In July 16 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hosted a discussion on improving diversity and inclusion within the asset management industry. The SEC doesn’t have a long history of using its powers to focus on diversity, but SEC Chairman Jay Clayton sounded an optimistic note: “We should continue to ask ourselves how we want participation and representation in…
Blog
Given the ongoing pandemic, capital investment is more important than ever before. Hundreds of billions of dollars of investment by broadband providers enabled the U.S. Internet to respond magnificently to soaring demand when the pandemic hit. On the other hand, some of the sectors that have struggled the most—such as medical equipment and supplies and…
The Reinventing America's Schools Project sponsored an engaging discussion entitled "To Open or Not To Open: Educational Equity Under COVID." Over 4,000 parents, educators, advocates, funders, journalists, and policy makers registered to hear from experts in teaching, parental engagement, system leadership and health on how to equitably reopen schools in the fall. Our moderator and…
This past weekend a Wall Street Journal piece quoted me on ecommerce jobs: One economist who has looked at these trends has concluded something surprising: When you include all the jobs in fulfillment, delivery, and related roles, e-commerce has created more jobs between 2007 and January 2020 than bricks-and-mortar retailers lost, says Michael Mandel, chief…
Consumers are getting turned down for all sorts of financial products, from personal and auto loans to credit cards. The Wall Street Journal, using Equifax data, reports that credit card approvals totaled 483,000 in the week ending May 10, down from 856,000 in the week ending March 22. To compare to the year prior, weekly…
Two bills introduced in Congress, H.R. 6370 and S. 3508, ‘‘Disaster Protection for Workers’ Credit Act of 2020’’ would impose a moratorium on credit reporting of “adverse information” for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. Credit scores are an integral part of the consumer credit underwriting process as their power to predict the likelihood of…
PPI strongly supports science-based regulatory policy, no matter where the evidence leads us. This means tackling tough problems with an open and pragmatic mind to achieve the best possible outcomes. Moreover, we place a high premium on clear communication of information relevant for public health, especially in today's turbulent times. From that perspective, we applaud…
The Covid recession is the most uneven economic downturn in history. Take a look at the following table, which we calculated from last Thursday's employment data. The table compares occupational employment in the second quarter of 2020 with the second quarter of 2019. On the one hand, some occupations, like computer and mathematics-related jobs,…
Last year I did a paper entitled The Declining Cost of Advertising: Policy Implications. Not surprisingly, I was intrigued by the new report from the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, entitled Online platforms and digital advertising market study . I'm still going through the report, which exceeds 400 pages, not including multiple appendixes.…
The Trump administration’s hospital price transparency rule, upheld by a district court judge this week, will require hospitals to post publicly the rates they negotiate with insurers beginning in January. President Trump called it a “BIG VICTORY for patients — Federal court UPHOLDS hospital price transparency. Patients deserve to know the price of care BEFORE they enter the…
