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A new Gallup Poll finds 48% of Americans saying the amount of federal income taxes they pay is "about right," with 46% saying "too high" -- one of the most positive assessments Gallup has measured since 1956. Typically, a majority of Americans say their taxes are too high, and relatively few say their taxes are too low.]]> http://www.argmax.com/mt_blog/archive/2009_04_opinions_on_tax.php http://www.argmax.com/mt_blog/archive/2009_04_opinions_on_tax.php Economics Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:45:38 -0500 We're hiring a labor economist at EPI... see link for details on how to apply...

Employment opportunities at EPI

Living Standards/Labor Economist

The Economic Policy Institute is looking for an experienced economist for our flagship Living Standards program. In that position, the successful candidate would work with the Living Standards team to undertake a variety of research and analytical projects. They would be responsible for monitoring and commenting on current economic conditions, including labor market conditions; trends in income and wage outcomes; factors that impact low- and moderate-income workers; and others. They would also be expected to analyze and comment on related economic policies.

The position also includes a significant component of research dissemination and communication; working with EPI's external/communications team to communicate findings to the media, public-interest organizations, the academic community, and policy makers in Congress and the administration.

The successful candidate would also help set the direction of the program by identifying new areas of inquiry and shaping programmatic activities.

The position reports directly to the Research and Policy director, but will also work closely with EPI's president.

A rescue plan for Main Street

A package that provides funding for infrastructure, aid to states, and other provisions would begin to reverse our economic course by creating jobs while meeting national priorities. The package should also include a down-payment on longer-term reforms, as well. This memo outlines some elements that should be essential components of a more comprehensive recovery package and briefly examines the impact it would have on the economy and job creation.

(Also, be sure to check out the nifty TED spread chart on page 50, and the bond-treasury spread on 51. And, if you want to scare yourself, the foreclosure chart on page 55.

TROUBLED ASSET RELIEF PROGRAM

Through the capital purchase program (CPP)--a preferred stock and warrant purchase program--Treasury provided more than $150 billion in capital to 52 institutions as of November 25, 2008. GAO recognizes that TARP has existed for less than 60 days and that a new program of such magnitude faces many challenges, especially in this current uncertain economic climate. However, Treasury has yet to address a number of critical issues, including determining how it will ensure that CPP is achieving its intended goals and monitoring compliance with limitations on executive compensation and dividend payments. Moreover, further actions are needed to formalize transition planning efforts and establish an effective management structure and an essential system of internal control.

Irons/Bivens - May 1, 2008:

While it will be many months before an "official" recession is declared, evidence shows that the economic expansion that began in 2001 has almost surely ended.1 Furthermore, if these trends continue, the start of a new recession will likely be dated either at the end of the last quarter of 2007, or at some point during the first quarter of 2008.

Business Cycle Dating Committee, National Bureau of Economic Research - December 1 2008

The Month of the Peak

The committee identified December 2007 as the peak month, after determining that the subsequent decline in economic activity was large enough to qualify as a recession.

• Nov 13th - Kerner Commission/Eisenhower foundation event at EPI, talking about revenue options for progressive reform


• Nov 18th - CAF event on the hill re: economic stimulus and investment in infrastructure


• Nov 19th - CBPP/SFAI conference on the current and projected state of the economy, prospects for stimulus


• Dec 1 - Innovation conference (EPI/UC Davis) on green jobs

An endorsement of Barack Obama | It's time | The Economist

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - Obama is the better choice

• Testimony: Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
• "A rescue plan for main street" EPI Policy Memorandum #132
• National Journal Experts Blog
• Google's "Knol debates" vs CATO
• C-Span Washington Journal
• NPR Marketplace
• The Hill, Support for 2nd stimulus strengthening
• CQ: A Concrete Stimulus Plan: Infrastructure and Recovery

CQ Politics | A Concrete Stimulus Plan: Infrastructure and Recovery

The research and policy director at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, John Irons, says that if the nation goes into a recession -- and there's a growing consensus that it's already there -- employment opportunities will be needed not just in the short term, but for months down the road. "With recessions the job market takes a lot longer to recover," Irons said. "So whatever we can put into the pipeline, it's not like we won't need it in six months or a year."

here, and here.

Confirmed: Obama Is Campaigning on Xbox 360! - GigaOM

Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an "Obama for President" billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we're able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator's campaign team.

"I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout," Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts, the game's publisher, told me via email, noting that EA regularly allows ad placements in their online games. "Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates," she continued. "Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams."

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 to Paul Krugman Princeton University, NJ, USA

"for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity"

International Trade and Economic Geography
Patterns of trade and location have always been key issues in the economic debate. What are the effects of free trade and globalization? What are the driving forces behind worldwide urbanization? Paul Krugman has formulated a new theory to answer these questions. He has thereby integrated the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography.

Krugman's approach is based on the premise that many goods and services can be produced more cheaply in long series, a concept generally known as economies of scale. Meanwhile, consumers demand a varied supply of goods. As a result, small-scale production for a local market is replaced by large-scale production for the world market, where firms with similar products compete with one another.

Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and explains why some countries export agricultural products whereas others export industrial goods. The new theory clarifies why worldwide trade is in fact dominated by countries which not only have similar conditions, but also trade in similar products - for instance, a country such as Sweden that both exports and imports cars. This kind of trade enables specialization and large-scale production, which result in lower prices and a greater diversity of commodities.

Economies of scale combined with reduced transport costs also help to explain why an increasingly larger share of the world population lives in cities and why similar economic activities are concentrated in the same locations. Lower transport costs can trigger a self-reinforcing process whereby a growing metropolitan population gives rise to increased large-scale production, higher real wages and a more diversified supply of goods. This, in turn, stimulates further migration to cities. Krugman's theories have shown that the outcome of these processes can well be that regions be

Gene and Jared note the fine print of the McCain bailout.

Jared Bernstein and Gene Sperling: Ouch! McCain's Housing Solution Is a Gift from Taxpayers to Banks

But today we learned of a detail that makes his plan significantly different -- and much worse. The McCain plan uses taxpayer dollars to buy distressed mortgages at their full, face value from the banks and lending institutions that are currently stuck with them. Only then, after we the taxpayers have fully absorbed the cost to the lender of these troubled loans, does the homeowner get the benefit of the lower principal.

That's right folks...it's private profits and social losses. Instead of an effort to safeguard taxpayers as Senator Obama has called for and the Frank-Dodd bill goes to great lengths to do, this plan takes from taxpayers to provide unjustifiable subsidies to financial institutions - even those who engaged in deceptive or outright fraudulent practices to induce people into homes they could not afford.