Jared Bernstein

Is Social Security really going bust, and what does that mean to me? If I hire an immigrant, am I hurting a native-born worker? Why does the stock market go up when employment declines? Should I give that homeless guy a buck? What’s a “living wage”? How much can presidents really affect economic outcomes? What does the Federal Reserve Bank really do? And when the pundits say the economy’s doing so well, why do I still feel so squeezed?If you’d like some straight answers, premier economist Jared Bernstein is here to help. In Crunch he responds to dozens of questions he has fielded from working Americans, questions that directly relate to the bottom-line, dollars-and-cents concerns of real people. Chances are if there’s a stumper you’ve always wanted to ask an economist, it’s solved in this book.Bernstein is fed up with “Darth Vaders with PhDs” who use their supposed expertise to intimidate average citizens and turn economics into a tool for the rich and powerful. In the pages of Crunch , Bernstein lays bare the dark secret of it’s not an objective scientific discipline. It’s a set of decisions about the best way to organize our society to produce and distribute resources and opportunities. And we all can, and must, participate in these decisions. “America is a democracy,” he writes. “And in a democracy all of us, not just the elites and their scholarly shock troops, get to weigh in on biggies like this.”Our economy will be only as fair as we can make it. In this lively and irreverent tour through everyday economic mysteries, Bernstein helps us decode economic ”analysis,” navigate through murky ethical quandaries, and make sound economic decisions that reflect our deepest aspirations for ourselves, our families, and our country.

As the new century unfolds, we face a host of economic and social challenges-- jobs lost to ''''''''off shoring,'''''''' a huge and growing number of Americans without health insurance coverage, an expanding gap between rich and poor, stagnant wages, decaying public schools, and many others. These are difficult and complex problems, but our government's strategy for dealing with them has been essentially not to deal with them at all. Over and over, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, we're told that we're on our own-- ''''''''Here's a tax cut and a private account; now go fend for yourself.'''''''' As Jared Bernstein points out, this approach doesn't make any sense as a strategy for solving the enormous systemic problems we face. It's just a way of shifting economic risk from those most able to bear it-- the government and the nation's corporations-- to those least individuals and families. The result has been greater wealth for the top 1% of Americans and stagnant living standards and increasing insecurity for the vast majority. In All Together Now, Bernstein outlines a new strategy, one that applauds individual initiative but recognizes that the problems we face as a nation can be solved only if we take a more collaborative approach. The message is we're all in this together. Bernstein draws on recent and historic events to explore how the proponents of what he dubs the YOYO (you're-on-your-own) approach have sold the idea, exposing the fallacies and ulterior motives in their arguments as well as the disasterous consequences of their policies. More importantly, he details practical WITT (we're-in-this-together) initiatives in specific areas like globalization, health care, and employment that could improve the lives of millions of Americans without increasing overall national spending. And he offers advice on how to overcome objections to the WITT agenda and bring the country together so that both risks and benefits are shared more fairly. While the prevailing philosophy insists that all we can do is cope with massive social forces, each of us on our own, Bernstein argues that we can unite and shape these forces to meet our needs. The optimistic message of All Together Now is that the economic challenges we face are not insoluble; we can wield the tools of government to meet them in such a way as to build a more just and equitable society.

While there are many uniquely positive attributes about the US economy, something is fundamentally wrong and here’s what it is: economic growth can no longer be counted on to deliver broadly shared prosperity.Remarkably, pundits, politicians, and candidates from both sides of the aisle are constantly citing the disconnect between overall growth and the economic prospects of most households. We hear lots of well-placed angst about the middle-class squeeze, wage stagnation, “sticky” poverty rates that are unresponsive to growth, and the immobility of those on the wrong side of the inequality divide. And yet . . . no one has articulated a thorough, robust agenda designed explicitly to reunite growth and prosperity. Until now.While many books on these issues spend most of their time on diagnosis and little on prescription, Jared Bernstein, former Chief Economist to Vice President Joe Biden and member of President Obama’s economics team, intentionally flips that ratio in The Reconnection Agenda: each chapter presents concrete policy solutions to the fundamental disconnect, including those that can get us to full employment, make monetary and fiscal policy work together more effectively, rebalance international trade, promote mobility, and break the “economic shampoo cycle” (bubble, bust, repeat) that has characterized our economy for decades. Bernstein’s last chapter explains why, even while powerful economic elites block commonsense solutions, the demand for a reconnection agenda is growing. What’s critical is that citizens recognize the difference between a policy set that will actually help and a phony one that will exacerbate the forces that for decades now have been preventing growth from reaching most Americans.If you’ve ever read an article or heard a radio report about the lack of enough good jobs, the rise of inequality, and/or the economic stressors facing the middle class and the poor—not to mention the endless squabbles of policy makers unable to do anything truly useful about these problems—and wished for a reader-friendly, even occasionally fun (really!) book that takes you through what’s gone wrong and how to fix it . . . Then The Reconnection Agenda is for you! Oh . . . and by the way . . . it’s also downloadable for free. How’s that for a whack at the forces of economic darkness?

Jared's work is truly phenomenal. It is rare to find a brilliant poet who is also a brilliant artist. Jared makes the inner world of the heart-broken come alive ... I have many clients who have not been able to express their own inner anguish or feel that there is someone in this world who could possibly express their pain. Reading his poetry and seeing his art has helped them to feel understood and less alone in the world. This is so healing.Dr. Miriam Adahan, Author and Lecturer

In 2014, scholars from three think tanks in Washington, DC, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Brookings Institution, and the Center for American Progress (CAP), began a bipartisan project titled States of Change: Demographics and Democracy. Generously funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the project sought to study America’s demographic change nationally and in all 50 states. In the project’s first year, a team led by William Frey of Brookings and Ruy Teixeira of CAP produced a report on the nation’s demographic evolution from 1974 through 2060. The report identified 10 key national trends that reveal stunning changes in the demographic landscape that will confront politicians and policymakers in the future. Among them are the rise of “majority-minority” states, the increasing racial diversity of America’s children and senior population, the rise of the post–baby boom generations, the decline of the white working class, and the growth of the white college-educated population. This report confirmed that from almost every angle, our nation’s demographic transformation is occurring faster than expected. The project’s second year used the data to simulate presidential election outcomes from 2016 through 2032. This second report, titled America’s Electoral Future: How Changing Demographics Could Impact Presidential Elections from 2016 to 2032, is also available as an ebook. Having produced the hard demographic data, the project focused in its second year on its larger goal of addressing the challenges our demographic transformation presents for policymakers and politicians. The researchers invited a group of experts to analyze in six papers possible policy implications of demographic change for the family, the workforce, and the social contract. Two papers, one from the perspective of the left and one from that of the right, were written on each topic. Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Henry Olsen of the Ethics & Public Policy Center addressed the workforce. Law Professors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone and Professor of Political Science and Psychology Howard Lavine coauthored one paper on the family, and David Blankenhorn of the Institute for American Values wrote the other, drawing different policy conclusions from the same data. William Galston of the Brookings Institution and Reihan Salam of National Review addressed the broader topic of the social contract from different perspectives. At the project’s second conference, the authors discussed their papers’ conclusions. Their discussion is available for viewing on the AEI, CAP, and Brookings websites. By compiling each of these papers into a single document, this ebook offers an unprecedented, in-depth analysis of the implications of America’s demographic change for public policy. The essays that follow are the beginning of a bipartisan discussion that we hope—and expect—will continue for years to come.

I went to Vietnam for a complete life change and only remembered part of the story and wrote down as much as possible.

Excellent Book

As the new century unfolds, we face a host of economic and social challenges - - jobs lost to ''''''''off shoring, '''''''' a huge and growing number of Americans without health insurance coverage, an expanding gap between rich and poor, stagnant wages, decaying public schools, and many others. These are difficult and complex problems, but our government's strategy for dealing with them has been essentially not to deal with them at all. Over and over, in subtle and not - so - subtle ways, we're told that we're on our own - - ''''''''Here's a tax cut and a private account; now go fend for yourself.'''''''' As Jared Bernstein points out, this approach doesn't make any sense as a strategy for solving the enormous systemic problems we face. It's just a way of shifting economic risk from those most able to bear it - - the government and the nation's corporations - - to those least individuals and families. The result has been greater wealth for the top 1% of Americans and stagnant living standards and increasing insecurity for the vast majority. In All Together Now, Bernstein outlines a new strategy, one that applauds individual initiative but recognizes that the problems we face as a nation can be solved only if we take a more collaborative approach. The message is we're all in this together. Bernstein draws on recent and historic events to explore how the proponents of what he dubs the YOYO (you're - on - your - own) approach have sold the idea, exposing the fallacies and ulterior motives in their arguments as well as the disasterous consequences of their policies. More importantly, he details practical WITT (we're - in - this - together) initiatives in specific areas like globalization, health care, and employment that could improve the lives of millions of Americans without increasing overall national spending. And he offers advice on how to overcome objections to the WITT agenda and bring the country together so that both risks and benefits are shared more fairly. While the prevailing philosophy insists that all we can do is cope with massive social forces, each of us on our own, Bernstein argues that we can unite and shape these forces to meet our needs. The optimistic message of All Together Now is that the economic challenges we face are not insoluble; we can wield the tools of government to meet them in such a way as to build a more just and equitable society.

Despite the strong economic growth & tight labor markets of recent years, income disparities in most states are significantly greater in the late 1990s than ...

With the advent of welfare reform and renewed interest in working poverty, policy analysts and advocates for the poor have become interested in the question, what is an adequate family income for a working family? This report examines this issue. It reviews and critiques the current U.S. poverty measure and argues that it is not conceptually up to the task of answering the question posed above. At the heart of the report is a detailed analysis of each of the items that goes into basic budgets for working families, including food, housing, child care, health care, and transportation. The authors identify best practices from the literature in deriving the cost estimates of these necessities, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches and data sources. The report concludes that given the wages available to low-wage workers, and the costs of decent housing, suitable child care, and other work-related expenses, many low-income working families will not be able to earn enough to meet their essential consumption needs. This finding provides a compelling rational for policies to raise wages in the low-wage sector and expand subsidies to support work.