Monthly Archives: September 2012

September 26, 2012. An opinion piece from the George W. Bush Institute on why immigration matters to the economy. Data show that immigrants are highly entrepreneurial, putting their skills to good use creating new jobs in the U.S. economy. A June 2012 study published by the Fiscal Policy Institute reports that 18% of all small business owners in the U.S. are immigrants. This is especially impressive considering immigrants make-up less than 16% of the civilian labor force and account for less than 13% of the [...]

September 20, 2012. A story reported by Ilya Marritz for WNYC.

September 20, 2012. Anjali Athavaley of the Wall Street Journal writes about new data on poverty from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Link requires subscription; excerpt below. Of the boroughs, the Bronx had the highest rate in 2011, with 30.4% of the population living in poverty in 2011. Manhattan experienced the largest increase, from 16.4% to 18.3%. Some economists pointed to New York's high unemployment as a driving factor in poverty. "While we've had job growth that looks good relative to other places, it [...]

September 20, 2012. Census data show similar 3-year results statewide: a story by Joseph Spector in the Poughkeepsie Journal. The data show what has been a perennial problem in New York: high taxes compared to wealth. Median household income in New York fell 1.4 percent from $56,033 to $55,246, but property taxes rose 18 percent, census data released today show. Many New Yorkers "have property-tax bills that are an inordinate share of their income," said Frank Mauro, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, a [...]

September 17, 2012. An op ed by Shikha Dalmia, Bloomberg View. Dalmia is a Detroit-based senior analyst at Reason Foundation. What is true, contrary to the bellyaching by anti-immigration restrictionists, is that [immigrants] are a net boon - not a burden - for local economies. A recent Standard & Poor's study found that U.S. cities with a “significant” immigrant population improved their credit rating because even low-wage foreigners pay taxes that help defray the cost of services. There is also evidence that immigration and growth [...]

September 13, 2012. A new post on hlntv.com covers the Economic Policy Institute’s recent release of the 12th edition of  The State of Working America. Taking up the measurement of income inequality, the article also mentions a report that FPI released December 2010, Grow Together of Pull Farther Apart? An excerpt from the article: The idea of the 1% can get really complicated when you factor in various definitions of what qualifies members of that group. Data from one model from the Tax Policy Center [...]

September 10, 2012. New York Times columnist Michael Powell cites FPI's James Parrott in a piece about Chris Christie. Excerpt: New York City officials complain a lot of late that the city’s 10 percent unemployment rate overstates its problems. Several experts believe they have a point — the Fiscal Policy Institute issued a report last week noting that the city’s real unemployment rate is most likely closer to 9 percent than to the official 10 percent. (A 9 percent rate is still higher than that of the [...]

September 6, 2012. A post on the DailyMarkets.com blog. Excerpt: Colorado’s immigrant-owned businesses generate a whopping $684 million a year in revenue, according to research conducted by the American Community Survey. There are over 13,000 immigrant-owned small businesses in Colorado according to a recent study conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a research organization in New York. The report, Immigrant Small Business Owners: A Significant and Growing Part of the Economy, details the number and characteristics of immigrant small business owners across the country and Colorado’s number [...]