Posted by: Dan Beucke on November 10
By Moira Herbst
The U.S. union workforce is increasingly female, Asian or Latino, and more highly educated, according to a study released today by the non-profit Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
The report, “The Changing Face of Labor, 1983-2008," chronicles the demographic shift that’s taken place over the past 25 years among union members. It underscores that new forces will continue to shape the political agendas of labor unions, which played a key role in get-out-the-vote operations in Presidential elections.
“The view that the typical union worker is a white male manufacturing worker may have been correct a quarter of a century ago, but it’s not an
accurate description of those in today's labor movement,” said John Schmitt, senior economist at CEPR and an author of the report. “The unionized workforce is changing with the country.”
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Posted by: Cathy Arnst on November 05
Another survey out today blows holes in the oft-repeated claim that the U.S. has the best health care in the world. The survey, of 10,000 primary care doctors in 11 wealthy nations, found that American patients are far more likely to lack access to medical treatment because of insurance restrictions or cost, despite the fact that the U.S. spends twice as much per capita on health care as any other developed nation.
All told, 58% of U.S. doctors said their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and other medical care, compared with 5% to 37% in the other countries surveyed. In addition, U.S. doctors are less likely than those in the other countries surveyed to offer care outside of regular office hours, and are far, far behind several other nations in the use of electronic health records that could reduce errors.
The survey, conducted by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, questioned 10,000 doctors in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Britain and the U.S. between February and July of this year.
The U.S. spent $7,290 per person on health care in 2007 -- more than double the expenditures by Britain, France and Germany -- with no meaningful edge in the quality of care on a number of measures, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The UN ranks France the best in the world for health care.
The Commonwealth Fund concludes:
Despite spending more on health care than other countries, an international survey finds the United States lags behind on important measures of access, quality, and use of health information technology. There are opportunities to learn as other countries move ahead to enhance the primary care foundations of their health care systems.
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Posted by: Brian Burnsed on November 03
Yesterday, we posted a story on potential changes in the net-operating loss carryback rules that would allow firms of any size to get a significant tax break to offset losses they experienced since the onset of the financial crisis. The rule change comes as part of a bill that would extend unemployment compensation and is likely to pass the Senate and House by week’s end.
A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research claims that extending the carryback period from two years to five years as proposed in the legislation would prove to be a $34 billion financial windfall for corporate America (most major banks are excluded from receiving the tax benefits because firms that received TARP money do not qualify).
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Posted by: Cathy Arnst on November 02
There is a set of charts flying around the policy blogosphere today that starkly illustrates why the U.S. devotes almost 18% of its gross domestic product to health care spending, while other wealthy nations spend no more than 10% or 11%: Because we pay far, far more per unit of care than any other country.
The 36-page document was put together in September by the International Federation of Health Plans, which represents 100 insurers in 31 countries. It consists of a number of charts that show the difference between what the U.S. pays for any number of medical services, and what other industrialized countries pay.
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Posted by: Jane Sasseen on November 02
It's a busy, busy day at the White House on the economic front. With sky-high joblessness still a big economic and political problem, the President and his economic advisors will spend a big chunk of the day trying to come up with more effective solutions.
First, the president is meeting for the board of outside advisors -- known as the the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) -- he named soon after taking office. This will be the second meeting of the PERAB, whose outside members include GE CEO Jeff Immelt, AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka and Robert Wolf, the head of UBS Group America. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker heads the group; a full list of attendees is below.
According to the White House, the idea is to discuss "long-term, innovation based ideas to sustain growth and continue to create jobs of the future." The meeting, which will take place in the Roosevelt Room, starts at 11:10 and is being streamed on www.whitehouse.gov/live.
And that's just a start. In the afternoon, starting at 2 PM, the President's full economic team will be attemding a meeting of the National Economic Council led by NEC head Larry Summers. They, too, will be mulling over the state of the economy and debating Administration efforts to create new jobs and put the country on the path to sustainable, long-term growth.
Both meetings have an all star roster. Summers's NEC meeting will include Domestic Policy advisor Melody Barnes, Office of Energy and Climate Change Director Carol Browner, Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Export-Important Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, NSC Director James Jones, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Chief of Staff to the Vice President Ron Klain, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, SBA Administrator Karen Mills, OMB Director Peter Orszag, Interior Secretary Ken Salazer, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The PERAB meeting, chaired by Volcker, features a host of prominent insiders and outsiders as well. Board members include Anna Burger, Chair, Change to Win; John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; William H. Donaldson, Former Chairman, SEC; Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF; Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L.P.; Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury; Austan Goolsbee, Staff Director and Chief Economist; Jeff Immelt, Chairman & CEO, GE; Monica C. Lozano, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion; Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation; Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group; Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council; David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University; Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO; Paul Volcker, Chairman; Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas. There are a few other administration attendees as well, including David Axelrod, Special Advisor to the President; Carol Browner, Office of Energy and Climate Change Director; Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff; Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of Inter-governmental Affairs
