May 16, 2012
"In February President Obama laid out his framework for reforming corporate taxes. He proposed a substantial cut in the corporate income tax rate from 35 to 28 percent — a boon to companies, especially small businesses that lack the opportunities for tax avoidance that major companies regularly exploit.
"As I wrote at the time, the president proposed to make this tax cut revenue neutral so it doesn't increase the deficit. He called for reforming many of the provisions of the...
May 14, 2012
"Even those who denounce our “unsustainable welfare state” don’t agree on what it is or how its spending should be measured.
"Brandishing the phrase in his recent call for a structural revolution, David Brooks of The New York Times didn’t get specific.
"The Heritage Foundation sometimes offers a narrow definition of the “unsustainable welfare state,” based on means-tested programs – benefits directed to those with income below a poverty...
May 12, 2012
There continues to be debate over whether current unemployment should be regarded as structural or the result of demand deficiency. Both can be true simultaneously. But history suggests the structural problem can be eradicated by a demand expansion.
May 11, 2012
Haruo Shimada is president of Chiba University of Commerce in Japan. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he returned to Japan and was a professor at Keio University for 40 years.
Shimada is the author of numerous books on the Japanese economy and international management and labor problems. He has been a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ESSEC, France. He also served as chairman of Economic Research Center...
May 10, 2012
It might seem that ERISA covers all workplace benefits. However, that is not the case, as a recent case from Puerto Rico shows.
May 4, 2012
In the Mitchell's Musing of 4-16-12, I cautioned about overinterpretation of the monthly job growth numbers due to the mild winter and the vagaries of statistical adjustments for seasonality. Now the April release on employment reinforces that cautionary note.
May 1, 2012
"A significant number of American voters seem to believe that the unemployed don’t really want jobs because they would prefer to live off unemployment insurance or other social benefits.
These are the voters that many Republicans (and some Democrats) are reaching for when they propose to “welfarize” unemployment insurance – imposing requirements for volunteer work or blanket drug tests.
"Many such voters are also drawn to a particular austerity strategy my...
April 27, 2012
Universities and colleges are seen as the route to good jobs, even though the public subsidies to higher education have been declining. Universities are expected to do more with less, i.e., operate with increased efficiency. Good management is needed to achieve such economies. A recent report on an incident involving pepper spraying of student demonstrators at the University of California-Davis points to a failure of academic management. But it does not identify the underlying reason for the...
April 24, 2012
"The recent dust-up over a Democratic consultant’s comment that Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mother, had never worked a day in her life initially seemed like a minor campaign skirmish. Everyone, including the woman who made the comment, quickly agreed that parenting was work.
As the air cleared, however, the policy implications of defining unpaid activities as work — productive, socially valuable work — suddenly shimmered in the spotlight.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes quickly...
April 20, 2012
Antoinette Schoar, MIT entrepreneurial finance professor, talks about trends in venture capital, why VC today is going through a transformation from what it was in the 1990s. Schoar made these remarks at a panel discussion, "Entrepreneurism, Good Jobs, Successful Enterprises and 21st Century Prosperity," on March 13, 2012, at MIT's Sloan School of Management, sponsored by the Employment Policy Research Network with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
