Daily Policy Digest
Economic Issues
| Iceland Shows Other Europeans How to Survive Bankruptcy Since 2009, Iceland has managed to shrink its deficit, reduce unemployment and grow its economy... |
| The Hidden Costs of Monetary Easing In fiscal year 2011, the central bank bought 77 percent of all additional debt issued by the Treasury... |
| The Accounting Trick that Will Haunt Public Pensions New regulations from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board give pensions the incentive to take bigger risks... |
| Shadow Banking System Emerges Unscathed The "shadow banking" industry refers to institutions that perform banking functions but do not have the safety net associated with a traditional banking system since they are not regulated... |
| There Is No "Structural" Unemployment Problem In 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent; two years later, it reached 10 percent -- the structure of a modern economy does not change that quickly... |
| Obama Didn't Stop the Middle Class Free Fall Inflation-adjusted median income fell by 2.3 percent in 2010 (the last year for which official statistics are available) and dipped below $50,000 per year for the first time since 1996... |
| Measuring Labor Markets in Canada and the United States: 2012 Edition There is a stark divide between Canada -- average total unionization rate of 31.4 percent -- and the United States -- average total unionization rate of 13.3 percent... |
| The Surprising Ingredients of Swedish Success -- Free Markets and Social Cohesion A new paper demonstrates that Swedish economic success is a result of the free market and not the welfare state... |
| More Older Workers Making up Labor Force Nearly 1 in 5 Americans ages 65 and older are working or looking for jobs -- the highest in almost half a century... |
| Food Stamp Use Climbs to Record Food stamp use reached a record 46.7 million people in June... |
