Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
Mark Thoma lays out reasons why “supply-side economics has failed.”
Despite their failed promises, the Republican Party is asking that we extend the tax cuts for the wealthy, and some are even calling for further reductions in tax rates. However, if the Republican Party is truly the party of business, then surely it will understand that no responsible financial institution would continue to invest in a business that failed meet, or even come close to the growth and revenue projections that justified the investment in the first place. The payoffs from tax cuts that were promised during the Bush years have not been realized, and the failed promises about growth and revenue have damaged the health, education, and retirement programs the working class depends upon in our increasingly globalized economy.
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A true party of business would end our investment in the false promise of supply-side economics. However, a party with a goal of reducing the scale of programs such as Social Security and Medicare along with delivering tax cuts to wealthy political backers would use arguments about the economic effects of tax cuts to disguise its true intentions. Which description fits best? Many Republicans still claim that tax cuts for the wealthy enhance economic growth despite the evidence to the contrary, but it’s rare to hear a Republican admit that these supply-side policies have failed.
A new infographic from the Economic Policy Institute breaks down the composition of the 23 million underemployed workers in the United States.
Economic policy reports, blog postings, and media stories of interest:
Blogging for The Atlantic, Heather Boushey explains “the rise of ‘middle-out’ economics.”
Investing in high-quality public education, that is accessible to all, is obviously the first tenant of a middle-out economics. But, growing from the middle out also means recognizing the challenges that middle class families face, such as how to sort out caring for the young, the aged, and the infirm in an era when every adult has to have a job just to make ends meet. We need to figure out how to support families in ways that foster their labor force participation and make sure that the next generation is well cared for (and ready to learn when they arrive in the classroom).
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Another clear middle-out policy agenda would be to do more to update our nation’s aging infrastructure. …
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