Recession

The Great Recession has battered pensions and home values, leaving millions of Americans facing an uncertain retirement. "But attributing this grim situation solely to the recession would be misleading," writes Lauren Damme.

To read working papers from the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, please click here.

There are three main sources of retirement security upon which Americans depend: pensions, non-financial assets (usually homes), and Social Security. Pensions are the least broadly distributed asset: only 34.2 percent of Americans 65 and over earn pension income, while 54 percent have income from assets and over 85 percent receive Social Security payments.[1]

The administration has made economic policy as if it believes that once financial institutions and financial markets are restored, credit will start flowing and growth will follow.

Let me first congratulate Dimitri Papadimitriou and the Levy Economics Institute.  Clearly the Minsky conference is the go-to event on these issues at this important moment.

The economist Dean Baker has a small book entitled Plunder and Blunder, in which he explains how he saw the housing bubble when others did not.  The story is quite simple: Dean plotted price/rental ratios, and when these departed sharply from trend he assumed they would return. What went up, had to come down.

On April 26, four of America’s leading social scientists convened to discuss economic inequality and the Great Recession, in a forum co-hosted with The Nation magazine. Amid worrying signs of resurgent inequality, they debated the problem in light of structural realities, political constraints, and global trends.

Despite some recent improvement in the labor market, unemployment is projected to remain high for years to come. The jobs deficit, or the difference between the number of unemployed persons and the number of job openings, is 12.3 million. To deal with long-term unemployment and the soaring jobs deficit we need a job-creation agenda that includes both demand-side and supply-side measures: demand-side to boost growth and supply-side to deal with international competition and structural changes.

 Although by official estimates the state of the economy is improving, millions of Americans are still without jobs. While current unemployment figures are under 10% and some gains have been seen in a few economic sectors, the picture is not exactly rosy quite yet. If the number of individuals underemployed or working part-time but desiring full-time employment was considered, then the unemployment numbers would rise considerably.

There are some contests where you don't want to finish first. Being the biggest loser of free federal tax refunds is one of them.

Yet Los Angeles County just notched that dubious distinction in a recent study of California's participation in the earned income tax credit, or EITC, a refund that gives a financial boost to people at the low end of the pay scale.