KnowNOW!

Global Economic Watch

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

Other Useful Blogs

Archives

  • US Census: 1% Jump in Poverty Rate from 2008 to 2009

    The US Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty in the US last week, and it showed a more than 1% increase in the poverty rate from 2008 to 2009. The official poverty rate for 2009 was 14.3 percent. That means 43.6 million Americans were below the poverty line in 2009, and it marks the third year in a row that the number of people living in poverty increased, according to the report. Here's a look at these last few years in a longer context: As bad as the headlines of the report are, Ron Haskins , co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families says there was reason to think the impact of the recession on poor families would be a lot worse: Read the Census report here . For more commentary from Ron Haskins, click here .

  • Romer Q and A on Health Care Reform and Small Business

    As a follow-up to our earlier post about small business and health care reform, here's video of CEA Chair Christina Romer 's online Q and A from earlier this week: Small Business and Health Reform: Christina Romer Takes Your Questions from White House on Vimeo .

  • Americans Get Fatter in Lean Times

    There seems to be an inverse relationship between our waists and our wallets. During the last year, 23 states got fatter, and not one got thinner. The Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report on obesity yesterday. Colorado is the only state with an adult obesity rate under 20%. Mississippi's rate, the highest in the nation for the fifth year in a row, is 32.5%. The report's authors see the economic crisis exacerbating the obesity problem: The current economic crisis could exacerbate the obesity epidemic. Food prices, particularly for more nutritious foods, are expected to rise, making it more difficult for families to eat healthy foods. At the same time, safety-net programs and services are becoming increasingly overextended as the numbers of unemployed, uninsured and underinsured continue to grow. In addition, due to the strain of the recession, rates of depression, anxiety and stress, which are linked to obesity for many individuals, also are increasing. You can read F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing America here . Also, we've charted adult obesity rates against per capita GDP by state. Take a look.

  • Harvard Med Study: 'Personal Bankruptcies From Serious Illness Rise 50% from 2001'

    As Washington debates health care reform, more and more American are going bankrupt-- 6,000 a day in May according to USA Today . And the two issues appear to be closely linked. A new Harvard study concludes that at least 62% of people who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2007 did so after serious medical illness. That constituted a 50% rise from 2001. And in 1981, only 8% of personal bankruptcies were due in part to medical illness. Middle class Americans seem to be most susceptible. "60.3% had attended college and 66.4% owned a home. 20% of families included a military veteran or active duty soldier." Most of those individuals and families that went bankrupt had medical insurance, according to the report: 77.9% of the individuals whose illness led to bankruptcy had health insurance at the onset of the bankrupting illness; 60.3% had private insurance. 69% of debtor families had coverage at the time of their bankruptcy filing 60% of families had continuous coverage Only 0.3% of the uninsured went without coverage voluntarily, i.e. because they though they didn't need it - most others couldn't afford it. The lead author of the study is David Himmelstein of Harvard Medical School. Elizabeth Warren , who before she chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel rose to prominence as a personal bankruptcy expert at Harvard Law, is also an author of the report. The full study will be published in the August issue of The American Journal of Medicine , but most of the data is available here .

  • The Long Term Deficit: Brookings Economist Says it is Time to Worry...and React

    Isabel Sawhill focuses on domestic poverty and federal fiscal policy for the Brookings Institution, where she is a senior fellow in Economic Studies. She says she isn't so concerned about deficits during recessionary periods, but rather the long term deficit. We're heading for massive federal deficit problems, and the long term deficit problem is being "driven by the aging of the population and health care costs." And she says the time to worry about that is now:

  • Small Business Owners' Confidence Wanes

    Small business owners are less confident about prospects, according to the Discover Small Business Watch January survey . After rising to 72.8 for December , the Small Business Watch's confidence index fell to 71.4 in January. 17% of those surveyed see the economic conditions getting better, while 51% say conditions are worse for their businesses. Other findings that stand out from the survey include: -Only 19 percent of owners say they plan to increase spending on business development over the next six months, the lowest number for this category in the Watch’s 30-month history. Forty-six percent say they plan to reduce spending on business development and 30 percent are not making any changes. -When asked whether they will have to raise money this year in order to keep their businesses running, 53 percent of small business owners say they will not, while 32 percent expect to need additional funds, and 15 percent were not sure. -Eighty-five percent of small business owners say they do not offer health insurance to their employees, up significantly from 77 percent a year ago and 74 percent in January 2007. Among small business owners who do offer health insurance, 36 percent say they have considered discontinuing coverage because of high costs.

  • Economists On Fresh Air

    WHYY and NPR's Fresh Air has an economic stimulus double feature today. Terry Gross talks first with Dean Baker about how revamping health care on a national scale might boost the economy. Then Greg Mankiw takes the hot seat and does something he's been doing a lot lately: laying out all the reasons to be skeptical about government spending as a panacea for all current economic ills. You can listen online here , or download the podcast here .