Uncategorized Archives - Page 246 of 343 - Progressive Policy Institute

Investment Heroes: Who’s Betting on America’s Future?

Posted on July 11, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

American voters are finding it hard to get excited about this year’s presidential election. Job growth is slow. Economic growth is slow. Real wages have been essentially stagnant since 2009. It’s the same old story as when the recovery began three years ago. We are in an atmosphere of economic uncertainty. Voters—swing voters especially—are looking for news that will boost their confidence from all the economic doom and gloom going around. We are a country that needs to hear more (if not have more) economic successes.

Such successes begin at home with investment—business investment, government investment, and household investment. Government has to invest in infrastructure, education, and research. Households have to invest in their own human capital. And businesses have to invest in buildings, equipment, and software. All are essential—but in this report we will focus on business investment. Domestic business investment generates growth, raises productivity, increases wages and creates jobs for Americans. It can span the gamut from new office buildings to improved production lines to faster communications equipment to deeper natural gas wells.

Unfortunately, U.S. business investment tanked during the Great Recession, and has yet to recover. The graph below shows the extent of the drop-off—in 2011, non-residential investment remained more than 7% below 2007 levels, adjusting for prices. By comparison, personal consumption in real terms was higher in 2011 compared to 2007. We find ourselves in an investment drought, not a consumption drought.

Equally as important, before the recession companies were expanding their domestic investment at a rapid pace. In fact, we estimate there would have been a total of $1.4 trillion more in non-residential business investment over 2008-2011, in 2005 dollars, had business investment continued to grow at the same average annual rate in the ten years before the recession (4.8% over 1997-2007). That extra investment could have gone a long way creating jobs, boosting productivity, and enhancing U.S. competitiveness.

The decline and lackluster recovery in business investment has a wide range of causes, including globalization, regulatory barriers, and weak demand. Many companies are investing overseas rather than in the United States. Multiple layers of regulation, even if well-intentioned, have the impact of discouraging capital investment and innovation. And the continued weakness in demand at home makes it difficult to justify building new factories. But no matter what the reason, this weakness is having an adverse effect on economic growth and is one of the main reasons behind the job drought.

That’s why PPI wants to highlight those companies that are still investing domestically in buildings, equipment, and software. Using publicly available financial reports, PPI constructed a list of the top 25 nonfinancial U.S.-based companies ranked by their U.S. capital spending in 2011. In many cases this required detailed calculations and assumptions, since companies often report global capital spending without breaking it down by country. Financial companies were excluded because they do not publicly report their capital expenditures. (A more detailed explanation of our methodology can be found later in this memo.)

PPI calls these companies “Investment Heroes” to make a key point: the U.S. economy is at its best—in terms of growth and job creation—when companies and workers are partners with the same objectives. Half of the leading companies are telecom and energy, but the list also includes tech, retail, automotive, and entertainment companies.

Download the entire report.

Help Wanted: ‘Chief U.S. Investment Officer’

Posted on July 3, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Most people didn’t notice that Commerce Secretary Bryson resigned late last month. And why would they? The Commerce Department has long been one of the more obscure federal institutions, viewed by many as a hodge-podge of important but seemingly unrelated agencies like the Patent & Trademark Office, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Census Bureau. The agency is so partitioned that most Commerce employees probably haven’t noticed the unexpected departure.

That is a shame. Rather than being irrelevant, the Secretary of Commerce now plays a critical role as a champion for domestic investment – effectively America’s ‘Chief Investment Officer.’ Recent actions by President Obama put the Commerce Department at the forefront of encouraging U.S. investment. That places a significant responsibility on the Department, since business spending on stuff like new office space and equipment is critical to stimulating economic growth.

Continue reading “Help Wanted: ‘Chief U.S. Investment Officer’” →

Top 10 Mistakes Candidates Make on National Security

Posted on June 30, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Editor’s note: This item is cross-posted from Truman’s Doctrine Blog.

With the Fourth of July coming up there are a lot of politicians talking about national security. These are the top ten mistakes they make. Next week we will have the top ten ways to win on national security.

10. Holocaust comparison.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re Glenn Beck or a human rights advocate. As soon as you’ve made the Holocaust / Hitler / Nazi comparison, your audience has stopped listening.

Continue reading “Top 10 Mistakes Candidates Make on National Security” →

Prescription for Decline

Posted on June 29, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI President Will Marshall writes for Foreign Policy on the impact healthcare costs are having on the US economy and the “American decline.”

Lost in all the uproar over the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 “Obamacare” ruling was the crucial link between health-care reform and the issue voters care most about: the economy. America’s current health-care “system” isn’t just an ungainly, costly, and unjust mess. It also undercuts the United States’ ability to compete and win in world markets.

Amid the debate over “American decline,” this connection deserves a lot more attention than it’s getting. To revive U.S. international competitiveness, the country clearly needs to rein in runaway health-care costs. But it has to be done in the right way — not just by clamping down on spending, but also by boosting medical innovation and productivity.

Now that the court has upheld the individual mandate requiring most citizens to obtain health insurance, U.S. policymakers would ideally turn to the challenge of medical cost containment. This is unlikely to happen, however, because Republicans have vowed to make the repeal of the Affordable Care Act a centerpiece of their 2012 campaign message. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney dutifully promised Thursday to kill the “bad law,” even though it’s conceptually identical to the Massachusetts health plan he backed while governor of the state.

Read the entire article HERE

PPI Event – Improving Charter School Accountability: The Challenge of Closing Failing Schools

Posted on June 29, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

The Progressive Policy Institute hosted a forum to discuss the importance of holding charter schools accountable and closing those schools that are failing. David Osborne, Senior Fellow at PPI, released his report “Improving Charter School Accountability: The Challenge of Closing Failing Schools”

Accompanied by Greg Richmond, Nancy Van Meter, and Lindsey Burke, the forum stressed the potential for success of charter schools as a whole, but pointed to the importance of closing those charters that are failing their students. While the causes for failing schools was debated, there was a general consensus that these failing schools must do better and should be held to higher standards in their charters.

According to Osborne’s report, the primary way of achieving higher accountability and success is to start at the beginning, with the actual charters and authorizers. More training, larger staffs, better funding, and improved information are all critical to improving the quality of charter school authorizers and the schools that they are responsible for.

Download the report here: Improving Charter School Accountability: The Challenge of Closing Failing Schools

Continue reading “PPI Event – Improving Charter School Accountability: The Challenge of Closing Failing Schools” →

Election Watch: Romney Crosses Finish Line, Congressional Primaries Unfold

Posted on June 28, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

The presidential nominating contest officially came to a close on Tuesday with Utah’s primary—a reminder that this winner-take-all state was Mitt Romney’s ultimate fallback had the last real competitor standing, Rick Santorum, been able to make the Midwestern breakthrough he was so close to achieving.

Now down ballot primaries take over the spotlight, and Tuesday offered an interesting assortment of congressional contests.

There were two competitive Republican Senate primaries. One fairly nominal race was in New York, where one of 2011’s special election flavors of the month, Rep. Bob Turner (R-NY), who held the Queens seat vacated by Anthony Weiner, lost to right-wing judicial activist and Conservative Party nominee Wendy Long for the dubious privilege of taking on heavily favored Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in November.

Continue reading “Election Watch: Romney Crosses Finish Line, Congressional Primaries Unfold” →

Obama’s Election-Year Housing Push Shows a Pulse

Posted on June 27, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI Senior Fellow Jason Gold weighs in on new housing legislation over at CNBC:

U.S. President Barack Obama’s election-year “to do” list for Congress appears likely to largely fall victim to partisan sniping, but one element — mortgage relief — is showing a pulse.

Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have both expressed interest in a bill that could make it easier for millions of Americans to refinance home loans, although they are circling each other warily as they try to determine their first steps.

“This is the one chance Washington could show the country that they can throw blue and red out the window,” said Jason Gold, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

“There is hardly a congressional district out there that would not see at least 10,000 households benefit. It’s a win.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Photo credit: StevenM_61

Improving Charter School Accountability: The Challenge of Closing Failing Schools

Posted on June 26, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Today some 5,600 charter schools are in operation, with more than two million students. Some critics persist in a fruitless argument that these schools have failed, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. But regardless of your opinion about them, charter schools are here to stay. Those concerned about public education should quit debating whether we should have charter schools and instead focus on improving their quality. That will require us to do at least two big things. We must replicate the most successful charter models—the subject of a Progressive Policy Institute paper last year, Going Exponential: Growing the Charter School Sector’s Best— and we must close down the worst charter schools— the subject of this report.

From the beginning, the charter concept was to give schools more autonomy—freedom to hire and fire their staffs and control their own budgets and curriculum—while still holding them accountable for performance. No charter would be allowed to fail its students year after year, as traditional public schools are often permitted to do. If their students were not learning, they would close.

This promise has not always been fulfilled. Hundreds of school districts have authorized charters then failed to invest in oversight. Even some statewide authorizers report that they have insufficient data to make merit-based renewal and revocation decisions.

Let me be clear: failing charter schools are at much greater risk of closing than other failing public schools. Still, if we are to harness their true potential, many states need to heighten that risk. In its first 10 years, the charter community focused mostly on quantity: getting charters open. Over the past ten years, it has focused increasingly on charter school quality. Today, it is time to open a third frontier: authorizer quality. The key to quality in the charter sector is quality authorizing.

In this report, I discuss why it is so important that authorizers close failing charters, review the facts about charter and authorizer performance, examine why some authorizers fail to close underperforming charters and propose solutions to these problems. To answer such questions, I have reviewed the literature and interviewed fifteen current or former charter authorizers and another ten experts on charter schools. In addition, thanks to the generosity of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), I have reviewed the data accumulated by its annual surveys of authorizers.

Should Germany focus less on austerity and more on reforms?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI’s Will Marshall on Germany setting the Euro tune over at CNN:

Despite all the attention lavished on the Greek election, the outcome barely registered in Europe’s financial markets. Everyone knows the eurozone’s fate won’t be decided by the shimmering Aegean Sea, but in drizzly Berlin.

Germany is the key, but it’s torn by conflicting impulses. As the main engine of European economic integration, Germany is determined to preserve the 17-nation eurozone. But as Europe’s lender of last resort, it’s loath to bail out countries that took advantage of the euro to borrow extravagantly and live beyond their means.

To avoid such “moral hazard,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel sternly insists that Greece and other debt-ridden nations, notably Spain and Italy, commit to stringent fiscal discipline in return for the loans they need to service their enormous debts and pay their bills.

Read the entire article HERE

Should Germany focus less on austerity and more on reforms?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI President Will Marshall discusses Germany’s role in solving the European crisis over at CNN:

“Despite all the attention lavished on the Greek election, the outcome barely registered in Europe’s financial markets. Everyone knows the eurozone’s fate won’t be decided by the shimmering Aegean Sea, but in drizzly Berlin.

Germany is the key, but it’s torn by conflicting impulses. As the main engine of European economic integration, Germany is determined to preserve the 17-nation eurozone. But as Europe’s lender of last resort, it’s loath to bail out countries that took advantage of the euro to borrow extravagantly and live beyond their means.

To avoid such “moral hazard,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel sternly insists that Greece and other debt-ridden nations, notably Spain and Italy, commit to stringent fiscal discipline in return for the loans they need to service their enormous debts and pay their bills. Greek voters were incensed by these Teutonic demands for spending cuts and tax hikes, but they narrowly chose to stick with the euro rather than risking a “Grexit” from the eurozone.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Photo Credit: European Council

Election Watch: All Eyes on Supreme Court, Obama Pushes GOP on Immigration

Posted on June 22, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

Ed Kilgore is a PPI senior fellow, as well as managing editor of The Democratic Strategist, an online

This week’s skirmishing in the presidential campaign revolved around the president’s immigration initiative and preparations for the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act, due to be handed down next week.

The executive order (technically issued by the Department of Homeland Security) offered the children of undocumented workers a two-year, renewable immunity from prosecution if they had entered the country prior to the age of 16 and are currently under 30; have a high-school diploma or GED or a record of military service; and have no serious criminal record. It’s basically a “Lite” version of the DREAM Act, which Obama also supports, in that it provides no path to citizenship. And most importantly, from a political point of view, the administration initiative is very close to what Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has reportedly been working on in the form of legislation that could free Republicans (and the Republican presidential candidate in particular) from the taint of being hostile to any remedial action to help children here illegally.

Continue reading “Election Watch: All Eyes on Supreme Court, Obama Pushes GOP on Immigration” →

Why Young Grads Struggle to Pay Mounting Debt

Posted on June 19, 2012September 18, 2024 by The Progressive Policy Institute

According to new calculations by the Progressive Policy Institute, the strongest growth in employment for college grads aged 21-29 since the end of the recession has been in jobs like dental assistants, bus drivers, hairstylists, and event ticket takers.

This sobering news may make recent college grads – and their bill-paying parents – wonder what exactly they’re getting for all the years and dollars invested in getting a degree.

According to data compiled by PPI, since May 2009 young college grads have seen big employment gains in occupations once held by those workers with less than a college degree. That includes healthcare support, transportation, personal care & service, and production jobs, which all saw employment gains of over 20% for those with a college degree or higher aged 21-29. Employment growth in office and administrative jobs – secretaries, file clerks, bank tellers, payroll assistants, etc. – increased over 10% for young college grads. Meanwhile, young workers with less than a college degree saw substantial employment declines in similar jobs.

Continue reading “Why Young Grads Struggle to Pay Mounting Debt” →

End Seniority to Help Depolarize Congress

Posted on June 18, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

PPI Senior Fellow Anne Kim explains how to de-polarize Congress over at Roll Call:

In the last several months, the Washington policy world has begun a necessary and constructive debate over how to “de-polarize” the nation’s politics. Scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, for example, have made a compelling case for a suite of structural improvements to the political system, including redistricting and campaign finance reform.

But while most proposals have looked to fix the political system in the big picture, another place to look to reform might be Congress’ internal workings as well. In particular, Congress should consider scrapping seniority as the basis for deciding committee chairmanships, especially in the House where individual members have much less power than in the Senate.

Aside from leadership, committee chairs are among the most powerful members of Congress. They decide the legislative agenda, broker deals over major bills and shepherd them through Congress. They wield enormous influence over their colleagues and command prodigious fundraising ability.

Read the entire article HERE.

Policy Brief: How to Boost the Economy by Helping Homeowners

Posted on June 18, 2012 by The Progressive Policy Institute

The disappointing May jobs report raises the question: what’s slamming the brakes on economic recovery? For one answer, look to the sector where the economic crisis started in the first place – housing. U.S. housing markets are still broken, and we can’t expect a full recovery until they are fixed.

That’s why Congress and the administration should act promptly to pass a major home refinancing initiative. Taking advantage of historically low interest rates, it would reduce mortgage payments and give millions of middle class families more money to spend. The idea is to stimulate economic demand while helping responsible homeowners hold onto their homes.

With 33 percent of homeowners still underwater (meaning they owe more than their house is worth), a massive wave of refinancing would allow borrowers who are current on their mortgages to lower their mortgage rate. Cutting their payments by thousands of dollars a year would help them pay down debt and put money back into the economy. The good news is that the benefits far outweigh any small costs the programs would incur. A bill that would allow 12 million borrowers with GSE loans to refinance would provide $2,600 in annual savings to these households. Approximately $1.83 trillion in refinanced mortgages would lower American mortgage payments by $31 billion a year. The GSEs would even see between $11 to $18 billion in new revenues from upfront costs.

Congress has been offered a raft of proposals that would streamline the process of refinancing home loans for a number of borrowers. These bills are aimed at loans backed by government guarantees from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants currently in conservatorship by the Federal Government. By virtue of having bailed Fannie and Freddie out, taxpayers already “own” the risk of default on these loans. Why not allow refinancing that would reduce the number of home foreclosures?