EPI in the news

• Trump Pledges To Withdraw From U.S.-South Korea Trade Agreement

  ZARROLI: South Korea sells many billions of dollars’ worth of products to the United States – chemicals, cars, dishwashers, smartphones. Companies such as Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo have become familiar brands to Americans. They have long-sold many more products to the United States than U.S. companies sell in Korea, and that has sometimes led to frictions between the two countries. The trade pact was supposed to change that by prying open Korean markets to American exports. But that hasn’t happened, says Rob Scott of the Economic Policy Institute.

  ROB SCOTT: We were supposed to benefit from the deal. It didn’t work out that way (laughter). At the end of the day, U.S. exports to Korea have fallen since the agreement took effect.

  ZARROLI: Scott says since 2012, the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea – the difference between what Americans buy from the country and what they sell there – has more than doubled to $28.3 billion in 2015. And Scott estimates that this trade deficit has cost the U.S. some 90,000 jobs. Why this has happened is due in part to Americans love of spending, says economist Sung Won Sohn of California State University.

  NPR | September 7, 2017
• The sad story of public education in St. Louis

   

  In a report for the Economic Policy Institute, economist Richard Rothstein draws a direct line from residential housing policies made by the federal government to the isolation of low-income black children in American cities, including St. Louis. In an interview with a St. Louis reporter, Rothstein points to integrated neighborhoods in the city, such as Desoto-Carr, that were transformed into single race communities through federal housing programs. (Richard quoted throughout)

  The Washington Post | September 7, 2017
• Progressives Prepare to Stop Tax Cuts Amid GOP Infighting

   

  Instead, they’re preparing to stop a bill, or at least minimize the tax cuts they find most damaging in a bill—an opportunity that has presented itself as Republicans fail to coalesce around a single tax plan. “We have very small hopes that any of our ideas can make it in there, and none of our genuine priorities,” Josh Bivens, research director at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told Bloomberg BNA. “In reality, what we are thinking about is how to prevent a net tax cut for the rich and for corporations.” … Not One Penny and Americans for Tax Fairness, which share many of the same members, say that public opinion is on their side. People really don’t like the idea of tax cuts, Bivens said. Sixty percent of respondents to anApril Pew Research poll said they are bothered “a lot” by the feeling that wealthy people don’t pay the

  Bloomberg BNA | September 7, 2017
• “We are all scared”: “Dreamers” face job risk and worse

   

  The 800,000 Dreamers who have benefited from the program “will become instantly deportable and lose the ability to work legally and contribute to the United States, and will be effectively left without labor rights and employment law protections in the workplace,” noted Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning economic think-tank, in a blog post.

  CBS Moneywatch | September 6, 2017
• Silicon Valley, Wall Street executives say DACA rollback hurts business

   

  But Daniel Costa, a researcher for the Economic Policy Institute, said that while this decision might in theory free up jobs at big companies, it will force DACA recipients into less regulated sectors such as the service industry, where wages are much lower. “People who have DACA are still the lowest priority for deportation, and probably have more ties to the U.S. than other unauthorized immigrants, which means they are unlikely to leave anytime soon unless they get removed,” he said. Those who don’t leave voluntarily, he said, “will be forced to work for lower wages, or without authorizations.”

  San Francisco Chronicle | September 6, 2017
• To Raise Wages, Make Employers Compete for U.S. Workers

   

  U.S. employers bring in guest workers for unskilled work through three visa programs: the H2-A visa for agricultural workers, the H-2B visa for non-agricultural workers, and the J-1 visa for exchange visitors. H-2A visas are for crop workers. H-2B visas are concentrated in landscaping, forestry, amusement and recreation, housekeeping, and construction. J-1 visa holders are typically young people from other countries who come to the U.S. as au pairs, camp counselors, and interns. Daniel Costa of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute estimates that 450,000 temporary laborers enter the U.S. annually through these three visa programs.

  Bloomberg | September 6, 2017
• Rescinding DACA could cost 700,000 workers their jobs and employers $6.3 billion in employee turnover costs

   

  Should these workers not lose their jobs, the Economic Policy Institute notes that they would still become instantly deportable and effectively left without labor rights and employment law protections in the workplace.

  Business Insider | September 6, 2017

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