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☆ Conservatives love to blame America's housing crisis on Democrats. An economist explains the true reason behind it and why it extends beyond political parties.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He recently spoke with economist and author Jenny Schuetz about the housing crisis. Pundits love to blame permissive social policies for the disrepair that they highlight, but the truth is that rural America — including many red areas — is facing the same problems of skyrocketing crime, housing costs, and homelessness. Schuetz said that a true solution to our housing crisis requires the passage of policy solutions at the federal, state, and local level. An overly regulated market and a broken tax codeBringing housing costs down and home supply up starts with stripping power from zoning boards. When the majority of homeowners and homebuyers treat housing as the foundation of their wealth, as opposed to one of the most basic human needs, the housing market behaves more like an investment market.

☆ Art Laboe, beloved California DJ who popularized ‘oldies but goodies,’ dies at 97
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Laboe died on Friday after a short bout of pneumonia, his spokesperson Joanna Morones confirmed to CNN. Laboe helped desegregate Southern CaliforniaLaboe, born Arthur Egnoian, started DJing in 1943 as a teenager, he said in an interview with the Orange County Register. Most recently, he hosted “The Art Laboe Connection” on station KDAY. In September, the 79th anniversary of Laboe’s radio debut, the nonprofit station dublab flipped the script on Laboe and sent dedications to him. Over an hour and a half, fans called in to give Laboe songs (and kisses): One requested “18 With a Bullet” because Laboe played it for her when she turned 18.

“It’s fascinating how people seek queerness — and where they seek queerness,” Fuller added. Murnau’s “Faust” and “Nosferatu,” such moments of levity keep viewers engaged while they’re soaking up early Hollywood’s rich queer history. “Whether you’re ideologically queer or sexually queer, you might relate to the monster’s narrative, because you, too, have felt ‘outsidered’ or villainized in some way.” Bryan fuller, 'queer for fear' executive producer“The Dracula costume kit is basically drag. So this, to me, is the experience of being a gay man.”As Alaska’s assessment demonstrates, “Queer for Fear” isn’t interested in just exploring how horror has provided a haven for queer creatives. Because of the Hays Code, LGBTQ creators and those, like Hitchcock, who wanted to include those themes had to do so through subtext, which counterintuitively gave birth to some of the most essential queer horror ever made.

☆ Ukrainians flee from Russian annexation - while they still can
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

As Russia prepares to annex a swathe of Ukrainian territory the size of Portugal after staging what it calls referendums in four provinces, hundreds of Ukrainians escaped through the last Russian checkpoint. For now, Russian forces have been letting some people out of occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces through the one checkpoint. The biggest fear is that fighting-aged men will be press-ganged into Russian forces once Moscow declares the territory to be Russia. With public schools ordered to switch to the Russian curriculum and classes in Russian next month, she did not want her 13-year-old son Bogdan returning to the local school. Kyiv and Western countries call the exercise a complete sham, aimed at justifying the annexation of territory seized by force.

☆ If you don't want a recession, stop talking about it
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-20 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Every recession in the 20th and 21st century has followed predictable metrics — spending drops, unemployment rises, and manufacturing slows down. If you examine the economy with rising prices in mind, it looks like we're in a recession. Since the word is on everyone's lips, it's important that we hammer down the meaning of a recession. That said, we live in uncertain times, and nobody can predict whether or not a recession is imminent. Are Americans spending enough money to ensure that the service economy continues to add jobs?

☆ How the Inflation Reduction Act Could Help Normal Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-05 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Interest rates are rising as the Federal Reserve attempts to combat inflation by slowing down the economy. In response, Democrats are pushing the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to address the inflation crisis in a new way. It's a catchy name that's garnered a lot of media attention, but the political risks of tying the bill directly to the inflation crisis could damage the Democratic Party in the midterm elections. A growing number of economists believe that because the current inflation crisis was inspired by both pandemic-related supply-chain issues and runaway corporate greed, the Fed's actions are unnecessary and will cause an avoidable recession. In order to study its effects, we need to explore what's in the Inflation Reduction Act.

☆ Raising interest rates won't fix the real reason behind inflation: price-gouging and corporate greed
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-26 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Mabud said the Fed raising interest rates won't combat corporate price-gouging. And Rakeen Mabud, the chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, joined "Pitchfork Economics" to identify the second inflationary pressure on top of the pandemic: corporate greed. "Three ocean shippers control pretty much all of the ocean shipping in the entire supply chain," Mabud said. Trucking has become a job of "such rock-bottom quality that nobody wants" to do it, she said, "which, ultimately, is another weak point in our supply chain." The Fed's interest hikes likely won't address any of Mabud's concerns about corporate greed and price-gouging.

☆ Economic policy is full of false assumptions that benefit the wealthy and undercut average Americans — just look at how CEOs are paid
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-19 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Recently, he spoke with author Tom Bergin about the problem with CEOs acting like shareholders. A 2021 study found that typical CEO compensation has risen 1,322% since 1978, while worker compensation over that same time only increased by 18%. The problem with CEOs behaving as shareholdersThe National Bureau of Economic Research reports that in 1980, stock options were rarely included in CEO compensation. When they were a part of the compensation package, average stock options rarely made up even 20% of the total direct pay for CEOs. But today, according to Lawrence Mischel from the Economic Policy Institute, "Stock-related compensation comprises around 85% of CEO compensation."

☆ Congress treats the Congressional Budget Office like a crystal ball for legislation, but one economist says their models are built on flawed assumptions
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-12 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In a recent episode, he spoke with economist Mark Paul about the role of the Congressional Budget Office. They run these economic models that I think are the most important policy models out there." The CBO's models are built from flawed assumptions that don't necessarily reflect how legislation might actually behave in the real world. "In the economics literature, what we find is that on average public investment is at least as productive as private investment — and often more so," Paul said. "In fact, there's this really well-known review that shows that public investment is 50% more productive on average than private investment."

☆ The wealthy elite who gather in Davos to talk about saving the planet always ignore the best solution: paying more taxes
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-05 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He spoke with Peter Goodman about his new book and the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. Goodman says Davos has become a feel-good event for billionaires who refuse to make real change. But Davos's most noteworthy topics are the ones that don't typically get discussed: For instance, historian Rutger Bregman made waves in 2019 when he told the affluent audience at Davos that they were ignoring the solution that mattered most: "Taxes, taxes, taxes. The solutions to the very real problems discussed at Davos every year are relatively simple, but they'll never be welcomed by the Davos audience. The only people who aren't ready to hear about that solution, unfortunately, are the people who gather at Davos every year.

☆ How abortion bans widen the gender pay gap and diminish women's economic power
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-26 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He recently spoke with economics professor Caitlin Myers about the impact of abortion bans. Myers said bans hurt women's economic agency, access to education, and careers. How abortion bans strip women of their economic agencyWhen lawmakers and judges outlaw abortion, they immediately erase a wide array of options for the estimated one in four women who have an abortion in their lifetimes. "Women's earnings are a lot closer to men's, and this is true in the United States and other developed countries." By diminishing women's economic power, abortion bans exclude women from fully participating in their lives and in the economy, keeping them politically and economically dependent on men for their survival.

☆ Why it's crucial for lawmakers to protect and empower unions as union popularity rises across the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-19 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Despite growing public support for unions, Constant says union power has weakened in recent decades. Now is the time for Congress to protect union rights by passing pro-union laws at the federal level. Only about one in 10 American workers belongs to a labor union. How union power has been undermined across the countryThe past four decades have seen attacks on union power at almost every level of government. Presidents that followed Reagan — Republican and Democrat alike — either continued his push to erode union power or simply failed to shore up union power.

☆ It's not just inflation — corporate greed is also partially to blame for the rising prices you're paying
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-12 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He said inflation is measured using a "market basket" of goods and services. The CPI can't fully explain inflation's rise — some price increases go to corporate profits, he says. Our own experience as consumers informs us that prices on various goods and services are rising, and the inflation rate, derived from the CPI, confirms that our experience is true. But what the CPI can't explain — at least, not fully — is how and why inflation is rising. The United Kingdom, for example, reported a 5.4% inflation rate in December.

☆ Employer-based health insurance was a failure during the pandemic. Here's how single-payer healthcare could do better.
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-05 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The single-payer healthcare bill would have benefitted both employers and workers, Kalra says. But demand for single-payer insurance may be on the rise. The mass layoffs and business closures at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic demonstrated why America's private healthcare system, which largely links health insurance to employment status, is a terrible idea. Assemblyman Kalra joined the "Pitchfork Economics" podcast to talk about his CalCare proposal and make the economic case for single-payer healthcare in the United States. "One of the key indicators of whether someone died from COVID was whether they had gaps in their health insurance or not," Kalra said.

☆ Many Americans think of education and transportation as public goods, but they're actually heavily privatized. Here's why that's a problem.
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-29 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Cohen said the privatization of public goods like education won't benefit the majority of Americans. Many fields that ordinary Americans assume to be public goods — public education, libraries, public transportation — don't fit that strict description. "In that definition, healthcare is a private good, not a public good," Cohen said. We're all familiar with the trickle-down claim that under a profit motive, business can provide public goods more efficiently than the government. "The alternative of private control over public goods is public control over public goods," he said.

☆ With tips, restaurants can pay workers as little as $2 an hour. It's why no one's coming back to work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-22 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He spoke with Saru Jayaraman of UC Berkeley's Food Labor Research Center about tipped workers. Women and people of color who work for tips always earn significantly "less than white, male tipped workers," Jayaraman said, "because of the biases we all carry as customers. Employer justifications for the subminimum wage tend to fall apart under the slightest examination. Restaurant workers in these seven states have for years taken home more than the federal tipped minimum wage per hour with no negative effects on the restaurant industry. The pandemic has worsened conditions for restaurant workers, and many of them have decided that the subminimum wage isn't worth the hassle.

☆ The Federal Reserve's plan to combat recessions rarely works and often benefits the already-rich — here's why
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-15 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Leonard says the Fed should put money into Americans' hands, not Wall Street, to boost the economy. The problem wasn't in the creation of new money, Leonard argues — the problem was where that new money went and who was in charge of distributing it. "There's this group of 24 banks on Wall Street — financial institutions like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo," Leonard said. "From basically 1950 until 2008, that's how the Fed influenced our supply of money," Leonard said. "They would gradually loosen or tighten the money supply by making these purchases on Wall Street."

☆ In many states, workers still earn only $7.25 an hour. If we want to fix the 'labor shortage,' it should start with raising wages.
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-08 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amid the ongoing labor crisis, Constant says raising the minimum wage could be a key solution. Raising wages has proven good for workers and business, yet many states are stuck at the $7.25 federal minimum. Last week, the minimum wage in Seattle reached $17.27 per hour, while the minimum wage in Washington state increased to $14.49, and none of those threats have come true. But despite this progress, the federal minimum wage is still stalled at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees and $2.13 per hour for tipped employees. The Economic Policy Institute recently found that the $7.25 federal minimum wage is worth 21% less today than it was worth when established in 2009.

☆ 'Opportunity zones' meant to boost poor communities did little more than give the rich another tax loophole — proof that trickle-down economics doesn't work
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-01 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He recently spoke with economist David Wessel about "opportunity zones" in the 2017 tax plan. Trump's tax cuts represented the purest form of trickle-down that had ever passed in Washington, DC. The Trump tax cuts didn't increase investments in American business — in fact, the wealth created for the richest Americans from those tax cuts likely wound up overseas. Instead, the Congressional Budget Office found that corporate tax revenue fell by over 30% the year after the tax cuts passed. We're still unraveling all the harm that the 2017 Trump tax bill has done to the economy.

☆ The American middle class used to signify economic security. That's now quickly becoming a luxury only the wealthiest can afford.
▼ + stars: | 2021-12-25 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While a majority of Americans consider themselves middle class, he says far fewer actually are. Those numbers are disastrous for the American middle class. When most noneconomists talk about the middle class, we don't mean the strict middle third of American household wealth. A 2015 Pew report found that while 89% of all Americans self-identify as members of the middle class, just 50% of Americans actually met the broadest economic definition of middle class. Throughout the 20th century, a secure and growing middle class was the source of America's prosperity.

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