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Link Biscuits: 26 February 2010

Submitted by Shawn Fremstad on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 13:09
  • Kirwan Institute, Race and Recovery Index: "The Race-Recovery Index, a project of the Kirwan Institute, is designed to measure how all people, but particularly marginalized populations, are faring in the midst of the national recovery efforts. The two primary tools for measurement that will be used on a monthly basis will be the national unemployment figures by race, and the Federal contract procurement of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Additional forms of measurement may eventually be added. ... An overall look at Federal ARRA contracting reveals noticeable inequality. Despite the fact that Women-owned, Latino-owned, and Black-owned businesses account for 28.2%, 6.8%, and 5.2% of all U.S. businesses respectively, as of February 1, 2010 they had only received 2.4%, 1.6%, and 1.1% of the value of Federal ARRA contracts that have been procured (see Table 3)."
  • Nebraska Appleseed, Back to School, Back to Work: Winning Strategies for Building Economic Opportunity in Nebraska: "“Nebraska has the opportunity to create policies, pathways, and partnerships that will make sure Nebraska businesses have the skilled workers they need and families have the opportunity to build a better life” states Rebecca Gould, Executive Director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, “Building education, job training, and work supports opportunities for low-income Nebraskans is key for economic recovery today and state prosperity in the future.”"
  • Chris Dillow, Taxis and Taxes: "The best evidence we have on the income elasticity of labour supply - the nearest we’re likely to get to a natural experiment - is consistent with higher taxes actually calling forth greater, not smaller, labour supply. Yes, of course there is a Laffer curve - it‘s just that we might be on the upward-sloping part of it."
  • Mark Weisbrot, Independent Latin America Forms Its Own Organization: "Latin America took another historic step forward this week with the creation of a new regional organization of 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The United States and Canada were excluded. The increasing independence of Latin America has been one of the most important geopolitical changes over the last decade, affecting not only the region but the rest of the world as well. For example, Brazil has publicly supported Iran’s right to enrich uranium and opposed further sanctions against the country. Latin America, once under the control of the United States, is increasingly emerging as a power bloc with its own interests and agenda."
  • Edward Skidelsky, Words that Think for Us: The Hollowness of Human Capital: "Of the many harms inflicted by economics on the English language, “human capital” is the most grievous. ... The phrase “human capital” is now so thoroughly naturalised that we seldom pause to ponder its implications. What is capital anyway? Capital is not a particular kind of good, but any good viewed in relation to certain interests. A donkey is capital to the wood-carrier. A derelict church is capital to the restaurant entrepreneur. Capital, in short, is wealth viewed not as an end in itself but as a means to more wealth. The phrase “human capital” insinuates that human beings too are to be viewed in this light—as instruments of the productive process. We have all of us attained the status which Aristotle reserved for slaves, that of living tools. What a triumph for the dismal science! Keynes naively supposed that economic growth was for the sake of personal cultivation. His modern successors have put him right: personal cultivation is for the sake of economic growth.’"