Inequality and Poverty

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Nuts and Bolts of the Declining Dollar

Jan 4, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Over the past two years the dollar has lost almost 23% against the euro. One year ago, at the beginning of 2004, $1.25 could buy one euro. A year later, a euro is worth $1.37, nearly 12 cents more. The dollar has declined mainly because private investors are, according to this Economist article, "less eager to finance America’s huge current-account deficit." The overall 2004 deficit was $413 billion, and in the third quarter of 2004 it reached a record of $165 billion, or 5.6 percent of GDP. A further decline in the dollar will most likely cause interest rates to soar in the United States. The administration needs to act to prevent this by reining in the trade and budget deficits. For more information on the dollar, check out The Federal Reserve, The Institute For International Economics, and this issue brief put out by the Economic Policy Institute.

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Senator Graham's Perspective On Social Security

Jan 3, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Retiring Senator Bob Graham has a valid reason for being concerned about social security reform: One dollar out of every 14 dollars in benefits paid by the Social Security Administration goes to a resident of the state he has served for the past eighteen years -- Florida. In a recent article written by Senator Graham he outlines the necessity of a social security safety net, and discusses many of the problems that come with President Bush's ideas for reform, including added risk for people collecting benefits, the embellishment of the crisis facing the system, and the fact that "our grandchilden" could be paying for this overhaul further down the road. To read the article, titled "Save Social Security From the White House," click here.

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Manipulating Numbers

Jan 3, 2005 by Guest Blogger

In the months leading up to the November elections, President Bush stated numerous times that if reelected, he would cut the budget deficit in half by 2009. This announcement came in a year that saw a record high deficit of 413 billion, not to mention continued tax cuts and an increasingly expensive war in Iraq. Many budget and economic analysts have speculated as to how Bush plans to cut the deficit in half, all while continuing to fight a war, pushing to make tax cuts permanent, and pursuing expensive social security reform. This excellent article in yesterday's New York Times discusses the fact that Bush's plan to cut the deficit in half may rely more upon the manipulation of numbers and less upon concrete, responsible fiscal policies.

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The President's Economic Summit

Dec 20, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Last week, Bush convened a number of experts in Washington, D.C. for an Economic Summit to discuss budget and tax reform, social security, and the possibility of extending last term's tax cuts. A transcript of Bush's summit comments can be found here.

As an article in today's Washington Post points out, Bush may see significant opposition to some of his plans from Congress, academics, and economic experts and analysts. Many people have been recently vocal about some of the administration's proposed policy reforms. For example Alan S. Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a Princeton economist, recently stated the following concerning Bush's social security policy: "Under these changes, Social Security would be neither social nor provide security. This would be a piece of a program to expose people to more and more risk…. There are millions of Americans who have no desire and no ability to gamble on the financial markets, and they shouldn't be pushed to."

The next few months should include a good deal of debate concerning issues such as tax and social security reform. To read more about the Economic Summit, click here.

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Will Privatization Increase SS Management Fees?

Dec 17, 2004 by Guest Blogger

As Paul Krugman noted in the New York Times this morning, social security overhaul comes with a lot of risks. He points out other countries have dabbled in privatization and is baffled at the lack of understanding of their experiences. For example, in Chile's program, privatization has caused management fees to be as high as 20 precent, whereas in the United States currently, 99 percent of social security revenues go towards benefits. This is another pitfall of privitization that is not mentioned by the Bush administration. Krugman's column is worth a read.

Also, click here to read the latest Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report about price indexing and how Bush's reform proposal could significantly reduce benefits in the years to come.

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Everything You Want To Know About Social Security And More

Dec 16, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Social Security Network, which was first launched in 1997, serves as an important resource for information and research on the Social Security program and the debate about its future. This week they released "Twelve Reasons Why Privatizing Social Security Is A Bad Idea." The report highlights the fact that the creation of personal investment accounts will have drastic consequences on federal revenue reserves, future retirees, and the people who rely on social security benefits the most. The report also includes numerous links to other studies of social security policy.

For an additional analysis of the social security safety net and the implications of reform, check out this article from tompaine.com.

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The Social Security Debate, Continued

Dec 15, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Today is the first day of President Bush's Economic Summit, which will address issues such as budget and tax reform, health care, and social security. Social security has been widely discussed recently, as this administration has made clear their intent on overhauling the program. According to this New York Times article, however, plans to reform social security may result in significant benefits cuts for retirees in the future due to many factors, including the size of transition costs. Bush recently stated that he was opposed to the idea of raising payroll taxes to offset transition costs.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of the original proponents of reform, very recently warned however that borrowing the entire sum of transition costs to reform the program would be irresponsible. Because of current budgetary constraints, Graham told Fox News Sunday he supports temporarily lifting the program's tax base, or pushing up the $87,900 cap on personal income subject to Social Security. He said, "I don't think you can make the tax cuts permanent, have alternative minimum tax relief, and borrow the entire transition cost--which is over $1 trillion, and have debts that we can sustain."

To read more about Graham and the social security debate, click here and here.

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Trade Gap Grows Significantly in October

Dec 15, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Yesterday, the government reported that America's trade deficit widened in October at a record monthly rate. BNA news services reported, "A major contributor to the October deterioration in the deficit was the oil import bill, as the price of oil rose 11 percent to a record $41.79 a barrel from $37.62 in September."

The trade gap widened a total of 9 percent from September to October. The deficit in September was $50.9 billion, and the deficit in October was $55.5 billion. The total deficit tally for the first ten months of 2004 was $500.5 billion, which is a significant increase when compared with the deficit tally for all twelve months of 2003, which was $496.5 billion. As a New York Times editorial pointed out today, the United States "is now on track for a trade deficit of more than $60 billion next June."

The continuously high trade deficit is not good news for the return on our dollar. The dollar is currently down 55 percent against the euro, and 22 percent against the yen. To read more about the dollar and the implications of the trade gap, click here. To read about President Bush's latest comments on the current strength (or weakness) of the dollar, click here.

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New York Joins States Raising Minimum Wage

As the New York Daily News reported last Wednesday, nearly one million New Yorkers work full-time jobs, year round, for poverty level wages. A new New York law may help change conditions for some of these people as New York joined the growing list of states requiring that their workers be paid a minimum wage higher than the level set by the federal government, which is $5.15 an hour.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: November Numbers Still Lag Behind Need

The Bureau of Labor Statistics November Job Report shows a continuing disappointing trend in employment as the nation’s employers added 112,000 jobs in November, far below analyst projections of least 200,000 jobs. This report is a bit of a surprise after the October report showed a strong month with 303,000 jobs added. The 112,000 jobs, about what was added in September this year, is below the approximately 140,000 jobs per month necessary to keep pace with new workers entering the workforce.

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