What is the economic outlook for OECD countries? (OECD); Fiscal Consolidation: How much, how fast and by what means? (OECD); Toward Effective Governance of Financial Institutions (Group of 30); Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s Financial Problems (CRS); Global Financial Stability Report (IMF); Economic Growth and the Unemployment Rate (CRS); and The G-20 and International Economic Cooperation: Background and Implications for Congress (CRS).
Archive for Economics
Economic Crisis – April 2012 Update
The African-American Labor Force in the Recovery (U.S. Department of Labor); The U.S. Income Distribution and Mobility: Trends and International Comparisons (CRS); The Boomerang Generation: Feeling OK about Living with Mom and Dad (Pew); The Eurozone Crisis: Overview and Issues for Congress (CRS); and Sovereign Debt in Advanced Economies: Overview and Issues for Congress (CRS).
Increased New Jersey School Aid for 2012-2013, by District and County
This site from the New Jersey Department of Education lists the counties and local districts that will get increased school aid in the upcoming year. Also, there is a separate link showing what school districts are receiving preschool education aid.
International Unemployment Rates
This Bureau of Labor Statistics site tracks unemployment in selected industrial countries and the EU. Some of the figures and charts extend back to 2008. For comparison’s sake, you can also consult the CIA world employment rankings where the numbers range from the late 1990s through 2011. The 15 Highest Unemployment Rates in the World is an informative article from The Atlantic examining and, in the CIA’s case, questioning the validity of the figures used. Other sources include: International Labour Office, OECD, Trading Economics (including news links), and The World Bank.
Economic Crisis – March 2012 Update
Solving the Financial and Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe (OECD Journal); The Recession of 2007-2009 (Bureau of Labor Statistics); The Crisis: The Response of the European Trade Unions (Global Labour University); Economic Policy Reforms: Going for Growth (OECD); and Coping with Crisis: How Are Local Governments Reinventing Themselves in the Wake of the Great Recession (International City/County Management Association).
Economic Crisis – February 2012 Update
The Great Recession and Bank Lending to Small Businesses (Federal Reserve – Boston); Top Economic Stories of 2011 (Brookings); At Risk: America’s Poor During and After the Great Recession (Indiana University); Beige Book, January 2012 (Federal Reserve); Down and Out: Measuring Long-Term Hardship in the Labor Market (Center for Economic Policy and Research); Financial Sector Regulation for Growth, Equity and Stability (Bank for International Settlements); Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy (CRS); Transformative Times: New Opportunities for Business in an Era of Upheaval (Wharton); Unemployment Statistics on Older Americans (Urban Institute); Unemployment Insurance and the Great Recession (Urban Institute); Global Economic Prospects 2012 (World Bank); and World Economic Situation and Prospects (United Nations).
Income Inequality
There has been much press of late on income inequality, but many may not realize that the question of income inequality or the distribution of wealth has been a thorny topic for at least 200 years. The following are some recent publications that have a bearing on this problem: Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy (a MUST read, CRS); Growth in the Residential Segregation of Families by Income, 1970-2009 (US 2010 Project); U.S. Neighborhood Income Inequality in the 2005-2009 Period (Census Bureau); Income Distribution (Brookings) ; and Is Income Inequality A Problem in the U.S.? (NPR). For statistics on this topic, please visit the Income, Expenditures, Poverty, and Wealth section of the 2012 Statistical Abstract of the United States. This question is not limited to the United States: Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2011 (Chapter 2 concentrates on income inequality, European Commission); Divided We Stand:Why Inequality Keeps Rising (a substantive examination, OECD); Income Inequality, various reports(World Bank); Inequality and Unsustainable Growth: Two Sides of the Same Coin? (IMF); and World Income Inequality (Conference Board of Canada). And what brought this discussion to the forefront is this CBO report: Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007.
Economic Crisis – January 2012 Update
Occupy Wall Street: Its Historical Precedents
This brief report from the Congressional Research Service (btw, one of our favorite go-to places for information, even though the documents generated by CRS are not available to the public, even though CRS is funded by taxpayers to the tune of $100,000,000 per year, and so we have to get them through back channels, but that’s another story) – Finance and the Economy: Occupy Wall Street in Historical Perspective - “…attempts to show that the basic questions raised by Occupy Wall Street about the value of certain forms of financial activity are not new.”(2) This is not a weighty tome of hundreds of pages full of recondite information, rather “The report…provides a reminder of the hsitorical debates that have shaped congressional oversight of financial institutions and markets.”(4) Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States, anyone? Other sites of interest include: Occupy Wall Street Has History On Its Side (Wall Street Journal); Occupy Wall Street: A Historical Perspective (Salon.com); A Look at the History of Wall Street Protests (NPR); and Occupy Wall Street: An American Tradition Since 1776 (Christian Science Monitor).
Economic Crisis – December 2011 Update
The Way Forward (New America Foundation); Economic Growth and the Unemployment Rate (CRS); Unemployment and Earnings Losses: The Long-Term Impacts of The Great Recession on American Workers (Hamilton Project); Future Recession Risks: An Update (Federal Reserve); and Policies for Increasing Economic Growth and Employment in 2012 and 2013 (CBO).
Economic Crisis – November 2011 Update
Shifts in the Job Structure in Europe during the Great Recession (Eurofund); Europe Navigating Stormy Waters (IMF); SEC Charges Bank Executives with Hiding Millions of Dollars in Losses During 2008 Financial Crisis (SEC); Job Loss in the Great Recession: Historical Perspective from the Displaced Workers Survey, 1984-2010 (Princeton); Social Climate (EuroBarometer); Social Impact of the Crisis (Eurofound); Unemployment, the Labor Market, and the Economy (Federal Reserve); Post-Crisis Growth in Developing Countries (Commission on Growth and Development); and Tracking Europe’s Debt Crisis (New York Times).
European Debt Crisis
The New York Times has put together a very informative package of materials concerning this latest economic crisis. The European Debt Crisis includes a recent timeline embedded with links, an interactive overview, a debt map of European countries, as well as a debt tracker; free access to recent articles from this paper is available also. In addition, these sites also provide good overviews: BBC, CNBC, Der Spiegel, Financial Times (requires free registration), Brookings Institution, and the Council on Foreign Relations. The Euro Summit Statement has been released along with the Main Results document.
Encyclopedia of Business and Economic History
Sponsored by the Economic History Association, this freely available online reference tool explores various topics through the lenses of business and economics. For example, the article on the Civil War eschews all mentions of battles and generals but concentrates on its place in economic history; i.e., was it a watershed moment in the economic development of the country, did it act as a business stimulant? Economic Interests and the Adoption of the United States Constitution is an entry that really typifies the focus of this tool. Accompanying the encyclopedia are various historical databases as well as How Much Is That?, where you can find The Price of Gold, 1257 – Present or Daily Closing Values of the Dow Jones Average, 1885 – Present. Though decidedly American in orientation, articles dealing with ancient Greece, the Golden Age of the Dutch economy, or Hong Kong , to name a few, are also present.
Economic Crisis – October 2011 Update
Here are some interesting reports: Apocalypse Then: The North Atlantic Economy and the Global Crisis (International Monetary Fund); The Subprime Crisis: Is Government Housing Policy to Blame? (Federal Reserve); Confronting the Nation’s Fiscal Policy Challenges (Congressional Budget Office); Why the Global Economy Recovery is in Trouble (Brookings); How to Save the Euro (The Economist); Grappling with Crisis Legacies (IMF); Slowing Growth, Rising Risks (IMF); and City Fiscal Condition in 2011 (National League of Cities).
International Economic Sources
Here are some the best web sites freely available. The World Bank provides loans and advice to developing countries throughout the world; you can search by country, which will provide country briefings, explanations of in-country projects, and additional data, or you can search its acclaimed World Development Report, a thematically structured annual publication, or consult its World Development Indicators, a fifty-year compilation of hundreds of tables for over 200 countries. The International Monetary Fund’s goals are to preserve financial stability and foster economic cooperation. To those ends, it issues reports on the well-being of country economies as well as publishing the World Economic Outlook that details economic concerns on global, regional, and national levels. The OECD publishes its Economic Survey series for each member state; these reports examine the economic landscape of each country and address ways of correcting the challenges they face. While the reports are not accessible without a subscription, the executive summary provides a great deal of valuable information. The OECD also puts out Going for Growth that outlines immediate economic problems and how to ameliorate them. The United Nations Statistical Division has, among other valuable data sets, both National Accounts Main Aggregates Database that can be arranged by country and the UN Statistical Yearbook, a repository of social, economic, and environmental statistics that can be broken down by country. The European Union has the Eurostat Yearbook; the Asian Development Bank has Key Indicators; the African Development Bank has its Statistics Pocketbook; and the Statistical Abstract of the United States contains dozens of relevant tables. We would be remiss in our duties if we did not mention the State Department’s Background Notes which discuss various countries’ economic condition, US Commercial Service’s Country Commercial Guides, and the CIA’s World Factbook that presents a full rendering of a country’s economy in statistics. And do not forget the International Economic Statistics Database from the St Louis Federal Reserve or the central bank websites (valuable information, but not always in English) or international statistical agencies (almost all in English).
