South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Around The Dial – March 15

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

• The Baseline Scenario appreciates “enough.”
• Wolfgang Muenchau of The Financial Times says the EU can’t muddle through.
• Ezra Klein says some spending cuts lead to more spending.
• CBPP makes a case for reforming tax spending.
• Tapped maps out the debate over K-12 reform.

Job Openings In January

We’re Not Broke

E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post explains why the United States isn’t “broke” and how that idea is used to push certain policy agendas that may not be liked by the public.

Precisely. A phony metaphor is being used to hijack the nation’s political conversation and skew public policies to benefit better-off Americans and hurt most others.
…
We have an 8.9 percent unemployment rate, yet further measures to spur job creation are off the table. We’re broke, you see. We have a $15 trillion economy, yet we pretend to be an impoverished nation with no room for public investments in our future or efforts to ease the pain of a deep recession on those Americans who didn’t profit from it or cause it in the first place.
…
As Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) pointed out in a little-noticed but powerful speech on the economy in December, “during the past 20 years, 56 percent of all income growth went to the top 1 percent of households. Even more unbelievably, a third of all income growth went to just the top one-tenth of 1 percent.” Some people are definitely not broke, yet we can’t even think about raising their taxes.
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By contrast, Franken noted that “when you adjust for inflation, the median household income actually declined over the last decade.” Many of those folks are going broke, yet because “we’re broke,” we’re told we can’t possibly help them.

Around The Dial – March 14

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

• Robert Reich explains “why Obama isn’t fighting the budget battle.”
• Naked Capitalism doesn’t buy the “who-could-have-known excuse.”
• Paul Krugman defends the rule of law in the context of banking.
• The New York Times reports on Amazon.com and sales taxes.
• Calculated Risk previews this week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

SBN In The News

South by North Strategies’ analysis of the latest employment report for North Carolina appeared in a wide array of media outlets.

• The Winston-Salem Journal: “N.C. jobless rate rises to 9.9 percent in January”
• The Greensboro News & Record: “N.C. jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”
• The Fayetteville Observer: “State’s January jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”
• The Sun News: “NC’s January jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”
• Viewpoints: Radio interview about labor market

• Canadian Business: “NC gains 4,500 new jobs in January”
• CNBC.com: “NC’s January jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”
• The Street.com:“NC’s January jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”
• Businessweek.com: “NC’s January jobless rate creeps up to 9.9 percent”