Spotlight

Graph of the Day: Lower-Wage Jobs

The Center for Economic and Policy Research have a new report out this week that provides an interesting perspective on the now hot-button issue of income inequality. According to the report nearly a quarter of American workers were in low-wage jobs in 2009, a higher percentage than in any other rich, developed country. Find out more in Benjamin Landy's Graph of the Day: Why Does the U.S. Have More Lower-Wage Jobs than Europe?

Richard Kahlenberg on CUNY's City Talk

Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation discusses his book "Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy" on CUNY's City Talk, hosted by Professor Doug Muzzio, co-director of the Center for the Study of Leadership in Government and the founder and former director of the Baruch College Survey Research Unit. View the show here.

A Test for Egypt: Hearing All Voices

The fate of one man can sometimes clarify the deepest flaws of a government and of the society it rules. In Egypt, on the anniversary of its uprising against Hosni Mubarak, that man is Maikel Nabil Sanad. Read Fellow Michael Wahid Hanna's op-ed, "A Test for Egypt: Hearing All Voices" in the New York Times.

Photo by sierragoddess

Community Colleges and the State of the Union

Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg, in a piece for the  Chronicle of Higher Education, reacts to the State of the Union address and President Obama's emphasis on the role of education, and community colleges. Kahlenberg says there needs to be more of a focus on helping community colleges restore equal opportunity for individuals of all backgrounds. 

Photo: Panoramio

State of the Union Reactions

Fellow Mark Thoma responds to the economic policies discussed by President Obama in the State of the Union address in Blog of the Century. Meanwhile, Senior Fellow Jeffrey Laurenti writes about Obama's focus on foreign policy in Blog of the Century and Fellow Michael Cohen discusses how Obama bookended his speech with the killing of Osama bin Laden in Foreign Policy.

Mitch Daniels, Deficit Peacock

In issuing the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels tried to lecture President Obama on economic policy. Daniels was director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. The tax cuts he pushed through are responsible for roughly half of today’s structural budget deficit and half the public debt accumulated over the last decade. Read more in Andrew Fieldhouse's Blog of the Century post.

Public Schools Have a Public Purpose

In New Hampshire, parents can tailor each child's curriculum to avoid "objectionable" content. Does that turn education into a private right instead of a public good? That's the question asked in this week's New York Times' Room for Debate. Read Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg's response Public Schools Have a Public Purpose.

Photo: Creative Commons

Personal Tax Burden: Reagan's vs. Mitt's

Mitt Romney is now paying well below half of what Reagan owed as a share of his vastly larger income. Mitt Romney's release of his 2010 and 2011 tax returns has Greg Anrig reflecting on an article he wrote back in 1985 about then-President Ronald Reagan's personal finances, particularly because the contrast lays bare the forces that the Gipper set in motion.  Read, "Why Romney's Tax Burden is So Much Lighter Than Reagan's Was."

Photo by 401K

The New Reality Show Real Economists

An intense debate between two opposing schools of economics has reached a crescendo and the degree of name calling and apparent unwillingness to find common ground has come to a head since the beginning of the year. Read Daniel Alpert's. "The New Reality Show: Real Economists of the Ivory Tower"

TCF Welcomes Five New Fellows

TCF welcomes five new fellows, all of whom are widely recognized as insightful generators of distinctive and provocative public policy ideas. The new fellows are Daniel Alpert, Michael Cohen, Amy B. Dean, Suzanne Mettler, and Mark Thoma. Read more about their bold and thought-provoking work in the press release. Also read the story on the new fellows at the Washington Post blog ThinkTanked by Allen McDuffee.

Paul Krugman Cites Greg Anrig on Capital Gains

Paul Krugman wrote a post on his NYT Conscience of a Liberal blog about "The Dubious Case for Privileging Capital Gains," responding to readers' request for arguments against the tax code treating income from capital gains  differently than ordinary income. Krugman cites TCF's Greg Anrig's Blog of the Century post, "10 Reasons to Eliminate the Tax Break for Capital Gains."

Photo: Creative Commons

PolicyCast: New Fellows Join TCF

Get to know our new fellows by listening to them on TCF's Podcast:

Daniel Alpert, Michael Cohen, Amy B. Dean, Suzanne Mettler, Mark Thoma

Afghanistan: Negotiating Peace

With paths opening for U.S.-Taliban talks,  people are talking of the prospects for a political solution in Afghanistan. TCF's international task force, under the leadership of  Lakhdar Brahimi and Thomas Pickering discussed what kind of political path might lead to ending the conflict as the authors helped pave the way to the  solutions discussed today. See task force member James Dobbins'  piece in the Washington Post and Board of Trustee  member John Podesta's article in Foreign Policy.

Zealous Advocacy

TCF Fellow Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker article  tells the story of an 18-year legal battle between lawyer, Steven Donziger, and Chevron, over alleged environmental contamination in the Amazon. In a New Yorker blog post, he discusses a development in the story as  an appeals court in Ecuador, upheld an $18 billion fine against Chevron. Radden Keefe was a guest on the Forum, listen to the interview. He was also interviewed for TCF's PolicyCast where he sheds more light on the story.

Photograph by Remi Benali

Investing in America’s Economy

The Century Foundation, Demos, and EPI and have produced a budget blueprint for economic recovery and fiscal responsibility. Follow TCF's work here.

Read the press reaction to the blueprint: Jonathan Cohn; Paul Krugman; Ezra Klein; David Wessel; Jackie Calmes, Matt Yglesias .