The Failures of Neoliberalism Are Bigger Than Politics
Tuesday, 05 March 2019
Vox published an excellent discussion with economist Brad Delong where he makes the argument on why left-leaning neoliberals (who “use market means to social democratic ends when they are more effective, and they often are”) should be comfortable with the “baton rightly pass[ing] to our colleagues on our left. We are still here, but it
- Published in Blog, Economy & Growth, Politics
Why This Matters: Workers Pay for the ‘Free-Market’ Economy Myth
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Corporate profits are at record highs and unemployment is below 5 percent, yet 40 percent of Americans say that they would not be able to meet a $400 emergency. For too long we’ve been guided by the 50-year-old myth that fewer regulations and lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy will lead to economic growth
- Published in Blog, Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, Finance & Wealth, Politics
Rejecting the Theory of the Firm: Why the ‘Free-Market’ Economy is a Myth and How to Rebuild Public Power
Tuesday, 26 February 2019
Companies today are not working the way that most Americans, policymakers, or the media think that they do. To fight inequality, we need to rewrite the laws that guide corporations. We must first, however, change the way that people understand the role of the American firm in our economy and explore how we can deploy
- Published in Brief, Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, Finance & Wealth, Publications
Ending Shareholder Primacy in Corporate Governance
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
For nearly half of a century, America’s public corporations have been driven by a shareholder primacy approach to corporate governance, increasingly prioritizing shareholder payments over other, more productive uses of corporate resources. Over the same period, employee bargaining power has decreased and wages for nonexecutive workers have remained flat across sectors. In Ending Shareholder Primacy in Corporate Governance,
- Published in Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications, Work and Labor, Working Papers
A Proposal to Enhance Antitrust Protection Against Labor Market Monopsony
Thursday, 10 January 2019
The United States has a labor monopsony problem. Though legal tools are already in place to combat monopsony, they have only been used against the most obvious forms of anticompetitive conduct like no-poaching agreements. More generally, there has been virtually no enforcement against abuses of monopsony power in labor markets. In a Roosevelt Institute working
- Published in Brief, Economy & Growth, Publications
On the Economy: Could Trump Be Right about Rate Hikes?
Thursday, 03 January 2019
At its December meeting, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate a quarter point. The move, while widely expected, represented a clear rebuke to President Trump, who has repeatedly urged the Fed to keep rates low. He took to Twitter after the move to attack Fed head Jerome Powell as a golfer who has
- Published in Blog, Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Work and Labor
The Labor Market Impact of the Proposed Sprint–T-Mobile Merger
Monday, 17 December 2018
In partnership with the Economic Policy Institute, Roosevelt Research Associate Adil Abdela and Research Director and Fellow Marshall Steinbaum examine the impact of the proposed Sprint/T-Mobile merger on the labor market. Cutting the number of national players in the U.S. wireless industry from four to three, this move would escalate market power in the industry
- Published in Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Publications
We Can’t Address the Student Debt Crisis until We Understand Its Effects
Monday, 03 December 2018
To address the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student debt that is held by American borrowers today, it is vital to have a full debate about the costs and benefits of potential solutions. But this debate must be grounded in a solid understanding of the problem. David Leonhardt’s recent takedown of universal student-debt cancellation flows from
- Published in Blog, Economy & Growth, Education, homepage-slider
Corporate Stocks: Moving More Money out to Shareholders Than Back in through New Equity Issuances
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
One justification made by proponents of stock buybacks is that the practice is an effective way for funds to flow from companies that do not “need” the cash out to shareholders, who will then invest it in companies that are issuing new shares to finance firm activity. Does this explanation show up in the data?1
- Published in Blog, Economy & Growth, Finance & Wealth, homepage-slider
When an Economic Model Fails to Capture Reality
Thursday, 01 November 2018
Last week, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced a sweeping, bold economic policy idea: the LIFT the Middle Class Act. The LIFT (Livable Incomes for Families) Act would essentially be a dramatic expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), making it much larger and available to many more Americans. A few days later, the conservative
- Published in Blog, Economic Inclusion, Economy & Growth, homepage-slider, Work and Labor
