South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Around The Dial – October 11, 2011

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• The UNC CED Blog profiles the Rural Community Mobilization Project.
• Paul Krugman sees “the panic of the plutocrats.”
• Robert Reich explains why the Democrats won’t embrace Wall St. protests.
• Felix Salmon looks at household income trends.
• Robert Kuttner argues that the Federal Reserve is out of options.

The Top 1 Percent

Economix runs down income statistics about the top 1 percent of American households.

American households right at the 99th percentile (that is, the cut-off for the top 1 percent) will earn about $506,553 in cash income this year, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis. The income curve is very steep at the high end, meaning that people just a few tenths of a percentile point above that make much, much more. A family at the 99.5th percentile, for example, makes $815,868; its neighbor at the 99.9th percentile makes more than double that, at $2,075,574 a year.

Changing State and Local Government Employment

Stateline.org maps changes in state and local government employment between July 2008 and August 2011.

Around The Dial – October 10, 2011

Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:

• Martin Wolf writes about “how to keep the euro on the road.”
• Fed Watch explains “how the fed drops the ball.”
• Robert Reich sees the coming of another round of bank bailouts.
• Paul Krugman calls for “confronting the malefactors.”

Rising Long-Term Unemployment

Off the Charts graphs the steady increase in the share of unemployed individuals who have been out of work for at least six months. In September 44.6 percent of the unemployed were long-term unemployed.