The presidential election is over, but for progressives, the process of winning back the working class has just begun. In this note we’re going to focus on beer. Why beer? First, brewery employment is one of the great success stories in manufacturing in recent years. The number of jobs in the brewery industry increased a stunning…
Publications
The COVID-19 pandemic is already a world-historic event, both in terms of health and economics. For Brazil, no one knows how far the disease will go and how bad the damage will be. (A Brazillian Portuguese version is available for download here/Versão em português do brasil) Yet as people around the world engage in “social…
Americans are fed up seeing corporate profits soaring even as their paychecks inch upward by comparison. Companies need stronger incentives to share their prosperity with workers – something the 2017 GOP tax package should have included. Though President Donald Trump promised higher wages as one result of his corporate tax cuts, the biggest winners were…
Press
PPI's Ben Ritz joined an expert panel on Capitol Hill last week to discuss the recently published report by Social Security's trustees. The annual report projected that the program's trust funds face insolvency within the next 16 years, after which point beneficiaries face the prospect of an across-the-board cut of 23 percent. All panelists encouraged…
As the idea of "free college" gains popularity, Virginia and Iowa are instead focused on career and technical education. In the midst of record low unemployment, many states are nonetheless struggling with ongoing skills gaps -- shortages of workers with the right skills for in-demand jobs. At the start of 2019, according to the Department…
For Immediate Release (3/6/19) WASHINGTON - "Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Congressman Mike Doyle (PA-14) today unveiled a bill that will only continue to delay real action on net neutrality. Congress last passed significant legislation on our communications networks in 1996 and this new proposed bill is a continuation of the DC game of rhetoric…
Blog
The U.S. and China continue to battle it out over semiconductor manufacturing as part of the larger tech war between the two countries. While the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) estimates U.S. firms account for 45 to 50 percent of annual semiconductor sales worldwide, their share of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity has declined from 37 percent…
The failure of the app intended to collect results from the Democratic caucuses in Iowa wasn’t the best advertisement for the App Economy. But we have to remember that apps play a central role in the economy. As part of a global project measuring the size of the App Economy, we estimated the U.S. App…
In a perfect example of unintended consequences, restaurant workers are pushing back against a nationwide campaign by labor advocates intended to raise their wages. They worry that the advocates’ push will cost them more in lost tips than they’ll gain in mandated wage increases – and cut their income overall. These workers have found an…
