More from the Economic Policy Institute about the damaging effects of mass public layoffs. The current recovery is the only one that has seen public-sector losses over its first 31 months. If public-sector employment had grown since June 2009 by the average amount it grew in the three previous recoveries (2.8 percent) instead of shrinking…
Author: sh
Detroit’s emergency, to be continued
Detroit’s City Council adjourned last Thursday, vowing to come back Monday to consider the state’s proposed consent agreement. Yesterday’s deliberations didn’t produce a decision, although it became clear that several members would not vote for the agreement. Tuesday afternoon, the Council again announced that it would not yet be voting on the agreement. But the…
A Cruel Republican Budget – NYTimes.com
Apparently undaunted by news that the UK, Europe’s biggest embracer of “austerity,” is expected to recover more slowly than any other OECD country except Italy, House Republicans propose a punitive budget: The budget, developed by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, would cut $3.3 trillion from low-income programs over 10 years, according to the Center on…
Detroit, in limbo
So much going on in Detroit, after several weeks of uncertainty about whether the financial review team appointed by the Governor would be able to move forward (punctuated by court orders requiring them to stop secret meetings, and the dismissal and then reinstatement of Flint’s emergency manager). The review team missed its original deadline in…
More on Suffolk County
Bloomberg’s coverage of the Suffolk County financial emergency. “You never want a good fiscal crisis to go to waste,” said Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. “If Suffolk doesn’t deal with its deficit in a way that Wall Street bond raters feel adequately…