EPI’s Unbiased Analysis of the Economy’s Impact on Working Americans
By Bill Vandenberg
The Economic Policy Institute yesterday released the twelfth edition of its highly regarded - and highly influential – The State of Working America. Published since 1988, it includes in depth data analysis on jobs, wages, unemployment, wealth, and poverty. The data are often broken out by race, ethnicity, and gender to illustrate the trends that are impacting the living standards of working Americans. In its release of this 12th edition, EPI spotlighted how economic policies, including the actions (or failure to act) by elected leaders, have impeded U.S. economic growth and undercut low- and middle-income workers for three decades.
The Economic Policy Institute has drawn the Open Society Foundations' support for its high quality research, data analysis, and policy recommendations since 1999, and it receives high praise from advocates and opinion shapers from across the political spectrum. Steve Pearlstein of The Washington Post raves about EPI’s ability to see economic trends – including rising income inequality – long before others, writing that EPI “punches well above its weight in Washington.” Nobel winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman calls EPI “the small think tank that could, playing a disproportionate role in policy discussion.” Krugman writes that EPI is “the single best source for analysis of labor issues, one of the best sources about macroeconomic analysis, and in general a bastion of humane clarity.”
The State of Working America, 12th Edition is now accessible online. Cornell University Press will publish the e-book and hard copy edition in late November.
Bill Vandenberg is division director for Learning and Impact for Open Society-U.S. at the Open Society Foundations.
