Suchergebnisse

Recent economic turmoil has led state and local governments to seek new paths to offset budget shortfalls. Among other things, one widely discussed policy option is state employee pension reforms. These proposals seek to cut pension benefits, and, moreover, to increase the retirement age. State and local government employees generally are able to access full retirement benefits at a lower age than most other American workers, for whom the current age for eligibility for full Social Security benefits is 66 (and which will rise to 67 by 2027). Policymakers, however, must not overlook the fact that a large share of public sector workers are in physically strenuous jobs. If the retirement age were increased, many of these workers, due to the physical challenges of their jobs, would have to leave the workforce before they are eligible for full retirement benefits.

Though Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama put forth several different mortgage modification programs, the rate of foreclosures has continued to rise over the past several years. According to CoreLogic, about one-in-four (23%) mortgages were underwater in the second quarter of 2010, and another one-in-four (28%) were nearly underwater. It is clear that the vast majority of people facing foreclosure are not benefiting from these programs. The flagship program, HAMP, has managed less than half a million permanent mortgage modifications as of July.The limited impact of mortgage modification plans has increased interest in alternative policies to help homeowners facing foreclosure. One sensible alternative is the "Right to Rent" legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Grijalva and Kaptur (H.R. 5028) that would give homeowners facing foreclosure the option to remain in their homes as tenants up to five years. During this period, they would be paying the fair market rent as set by an independent appraiser. This would give homeowners an important degree of security, since they could not simply be thrown out on the streets. If they like their house, their neighborhood, and the schools for their kids, they need not have their lives severely disrupted by foreclosure. This policy should also benefit neighborhoods in the most hard-hit areas, since they would not have large numbers of vacant homes following foreclosures.

The huge gap between the cost of health care in the United States and the cost in other countries with comparable health care outcomes suggests the potential for substantial gains from trade. This paper describes one mechanism for taking advantage of these gains -- through a globalization of the country's Medicare and Medicaid programs. The projections in this paper suggest that the country's long-term budget situation would be substantially improved if beneficiaries of these two programs over the age of 65 were allowed to take advantage of the lower-cost health care available in other countries (that also have high life expectancies than the U.S.). This could also allow them to enjoy much higher retirement incomes than they would otherwise receive.

This paper calculates savings from renting compared with owning a house purchased at the peak housing bubble years of 2006 or 2007 in 16 major metropolitan areas. (The appendix includes calculations for 100 cities, including these 16.) The analysis calculates the savings both before- and after-tax, allowing readers to see the impact on ownership costs of the mortgage interest and property tax deductions. Many of the homeowners currently facing foreclosure would likely be able to afford the market rent on their home. If Congress were to temporarily alter the foreclosure laws to allow foreclosed homeowners to remain in their homes as renters, it is likely that many would chose to take advantage of this opportunity. This path would offer savings for former homeowners, as well as help stabilize families and communities that are blighted by foreclosures. In addition, Right to Rent offers the advantage that it could immediately benefit all homeowners facing foreclosure without any bureaucracy and would require no taxpayer dollars.

It has been two years since the housing bubble began to deflate. In this time, home prices in major metropolitan areas have fallen more than 32.3 percent and the woes in the housing sector have spread to the broader economy. Where is the housing market today? Have we hit bottom?This paper, written by researchers from CEPR and the National Low Income Housing Coalition, finds that while most of the nation's metropolitan housing bubbles have deflated and many markets never had one to contend with, there is the possibility of a persistent housing slump in the years ahead. An appropriate response to this situation involves 1) stimulating demand for housing by acting to lower unemployment and raise wages, 2) recognizing a leading role for rental housing in federal foreclosure mitigation and neighborhood stabilization policy, including allowing foreclosed homeowners to remain in their homes as renters (Right to Rent), and 3) adequately funding the National Housing Trust Fund.

Critics of legislation requiring employers to provide paid sick days frequently argue that these measures will lead to job loss and raise the national unemployment rate. However, this issue brief shows that the experience of 22 countries with the highest level of social and economic development (as measured by the Human Development Index) suggests that there is no statistically significant relationship between national unemployment rates and legally-mandated access to paid sick days and leave.

This report finds that the U.S. is the only country among 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development that does not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave. By relying solely on voluntary employer policies to provide paid sick days or leave to employees, tens of millions of U.S. workers are without paid sick days or leave. As a result, each year millions of American workers go to work sick, lowering productivity and potentially spreading illness to their coworkers and customers.