Suchergebnisse

The president, executive orders and memos, and public policy -- The president and the power of the purchaser -- Barack Obama and the power of the purchaser -- The president and the power of the employer -- The president and the power of the equal opportunity employer -- Barack Obama and the power of the employer-in chief -- The president and the power of the ethical employer -- The president and the power of the payer -- Impact of the the president's, executive powers on politics and policy

AbstractThis essay explores how political processes shaped the origins and development of the federal minimum wage in the United States, attempting to impose an order and logic on that process. It offers an analytically grounded narrative that abstracts from the historical details and interprets a broad sweep of outcomes between the New Deal and the present. Rather than identifying only the preferences of the ardent minimum wage supporters (and opponents), I identify those members of an enacting coalition (including the president) or veto players whose preferences had to be taken into account for a minimum wage bargain to be struck. For each episode, the analytical narrative identifies the coalition that made the minimum wage agreement—the members of Congress among whom a bargain was struck and codified into legislation, plus (usually) the president. The narrative also determines the nature of the compromise that enabled members of an enacting coalition to adopt an increase in the minimum wage. In each instance, policymakers were "heirs" before they were choosers: The heavy hand of later New Deal history shaped subsequent political choices.

As the CEO of the administrative state, the president has the procurement power to dictate the terms and conditions on which the federal government will do business with the private sector. By way of delegated statutory authority, executive order, and agency procurement and acquisition rules, the president can call the shots. Anyone wishing to do business with the federal government must meet the president's contract terms and conditions. Presidents use this "power of the purchaser" to exercise political control over procurement rulemaking and to influence public policy in areas unrelated to the federal government's "efficient" purchase of goods and services. Procurement—and the power of the purchaser—must be viewed as a powerful weapon of coercion and redistribution in the president's political and policy‐making arsenal.

Adapted from the source document.

National economies around the world are becoming increasingly integrated. While regional integration offers opportunities for mutual gain, it also fosters distributional consequences, thus creating economic and political risks for governments. Governments pursue different strategies for coping with risk. The first strategy is protectionism. A second strategy is to link economic openness with the provision of domestic compensation. A final strategy is for nations to develop mechanisms to coordinate rules, norms, or principles to govern working conditions and industrial relations. The political conflict between nations at different stages of economic development, and the regional responses in the EU, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, and ASEAN all follow a similar pattern, with the more advanced economies pressing for some harmonization that would moderate the competitive advantages of developing countries. Given this cleavage, various compromises have been struck, which confirmed national policy control but also amounted to an incremental convergence toward common minimum standards.

In the last half century, North Carolina and the South have experienced rapid economic growth. Much of the best analysis of this progress came from two North Carolina-based research organizations: the Southern Growth Policies Board and MDC (originally a project of the North Carolina Fund). Their 1986 reports are two of the best assessments of the achievements and limitations of the so-called Sunbelt boom. On November 17, 2011, the Global Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Institute for Emerging Issues at North Carolina State University co-hosted a public discussion to build on these classic reports and to offer fresh analyses of the current challenges facing the region. A Way Forward, which issued from this effort, features more than thirty original essays containing recommendations and strategies for building and sustaining a globally competitive South.

As wages stagnate but living costs keep rising, the pressure on working people grows more intense. The issue of living standards has become one of the most urgent challenges for politicians in both Britain and America. 'The squeezed middle' brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn from the US. American workers have not benefited from growth for an entire generation - the average American worker earned no more in 2009 than in 1975. Now British workers are undergoing a similar experience. No longer can they assume that when the economy grows their wages will grow with it. This collection brings together for the first time leading economic and policy thinkers to analyse the impact of different policies on those on low-to middle incomes and to explain what lessons the UK can learn from America's 'lost generation'. This timely book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the living standards crisis, an issue which could decide elections as well as shaping the future for millions of working families