Looks like the Post has picked up the story that has been bouncing around blogs for a while...
Brookings Irked by Web Imitation (washingtonpost.com)Civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer's webmasters apparently lifted the design for their Web site (www.cpa-iraq.org) directly from the Brookings site (www.brookings.edu). The duplication included overall layout as well as small details, such as fonts, colors and the placement of a search box -- just with a little splash of Arabic here and there.
Recent data show a major shift in the balance between corporate
income and labor compensation. As a share of the economy labor
compensation has not been this low in almost 40 years (since 1966), and
after-tax corporate profits are at the highest levels ever recorded by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Since it's peak in 2001, as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), labor compensation has decreased by about 4 percent (from 67 to 63 percent) and corporate profits have increased by about 4 percent (from 8 to 12 percent) — see chart below. After taxes, corporate profits reached 9.6 percent of GDP — the highest level recorded dating back to 1947.
(Components are percent of GDP; source: graphic adopted from National Economic Trends, St. Louis Federal reserve.)
Over the past year, the overall economy, as measured by GDP, has grown consistently at a rate of about 5 percent, and is seen by many to be a sign that the economy has, at long last, come out of the 2001 recession. The conventional wisdom is that increased overall production will eventually make its way into the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans. However, this recovery appears to be different — in part because of the dismal performance of employment in the postrecession period — but also because it appears that a lower proportion of national income is going towards labor.
An economic recovery is not real unless there is widespread
participation in the economy, and the economic benefits accrue to a
broad base of Americans. The current recovery appears to be failing
that test.
The House just passed a buget - with more revenue reductions (about $20 billion worth for next year) and cuts to services.
It was a 1-year budget rather than a 10-year - they apparently couldn't get their act together to pass a real budget with real discipline in the process - (they want to pass a PayGo rule that requires spending increases to be offest, but revenue reductions and new loopholes need not be paid for. It would have made much more sense to just extend the PayGo rules from the 1990's that helped to generate a surplus.)
It looks like moderate Senators are not biting...
"All we're called upon to do is not spend our nation into bankruptcy while our soldiers risk their lives. I fondly remember a time when real Republicans stood for fiscal responsibility." Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
(Quote from: Newsday.com - AP Washington)
Recent data show a major shift in the balance between corporate income and labor compensation. As a share of the economy labor compensation has not been this low, and after-tax corporate profits have not been this high in (at least) 25 years.
Greenspan states the obvious... he's a long way away from the position that these deficits are "manageable."
The New York Times > Business > Greenspan Says Soaring Budget Deficits Are Long-Term ThreatAmerica's soaring federal budget deficits represent a major obstacle to the country's long-term economic stability, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Thursday.
"Our fiscal prospects are, in my judgment, a significant obstacle to long-term stability because the budget deficit is not readily subject to correction by market forces that stabilize other imbalances,'' he said in remarks to a banking conference.
Greenspan noted that the federal deficit, estimated to climb above $500 billion this year, will amount to 4.25 percent of the total economy after being in surplus just a few years ago.
He said one of the biggest concerns was that the deficits now were occurring right before the first wave of baby boomers will begin retiring.
"We have legislated commitments to our senior citizens that, given the inevitable retirement of our huge baby-boom generation, will create significant fiscal challenges in the years ahead,'' Greenspan said in his remarks, which were delivered by satellite to the conference in Chicago.
Greenspan cautioned that the country should not be lulled into a false sense of security about the federal deficit just because at the moment interest rates on long-term Treasury securities remain at low levels.
Remarks by John S. Irons (Senior Policy Analyst, and Economist, OMB Watch)
Prepared for the Visit of the Delegation from the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy (Vietnam) to Temple University
Wednesday, April 22, 2004
It is a pleasure to be here today. I hope I can give you a small taste of the kinds of work that citizen advocacy groups pursue here in the US. Rather than trying to summarize all the kinds of work undertaken by thousands of organizations, I thought it would be more useful to describe my organization in more detail. While each organization is unique and might focus on different policy areas, or take different tactics towards policy change, we often share a similar approach to policy advocacy.
My organization, OMB Watch, is an independent, non-governmental, nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote government accountability and citizen participation.
We believe that a responsive and responsible government must be accountable to the people and must operate in the open. Sound governmental and economic policy, as well as good decision-making, critically depends upon the public’s right to know what the government is doing; and it is important for citizens to provide input on policy choices and to hold their government accountable for their actions.
My organization is devoted to monitoring the activities of the federal government, including the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), other governmental agencies, and throughout the legislative process in Congress.
OMB Watch was formed 20 years ago to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – an agency which oversees much of the executive branch of government and which therefore has a large amount of power to affect the implementation of policy. We receive the vast majority of our funding from grants from private foundations, with private donations from individuals making up most of the rest – we do not receive funding from the government.
The organization’s mission centers on four main areas: regulatory policy; public access to government information; participation in the policy making process by nonprofit organizations; and the federal budget. We are primarily focused on domestic federal policy.
On the regulatory side, we work to monitor the federal government’s rulemaking process, and regulations, especially in the area of the environment. We believe that the government plays an important role in establishing sensible safeguards and protections for workers and the public.
In the area of public access to government, we operate a website called “RTK Net” which provides Internet access to government databases on the environment – the data allows citizens to assess the impact of factories on their local environmental conditions. We also chair an anti-secrecy coalition – made up of nonprofits, journalists, and others – which seeks to advance the public's right to know and to reduce secrecy in government.
We also believe that an important means for citizen participation is through nonprofit organizations. As a result we also follow issues and policy that would affect the ability of nonprofits to be engaged in policy advocacy. We work to encourage organizations to be more engaged in the policymaking process, and to speak out on matters of importance to them.
As an economist, my work primarily involves the federal budget – both tax policy as well as government expenditures. This includes 1) policy research and analysis, 2) dissemination of government budget information, including explanations of the complexities of the government’s budget, as well as the implications of tax and budget decisions, and 3) organizing other non-profit organizations to effectively speak out on tax and budget issues. We believe that the federal government has a unique, important, and necessary role in society, and work to ensure that the government works in the best interest of all its citizens.
The success of our system of government requires that government operate in the open in order to be responsive to the public, to foster trust and confidence in government, and to encourage public participation in civic and government institutions.
We hope that our (small) organization makes a difference in keeping the government as open as possible, educates others about the importance of citizen participation, and contributes to a healthy and vibrant society.
Oh my - they didn't think anyone would notice?
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: April 18, 2004 - April 24, 2004 ArchivesCompare and contrast the CPA Website with that of the Brookings Institution.
Who knew Strobe's influence still stretched so far?
Actually, a quick look under the hood of each site shows that either the CPA or Brookings snagged the other outfit's website and remodeled it as their own.
The presence of this line ("submenu name="Brookings Review" id="brs" url="/press/review/rev_des.htm") buried in the code of both websites seems to give a pretty good sign of who did the deed.
Now if they'd just crib the policy proposals and not just the html!
Oh, the Humanity!
So, you've probably noticed the sparse postings of late. The reason is that we - my wife Jessica and I - have recently moved from our modest apartment into a modest house.
This, of course, means living among boxes, unfinished rehap projects, misplaced furniture etc.
The computer has made it out of the box and seems to have made the trip without incident - although I am still working with a salvaged (and small) hard drive.
Also, as you might have noticed, I have had to shut down the comment tool. The level of spam was just too high, and it was taking too much time to delete all the "comments" on magical weightloss powder. Perhaps sometime soon a better commenting tool will come along.
Anyway, if you're nice I'll post a picture of the new pad - I guess I am now an offical land-owning Virginian...
The Center on Budget and Pollicy Priorities has just released a comprehensive review of Bush's tax policy.
Tax Returns: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Bush AdministrationThis analysis offers a comprehensive review of the Bush Administration’s tax cuts. It assesses their costs, benefits to different income groups, and economic effects to date, as well as down the road. It both synthesizes previous findings about the individual tax measures and includes new findings about their combined effects, using new distributional analyses by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center and fresh cost estimates by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The early returns on the effects of the tax cuts have not been good.
