Daily Policy Digest
Economic Issues
| Economic Recovery: Lessons from the Post-World War II Period Despite a significant drop in government intervention, consumption rose by 22 percent between 1944 and 1947... |
| Household Income Sinks to 1995 Level The median annual household income has fallen for the fourth straight year to $50,054 in 2011; this is 8.9 percent lower than the peak of the median income, which was $54,932 in 1999... |
| More Americans Opting Out of Banking System More than 820,000 households opted out of banking from 2009 to 2011, about 8.2 percent of the population... |
| 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... |
