Daily Policy Digest
Economic Issues
| Land-Use Regulation Increases Income Inequality The freedom to easily move faded after 1980 as land-use regulation in many of the highest-income states made housing unaffordable to low-income workers... |
| U.K. Experience Casts Doubt on Viability of Keynesian Remedies The U.K. economy has contracted by 0.5 percent cumulatively since September of 2010 -- a time span in which even Spain managed modest growth... |
| World Trade Grows, but Protectionism Still a Concern The global banking firm HSBC predicts that world trade will grow by close to 90 percent over the next 15 years... |
| Minimum Wage Myths that Keep Our Teens Out of Work In July 2007, the unemployment rate for 16- to 19-year-old workers was 15.3 percent; three years later, following a 41 percent increase in the federal minimum wage, the rate was 25.9 percent, says Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| Poverty Levels on Rise The official poverty rate is expected to rise from 15.1 percent in 2010 to as high as 15.7 percent in 2011 -- levels unseen in nearly half a century... |
| American Economic Mobility Readily Measurable By age 60, nearly 51 percent of Americans will have lived in a household earning $150,000 for at least one year; more than 32 percent at $200,000 for a year; and nearly 21 percent at $250,000 for at least one year... |
| Companies Turn to Developing World for Financial Returns China's annual trade and investment in Africa has increased from $10 billion 10 years ago to $120 billion today... |
| The Pathology of Privilege The continued dominance of the U.S. Postal Service is a vestige of monopoly power and government intervention to favor one firm over another... |
| Income Inequality in the United States In 1950, wages made up 95 percent of total compensation, while benefits comprised only 5 percent; by 2004, wages were only 81 percent, versus 19 percent for benefits... |
| The One Percenters' Fortress City In 1980, only 3 percent of Washington residents had incomes of $200,000 or more in today's dollars; this figure has since increased to 13 percent... |
