Wednesday, January 6, 2016

What top researchers discovered when they re-ran the numbers on income inequality

 

Not quite as bad as we were told.

 

What top researchers discovered when they re-ran the numbers on income inequality

SAN FRANCISCO - The world's most famous inequality researchers unveiled a new way of adding up the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else on Tuesday.

The findings by economists Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman and Thomas Piketty, which are preliminary,  were hotly anticipated ever since the American Economic Association conference posted a one-paragraph summary of their results ahead of the event in San Francisco. "In contrast to survey and individual tax data, we find substantial increase in average real pre-tax incomes for the bottom 90% since the 1970s," one line in the preview said, potentially suggesting that concerns about a stagnant middle had been overblown.

That summary was greeted with cheers by  some conservatives that proof that Democrats, particularly Hillary Clinton, have been wrong to focus on income inequality and middle-class wage stagnation so much.

On Tuesday, the economists said  they analyzed inequality trends using a new combination of tax, survey and national accounts data, which the economists say more accurately captures income levels across the population over time. By their analysis, the bottom 90 percent appears to have done better since the late 1970s than previously estimated — but not much better. You can see the trend in the following slide from their presentation.

Instead of slightly declining, after adjusting for inflation, since the late 1970s, the average income for Americans in the bottom 90 percent now appears to have increased by 0.7 percent a year.

That pales in comparison for income for the top 10 percent, which grew three times faster than it did for the bottom 90 percent, or for the top 1 percent, which increased four times faster.

As you can see, those trends are a big departure from the preceding decades, when income grew relatively evenly at all levels.

By 2012, the economists found, more than half the income in America went to the top 10 percent of earners. (That's before accounting for taxes and transfer payments such as Social Security, which the trio will account for in an upcoming paper using the same new data.)

The new data still show inequality widening over the last half-century. The share for the top 10 percent in 2012 is higher than any other recorded year, dating back to 1917. In recent years, the economists find, that is largely attributable to a spike in income for the very rich from capital gains, dividends and other capital income sources, as opposed to wages paid for labor.

 

The newly described income growth for the 90 percent "does make a little difference" in the inequality debate, "but not a lot," Zucman said in an interview.

"The bottom line," he said, "is an economy where the income for the bottom 90 percent grows only 0.7 percent, is not doing very well."

That's especially true in recent years.

Thanks to slow income growth early in the 2000s and the effects of the Great Recession and its aftermath, Zucman and his co-authors found, income for the 90 percent hasn't grown on net since the turn of the century.

ABOVE IS FROM:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/06/what-top-researchers-discovered-when-they-re-ran-the-numbers-of-income-inequality/

Belvidere Schools names its next Superintendent

Belvidere Schools names its next Superintendent

After months of surveys, focus groups, and interviews by the Board of Education and an advisory group consisting of administrators, staff, community leaders, parents, and students the Board will vote on Monday, January 11 to approve a contract naming Dr. Daniel Woestman as its next leader.

"Dr. Woestman stood out among a group of well-qualified candidates interviewed by the Board of Education.  We were impressed with his enthusiasm and vision for our students and are excited about the future of Belvidere Schools."  -- Robert Torbert, School Board President

Dr. Woestman has worked in the region as an English teacher as well as a building-level and district-level administrator in the Hononegah and Rockford school districts.  He earned his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, his master's from the University of Cincinnati, and his doctorate from Northern Illinois University.

"Working in neighboring districts for the past ten years has allowed me to get to know not only the Belvidere schools, but the wonderful people in the community.  I'm excited to continue those relationships and the tradition of the Belvidere School District as being a great place to work and learn."  -- Dr. Daniel Woestman 

The Board will offer Dr. Woestman a 3-year contract with a beginning salary of $175,000.

A public reception welcoming Dr. Woestman to the district will be held Tuesday, February 2 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center located inside Belvidere High School.

Above is from:  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10153792886516730&id=218720821729

 

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  • Belvidere School District names Daniel Woestman superintendent

Ben Stanley
Staff writer

Posted Jan. 5, 2016 at 10:39 AM
Updated Jan 5, 2016 at 7:03 PM

BELVIDERE — The next superintendent of the Belvidere School District is a familiar face in the Rock River Valley. The Belvidere School Board chose Daniel Woestman, 34, who currently oversees strategic planning for the Rockford School District. Before that, he taught English and was an assistant principal at Hononegah High School.
The district made the announcement today in a news release on its website. He replaces Michael Houselog, who left in August to become director of graduate programs in education at Rockford University. The School Board is expected on Monday to vote on Woestman's three-year contract with a beginning salary of $175,000.
"As a board, we were really impressed with his vision for the district," said Rob Torbert, president of the Belvidere School Board. "He brings a lot of enthusiasm. He’s very smart, very prepared, very relatable. We think that he’s going to do well connecting with faculty, staff, students and everyone in the community."
A search firm hired by the district selected seven candidates out of a pool of more than 30 applicants for the School Board to interview. Woestman was chosen from that group of candidates after interviews with the board and a focus group that included teachers, students, parents and community leaders.
Woestman earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in 2006, a master's from the University of Cincinnati in 2008 and a doctorate from Northern Illinois University in 2014. He moved to the Rockford area in 2006.
"A lot of my ties to the community I think were a big draw for the position," Woestman said. "I’ve been in the area for about a decade. It’s a high quality school district. It’s just a really, really good school district ... . I’m going to make sure I spend time in every school and listening to a lot of different stakeholder groups."
Woestman will officially take over as superintendent on July 1.
"Dan is an extremely well-liked and well-respected colleague," wrote Rockford School District Superintendent Ehren Jarrett in a prepared statement. "During his tenure with RPS 205, he has led initiatives including our strategic plan, process mapping, accountability and SMART teacher training. His leadership in information technology, in particular, has been remarkable."
Woestman is on the operating board of Alignment Rockford, is a Cub Scout pack leader and is involved in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A public reception welcoming Woestman to the district is planned for 4 to 6 p.m. Feb. 2 in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center inside Belvidere High School.

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160105/belvidere-school-district-names-daniel-woestman-superintendent

Is Ted Cruz a natural born citizen? Ask the founders

 

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Is Ted Cruz a natural born citizen? Ask the founders

01/06/16 09:37 AM —Updated 01/06/16 10:18 AM

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By Pete Williams

John McCain faced the question. So did Barry Goldwater, George Romney, and Chester A. Arthur.

Their political opponents claimed they did not meet the Constitution’s provision that “No person except a natural born citizen” can be president.

Now Donald Trump has said it could be a problem for Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American citizen mother and a Cuban-born father.

The problem is, the Constitution does not define the term “natural born citizen.”

Does it mean that someone must be born on US soil? McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. When Goldwater was born, Arizona wasn’t yet a state. Romney was born in Mexico.

And Arthur? He was accused of being born in Canada.

view photo essay

The presidential campaign: Ted Cruz

The Texas senator was first to announce his bid back in March, and has since been carefully laying the groundwork for a come-from-behind primary victory.

The Constitution’s drafters shed little light on what they meant by the phrase. It seems clear only that they wanted to make certain that whoever was elected president would be loyal to the U.S. alone and not to another country.

But the term “natural born citizen,” many scholars say, was not in common use at the time the Constitution was written.

Even so, nearly every constitutional scholar who has studied the issue comes to the same conclusion: Anyone born to an American parent, no matter where in the world, is eligible to be president.

That conclusion about what the drafters meant is based partly on a law passed in 1790 by the first Congress, providing that the children of U.S. citizens born outside the country “shall be considered as natural born citizens.” The law is no longer in effect, but it’s considered evidence of the intent of the founders.

Then, in 1964, the Supreme Court muddied the waters by seeming to say, without deciding, that “natural born” meant born inside the United States.

In an opinion on an unrelated issue, the court observed, “The rights of citizenship of the native born and of the naturalized person are of the same dignity and are coextensive. The only difference drawn by the Constitution is that only the ‘natural born’ citizen is eligible to be President.”

But that language is not legally binding, and the Supreme Court has never actually ruled on what “natural born” means.

Writing last year in the Harvard law Review, two former holders of the Justice Department’s top courtroom advocate job — Solicitor General — said Cruz met the qualification.

“All the sources routinely used to interpret the Constitution confirm that the phrase “natural born citizen” has a specific meaning: namely, someone who was a U.S. citizen at birth with no need to go through a naturalization proceeding,” Neal Katyal and Paul Clement wrote.

But until the Supreme Court rules on the issue, or the Constitution is amended, the issue will remain officially unsettled.

ABOVE IS FROM:  http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/ted-cruz-natural-born-citizen-ask-founders-n490971