Private Pensions – Timely Action Needed to Address Impending Multiemployer Plan Insolvencies (GAO); Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy (CRS); and Job Sprawl Stalls: The Great Recession and Metropolitan Employment Location (Brookings).
Archive for Economics
International Comparative Employment Statistics
The OECD has issued a vast array of employment statistics for its member countries as well as including the BRICS, EU, and G7 nations. Data can be customized by year, sex and age range. Extensive “source” information for the statistics is readily available and there are dozens of comparative, interactive measurements. Key employment statistics contain pre-packaged basic figures while country snapshots allow comparisons of up to four countries simultaneously. Two previous blog entries provide additional relevant links: International Unemployment Rates and Updated International Labor Statistics.
Income Inequality in Asia
We have previously written about income inequality in the United States and elsewhere, but here is a report from the Asian Development Bank with a specific focus – Deepening Divide: Can Asia Beat the Menace of Rising Inequality? As it states: “Asia is getting less poor – but more unequal”(18) Other worthy reads include: Income Inequality in China and Its Policy Implications (Cornell); The End of “Growth with Equity’? Economic Growth and Income Inequality In East Asia (Asia/Pacific Issues); and Inequality threatens Asian growth miracle (Financial Times).
During the Economic Recovery, the Rich Got Richer While the Other 93% Lost Wealth
According to the Pew Research Center’s report - A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93% - in the economic recovery during 2009-2011, the net worth per household of the top 7% gained 28% while the other 93% registered a 4% decrease. Numerous charts reinforce this bleak document.
Economic Crisis – April 2013 Update
Do economies stall? The international evidence (Bank for International Settlements); Financial Condition of Depository Banks (CRS); and Household Debt in the U.S.: 2000-2011 (Census).
Decades’ Worth of U.S. Economic Data in One Place
Accompanying the 2013 Economic Report of the President are dozens of tables tracking economic development over the past decades. From “corporate profits by industry, 1964-2012″ to “new housing starts, 1967-2012″ to “national income by type of income, 1964-2012,” these compilations provide the researcher with authoritative numbers from various governmental departments such as the Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, and the Federal Reserve. And they can all be found in one publication! In addition, economic reports back to 1947 are accessible online; they, too, offer a glance at the past. For example, the 1947 report carries economic data dating to 1929. For a years-long snapshot of the U.S. economy along many axes, this would be a great place to start.
Economic Crisis – March 2013 Update
Economic Crisis – February 2013 Update
Financial Globalisation and the Crisis (Bank for International Settlements); Tracking Europe’s Debt Crisis (IMF);and World Economic Outlook Update: Gradual Upturn in Global Growth During 2013 (IMF).
Economic Crisis – January 2013 Update
Unemployment Insurance in the Wake of the Recent Recession (CBO); Beige Book (November, Federal Reserve); Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy (CRS); Quality of Life in Europe: Impacts of the Crisis (EU); The Impact of the Fiscal Cliff on the States (Pew); U.S. Income Distribution and Mobility: Trends and International Comparisons (CRS); Addressing the Long-Run Budget Deficit: A Comparison of Approaches (CRS); Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 (Updated) CRS; and Global Financial Crisis, Financial Contagion and Emerging Markets (IMF).
What is the “Fiscal Cliff”?
The fiscal cliff refers to the $1.2T in tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts which will commence at the beginning of 2013 unless the White House and Congress can reach some sort of agreement. For those who seek elucidation and clarification, the following sites will prove helpful: The “Fiscal Cliff”: Macroeconomic Consequences of Tax Increases and Spending Cuts (CRS); “Fiscal Cliff” (Investopedia); What is the Fiscal Cliff? (Council on Foreign Affairs); Q&A: What is the Fiscal Cliff? (Wall Street Journal); Fiscal Cliff (The Economist); Fiscal Policy and the Fiscal Cliff (Brookings); US Fiscal Cliff (Financial Times); and Q&A: Understanding the Fiscal Cliff (The New York Times).
Economic Crisis – December 2012 Update
The Hard Road to Fiscal Responsibility (Brookings Institution); What Accounts for the Slow Growth of the Economy After the Recession? (CBO); Social Spending After the Crisis (OECD); Weathering the Great Recession: Did High-Poverty Neighborhoods Fare Worse? (Pew); How Severe Was the Credit Cycle in the New York-Northern New Jersey Region? (NY Federal Reserve); and A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends (Economic Policy Institute).
Economic Crisis – November 2012 Update
BOOMERS AND THE GREAT RECESSION: STRUGGLING TO RECOVER (AARP); The Eurozone Crisis: Overview and Issues for Congress (CRS); Job Polarization and Rising Inequality in the Nation and the New York-Northern New Jersey Region (NY Federal Reserve); Sovereign Debt: A Modern Greek Tragedy; The Boom and Bust of U.S. Housing Prices from Various Geographic Perspectives; Disentangling Diverse Measures: A Survey of Financial Stress Indexes; Okun’s Law over the Business Cycle: Was the Great Recession All That Different? (all from St Louis Federal Reserve); Coping with High Debt and Sluggish Growth (IMF); Unemployment: Issues in the 112th Congress (CRS); The Response of the U.S. Public Workforce System to High Unemplyment during the Great Recession (Urban Institute); Job Growth During the Recovery (CRS); How Are Baby Boomers Spending Their Money? (National Center for Policy Analysis); and Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s Financial Status: Frequently Asked Questions (CRS).
The Birth of the IMF and the World Bank: The Bretton Woods Conference
While World War II convulsed the world, selected leaders and chief economists from the Allied nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to hammer out the details of financial stability in the post-war era. This days-long conference’s deliberations have never been made public before now. The Bretton Woods Transcripts have now been released along with other primary source material.
Economic Crisis – October 2012 Update
WHAT IS THE NEAR-TERM GLOBAL ECONOMIC OUTLOOK? AN INTERIM ASSESSMENT (OECD); Financial Contagion in the Era of Globalised Banking (OECD); A Recovery No Better than the Recession Median Household Income, 2007 to 2011 (Pew); Rethinking the Role of the State in Finance (World Bank); Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis (AARP); City Fiscal Conditions in 2012 (National Leagur of Cities); A Third of Americans Now Say They Are in the Lower Classes (Pew); The Financial Status and Decision-Making of the American Middle Class (Consumer Federation of America); Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 (CRS); and The Indentured Generation: Bankruptcy and Student Loan Debt (Northeastern University School of Law).
Economic Crisis – September 2012 Update
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Receipt of Unemployment Insurance Benefits During the Great Recession (Urban Institute); Shifting Confidence in Homeownership: The Great Recession (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston); Japan’s Fiscal Crisis Comes of Age (Project Syndicate);Weathering the Recession: The Financial Crisis and Family Wealth Changes in Low-Income Neighborhoods (Urban Institute); During the Great Recession, More Young Adults Lived with Parents (US 2010 Project); Reforming Wall Street, Protecting Main Street: An Update on Wall Street Reform (US Treasury Dept); Wages and working conditions in the crisis (Dublin Foundation); Eurozone Job Crisis: Trends and Policy Responses (International Labour Orgnization); Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? (Center for Policy and Economic Research); Executive compensation tax deductions cost Treasury $30.4 billion over 2007-10 (Economic Policy Institute); The Lost Decade of the Middle Class (Pew); Migration and Remittances during the Global Financial Crisis and Beyond (World Bank); Worker Displacement: 2009-2011 (BLS); Household Formation and the Great Recession (Federal Reserve Bank – Cleveland); and Financing Unemployment Insurance After the Great Recession (Urban Institute).
International Employment/Unemployment Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued the International Comparison of Annual Labor Force Statistics comparing the United States with 16 other countries, among them South Korea, New Zealand, Germany and Italy. The report is replete with charts and statistics; of particular interest is Table 1 detailing unemployment rates for the 17 countries for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2005 – .(8) All figures have been adjusted where possible to fit U.S. definitions because: “Persons counted as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force may differ across countries.”(3) While other reports(here and here) do exist on this topic, none are as comprehensive in scope and analysis; data are broken down by age, sex, inactivity rates, women’s share of working population, etc.
Economic Crisis – August 2012 Update
The Other, Other Half: Changes in the Finances of the Least Wealthy 50 Percent, 2007-2009 (Federal Reserve); Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve: Current Policy and Conditions (CRS); How LIBOR Impacts Financial Models and Why the Scandal Matters (Roosevelt Institute); No End in Sight? The Long-Term Youth Jobs Gap And What It Means for America (Wall Street Journal); Federal Reserve Beige Book – July 18, 2012; An Analysis of the Distribution of Wealth Across Households, 1989-2010 (CRS); Faith in Hard Work, Capitalism Falter; But Emerging Markets Upbeat, Pervasive Gloom About the World Economy (Pew); Office of Financial Research 2012 Annual Report; Nightmare on Main Street: Older Americans and the Mortgage Market Crisis (AARP); and An overview of U.S. occupational employment and wages in 2011 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Economic Crisis – July 2012 Update
2012 Long-Term Budget Outlook (CBO); Ability to Repay, Risk-Retention Standards, and Mortgage Credit Access (CRS); Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District, May 2012 (“Beige Book”); and Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2007 to 2010: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve).
Economic Crisis – June 2012 Update
World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy (ILO); Economic Growth and the Unemployment Rate (CRS); Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2011 (European Commission); How Asia Can Respond to Global Economic Crisis and Transformation? (Asian Development Bank); The public-sector jobs crisis: Women and African Americans hit hardest by job losses in state and local governments (Economic Policy Institute); CEO PAY AND THE TOP 1% (EPI); Chasing the American Dream: Recent College Graduates and the Great Recession (Rutgers); Job Growth During the Recovery (CRS); and Outsourcing and Insourcing Jobs in the U.S. Economy: Evidence Based on Foreign Investment Data (CRS).
Economic Crisis – May 2012 Update
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).
