Daily Policy Digest
Economic Issues
| Traffic Congestion and the Economic Decline of Cities A 50 percent reduction in congestion could boost employment by 10 percent to 30 percent in America's top 10 most congested cities... |
| A Shifting Market Stings Chinese Homeowners A potential bubble in China's housing market is particularly worrying for government officials because at least 12 percent of the country's gross domestic product is tied to the sector... |
| Getting Ready for the Next Bust From 2005 to 2007, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae purchased over $1 trillion in subprime and Alt-A loans, driving up the housing bubble and driving down mortgage quality... |
| Hard Times, Lean Firms After falling in the first half of the year, American labor productivity (output per hour) was 2.3 percent higher in the third quarter of 2011 than in the same period a year earlier... |
| Tracking the Unreported Unemployed Currently more than 5.7 million Americans have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks, or an astounding 43 percent of all unemployed... |
| The Hidden Dangers of the "Living Wage" Prior to an increase in the minimum wage, 6.6 million Americans were paid below the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour; with the sudden increase, unemployment spiked -- a living wage provision has a similar effect... |
| China Pins Hopes on Public Housing China is in the midst of a program to build 36 million subsidized apartments by the end of 2015, a move meant to be stimulative in a time when each subsequent economic report is a little bleaker than the last... |
| Oldest Baby Boomers Face Jobs Bust Among workers ages 55 to 64, 6.5 percent were unemployed as of October of 2011 -- more than twice the jobless rate for that group five years ago... |
| New Bubble May Be Building in 30-Year Mortgages If mortgage-loan rates went up only from 4 percent to 5.5 percent for 30-year mortgages, the value of these securities would go down by about 6 percent... |
| Generosity in Canada and the United States: The 2011 Generosity Index On a countrywide basis, Americans gave 1.32 percent of their aggregate personal income to charity in 2009, more than double the 0.64 percent that Canadians donated... |
