Brief #125 – A Primer on the Debt Ceiling Crisis
By Rosalind Gottfried
The deadline for Congress to pass a Bill to fund the government past the current fiscal year deadline of September 30th is fast approaching. The Republicans blocked a bill which would extend government spending and suspend the debt ceiling. The House passed the bill providing for government spending through December and suspending the debt ceiling through December 2022, after the mid-term elections.
Brief #124 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
Child poverty persists in the US at a much greater rate than in other comparable countries. Among the countries in The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US is on a par with Mexico, Chile, Turkey, and Spain on the low end of expenditures to combat child poerty. In contrast, Finland, Denmark, Poland and Spain evidence the highest spending. In spite of having the highest GDP of any country, and one of the highest per capita incomes, the US spends 1% of its GDP on family benefits in contrast to the 3.5% spent by France. As a result, 14.4% of the country’s children live in poverty. This translates into 1 in 4 Black children; 1 in 5 Hispanic children; and one in 12 non-Hispanic white children.
Brief #123 – Economic Policy
By Tyler-Joseph Ballard
A $3T USD budget shortfall in 2020 and the current deficit for 2021 of another $3T USD leaves the current administration in a considerable bind. The Biden administration’s proposed tax plans — The American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan — impose considerable tax hikes for corporations and top earners while providing increased child and dependent tax credits.
Brief # 122 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
Biden and the Democrats are currently haggling over a 1.2 trillion dollar plan to address infrastructural change. This figure is down from the original 4 trillion sought by Biden. For negotiations, the White House had trimmed the bill to 1.7 trillion and it now stands at 1.2 trillion.
Brief # 117 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
Inflation occurs when the value of money decreases, largely due to increases in prices which are not matched by rises in income. With the vaccine rollout, people are emerging from their pandemic cocoons and demands for goods and services are surging. High demand, coupled with reduced supplies, is causing prices to rise.
Brief # 120 – Economic Policy
By Patrick Dwire
As restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues begin to open up in California as the state officially re-opens with virtually no Covid restrictions, many of these employers are having trouble finding workers. Low-income workers are getting blamed for not jumping at these job openings, which seems to lead many Republican policy makers immediately to the conclusion that unemployment benefits must be too generous.
Brief # 119 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
Under current international tax rules, multinationals generally pay corporate income tax where production occurs rather than where consumers or, specifically for the digital sector, users are located. However, some argue that through the digital economy, businesses (implicitly) derive income from users abroad but, without a physical presence, are not subject to corporate income tax in that foreign country.
Brief # 119 – Economics Policy
By Lily Cook
After an initial review from the Oversight Board, Facebook finally announced the company’s decision on the fate of former president Donald Trump’s account. In a blog post, the Facebook Vice President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg responded to the Oversight Board’s charge that the company’s initial decision of an indefinite punishment was ‘not appropriate’ by announcing that Trump’s ban would be in effect for 2 years starting from January 7th.
Brief # 118 – Economic Policy
By Rosalind Gottfried
In March Biden proposed a 2.3 trillion dollar infrastructure plan which he has trimmed to 1.7 trillion. The Republicans initially proffered a plan of 568 billion and have raised it to 928 billion, after sustained discussion with Republican Negotiator Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.
Biden, after much negotiation with Republican leaders has rejected that offer saying that it fails to address significant needs in the transportation, climate control, and job creation.
Brief #117—Economics
By Lily Lady Cook
President Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan (AJP) will allot about $400 billion towards the caregiving workforce. In particular, funds will be allocated towards home health care workers, who provide services that run the gamut from short-term nursing care to longer-term daily visits. Many home health care workers are women, immigrants, or people of color. About 40% are on SNAP or Medicaid; their median hourly wage in 2020 was $13 with an average annual salary of $27,080.
Brief #116—Economics
By Rosalind Gottfried
The April reports showed that unemployment was 6.1%, up from 6% the previous month. There were 266,000 new jobs; a figure that fell short of the anticipated one million new jobs. This was on top of revised job estimates for March, which were down to 770,000 from earlier estimate of 916,000. The portion of the labor force teleworking went down from 21% in March to 18.3% for April. Unemployment went up among black workers; at 9.7% they were the only group to undergo an increase in unemployment. White unemployment was at 5.3%, indicating the duality of the job market on the basis of race. Women dropped out of the labor force, bending to the pressures of home and child care, with 165,000 leaving the workforce.
Brief #115—Economics
By Lily Lady Cook
U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh told Reuters in an exclusive interview at the end of April that he supports reclassifying certain gig workers as employees. In 2017, approximately 34% of the workforce in the US were independent contractors, and even more supplement their income with freelance work. These types of jobs can allow for greater flexibility and independence with regards to hours and variety of work. Yet the tradeoffs can be disproportionate: there’s often less job security, no employee-provided health or retirement benefits, and more expensive taxes.