 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 4-to-1 to 22-to-1.

The combined annual benefits from four proposed rules examined here exceed their costs by $160 billion to $440 billion a year. The benefit/cost ratio ranges from 12-to-1 to 32-to-1."

One dramatic section deals explicitly with the regulations proposed but not yet in place.

Click Image To Enlarge

In light of Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) bringing the "TRAIN Act" to the floor of the house, the EPI numbers deserve some attention. 

I Keep Saying This...

June 1st, 2011

The crisis of American economy is one of willful design. Lawrence Mishel of The Economic Policy Institute published a paper a few weeks ago titled We're Not Broke Nor Will We Be that supports this view.


His conclusion is both clear and actually somewhat entertaining:

"There is an old joke about the Lone Ranger, who turned to Tonto and said, "We’re surrounded by Indians," and Tonto responds, "What do you mean by 'we,' kimosabe?'" That same logic applies to policymakers who claim that "we're broke." It matters who is included in "we." We, collectively, have been gaining income and wealth and will continue to do so. "We," the broad middle class, have not been gaining wealth and have not received much of the income gains of the past 30 years. Whether the broad middle class prospers in the next 30 years does not hinge on whether there will be substantial income growth; there most definitely will be. The future prosperity of the broad middle class hinges on the economic policies and structures that determine how that income is generated and shared. Are our federal and state governments "broke"? They certainly face deficits. Whether those governments provide the services we need will totally depend upon the political decisions made regarding taxing and spending. Taxation and revenues have diminished, both due to policy choices and the impact of the Great Recession.

So, are we broke? Only if we choose to be."

Losing The Future, cont...

Jan 15th, 2011

We continue to stare into the economic abyss caused by 30 years worth of Reaganomic myopia. The rebuttals of the position that radical decreases in the top marginal tax rates nurture growth and expansion continue to flood in. From The Economic Policy Institute: