US Birth Rate at Lowest Level Since 1920

By TARA BAHRAMPOUR, The Washington Post

November 30, 2012

The U.S. birth rate plunged last year to a record low, with the decline being led by immigrant women hit hard by the recession, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

The overall birth rate declined by 8 percent between 2007 and 2010, with a decrease of 6 percent among U.S.-born women and 14 percent among foreign-born women. The decline for Mexican immigrant women was more extreme, at 23 percent. The overall birth rate is now at its lowest since 1920, the earliest year with reliable records.

Shocking Chart on Tuition vs. Earnings for College Grads

By BLAIRE BRIODY, The Fiscal Times

November 30, 2012

 

Student debt levels have reached a new high – rising $42 billion in the last quarter to $956 billion, according to a report this week from the New York Fed. At the same time, tuition rates have seen a staggering 72 percent increase since 2000.

Obama’s economic philosophy, in 8 charts

Posted by Zachary A. Goldfarb on November 28, 2012 at 5:27 pm

If you look at President Obama’s biography and policies, you see one unifying theme more than any other: Obama wants to reduce income inequality.

His policies seem designed to achieve other objectives. The 2009 stimulus sought to end the recession. The 2010 Affordable Care Act strove to expand health-care coverage as widely as possible. And in the upcoming tax policy debate, Obama is seeking to shrink the nation’s deficits over time. But in each case, Obama is also trying to reverse three decades of growing income disparity in the United States.

Egypt Crisis Raises Fears Of 'Second Revolution'

Protesters run as they face Egyptian riot Police during clashes on Omar Makram street, off Tahrir Square, on November 28, 2012 in Cairo. Police fired tear gas into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where several hundred protesters spent the night after a mass rally to denounce President Mohamed Morsi's assumption of expanded powers. (GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images) 

CAIRO -- Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers.

Activists warn that his actions threaten a "second revolution," but Mohammed Morsi faces a different situation than his ousted predecessor, Hosni Mubarak: He was democratically elected and enjoys the support of the nation's most powerful political movement.

Inequality Breeds Resistance to Globalization

Don’t blame globalization for inequality – but rather policies hijacked by a few

Pranab Bardhan

YaleGlobal, 27 November 2012

Rich economy, poor management: China’s rich flaunt their wealth (top); India’s poor children wait for a mid-day meal

BERKELEY: Economic globalization in the sense of expansion of foreign trade and investment is, of course, somewhat anemic, reflecting the impact of global recession, although still vigorous in the sense of continuous international transmission of technology, information, ideas and social media.

But in the world of politics and policymaking a cold wind is blowing, dimming earlier enthusiasm for global integration and market liberalization. The Doha round of trade negotiations is moribund. Economic integration in Europe is in disarray. Not merely is the fuming against imports from China and immigrants from Mexico now a staple of American electoral politics, the populist anger in all countries, rich or poor, against the galloping rise in inequality is often directed at the dark forces of global intrusion and competition.

The Fiscal Cliff: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ

Posted by Suzy Khimm, Ezra Klein, Dylan Matthews and Brad Plumer on November 27, 2012 at 9:00 am

Washington is engaged in an all-consuming debate about how to resolve the “fiscal cliff” — which we like to call, for reasons that will soon be explained, “the austerity crisis.” But what is that and why does it matter? We at Wonkblog put together a FAQ to sort it out. And we’ll keep updating this FAQ as the debate rages on.

Want to tax capital and income equally? Try the Buffett rule

Posted by Dylan Matthews on November 27, 2012 at 10:09 am

Warren Buffett (Daniel Acker — Bloomberg)

Enthusiasm is building for a “minimum tax” for the wealthy, in which millionaires would have to pay, say, 30 percent of their income in taxes, no ifs or buts. Republicans in Congress have floated taxing the entire income of high-earners at 35 percent, while Warren Buffett has renewed his call for a minimum tax of 30 percent for millionaires.

Let’s hope the austerity crisis is holding back business spending

Posted by Neil Irwin on November 27, 2012 at 10:18 am

Can they reach a deal? Business investment spending may hang in the balance.

There are new signs that businesses are pulling back on their investment spending in advance of the looming austerity crisis. And that’s the good news.

Shipments of core capital goods, a measure that excludes defense spending and aircraft — a common measure of business investment — fell 0.4 percent in October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. There is an obvious and likely explanation: Firms were becoming all the more wary of what might happen with the “fiscal cliff,” the wave of tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 absent a new agreement. If you are a corporate executive weighing the purchase of a piece of industrial equipment or a truck for your delivery fleet, you may well decide “I’ll just wait to see how all this shakes out.”

Does advertising help or harm the economy?

Posted by Brad Plumer on November 27, 2012 at 11:21 am

It’s impossible to escape advertising. Truck ads on billboards, beer ads on television, pop-up ads for credit cards on the Internet. It’s everywhere. Last year, U.S. companies spent about $144 billion on commercials and other forms of marketing—about 1 percent of the GDP. So what effect do all these ads have on the economy?

The dangerous fiscal deadline isn’t Dec. 31 – it’s February 2013

Posted by Suzy Khimm on November 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

(Source: Mark Lennihan / AP)

The debt ceiling has largely taken a backseat to the looming fiscal changes that are scheduled to take effect on Dec. 31. But unless it’s dealt with in the lame duck Congress, we’re going to hit another debt limit come February 2013, according a new analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center.