NDN Blog

Video, 2/14: On Fox, Simon Discusses Rubio, "Watergate"

Simon appeared on "America Live with Megyn Kelly" on today to discuss the aftermath of Marco Rubio's State of The Union response.

New Op-Ed by Simon: "The Immigration System Is Better, the Border Is Safer, But More to Do"

Today, Simon penned an op-ed in Huffington Post on immigration reform and border security.

From the piece: 

"Success on the Border - Additional resources, better strategies, and enhanced cooperation with Mexico have brought about significant improvement in the border region in recent years. The total number of border patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexican border has gone from 5,300 to 18,500 today. Net migration of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. has dropped from 500,000 a year a decade ago to zero today, while crime on the U.S. side of the border has plummeted and incidents of "spillover violence" from Mexico are rare. By some measures, El Paso, the largest city on the border, is the safest big city in America today. While more needs to be done to make the border region even safer and the very real threat of the violence from Mexican organized crime is very real, there has been significant and undeniable progress made in recent years. The Senate immigration reform outline powerfully acknowledged this progress last week, reporting that "border security has improved significantly over the last two Administrations" in its second sentence...

...The Immigration System Is Better - While Congress has failed to act, the Obama administration has taken a series of important steps to improve the legal immigration system in the U.S. in recent years, including: prioritizing criminal migrants for deportation; making it easier for families to stay together during the legalization process; expanding the nation's worker verification system and working hard to improve it; replacing work place raids with more targeted and effective I-9 audits; and removing the threat of deportation from deserving undocumented youth.

The result of these actions is that our immigration system, built for a different economic era and a different America, is far better today than when the bipartisan effort to reform our system began in 2005."

To read the full piece posted on the front page, please see here.

Invite: Mon, Feb 11th - The Big Challenge: US Jobs and Wages in A New Age of Globalization

In a Tuesday story called, “The Most Important Chart in American Politics,” TIME Magazine’s Michael Scherer reported:   

“There is a single chart — three colored lines on a grid — that shapes the political reality of this country. During the 2012 campaign, one of President Obama’s senior strategists called it “the North Star” and started his internal PowerPoint presentations with it…..The chart tracks three economic trends in the U.S. over the last two decades, between 1992 and 2009. The first two lines — productivity and per capita gross domestic product — are rising. This is the unmistakable American success story, the one reflected in record corporate profits, growing wealth accumulation and the unmatched efficiency of this country’s economy. The third line tracks median household income, as measured by the U.S. Census. It shows the story of frustration and stagnation that so many Americans long ago accepted as a reality…. The chart was originally created by NDN and the New Policy Institute, and it helped Democrats change the way they talked about the frustration of the American people.”

The chart referenced in this article is one NDN/NPI originally produced in 2009, and speaks to the greatest domestic challenge faced by the US today – more than a decade of weak job creation and the first time incomes have declined for most Americans through economic expansions characterized by rising productivity.  On the eve of the 2013 State of the Union, NDN is excited to host a special conversation about this central challenge with Dr. Rob Shapiro, Chair of NDN’s Globalization Initiative, and author of the analysis which informed this chart; and Jim Tankersley, Economics Correspondent, the Washington Post.  Simon will be moderating the discussion, and plan on offering some brief opening remarks.  

We are also pleased that Dr. Shapiro will be discussing the results of a new round of research he has completed about the economics of this new age of globalization. This research suggests that much more will have to be done by policy makers in the years ahead if the US is restore job creation and wage growth to levels Americans have been long accustomed.  

Lunch will be served at noon on Monday, and the program will begin at 12:15pm.  All of this will take place at the NDN/NPI offices, 729 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC.  Please RSVP here, and we look forward to seeing you on Monday! 

TIME Features NDN Economic Analysis, Chart, Labels It "Most Important Chart in American Politics"

In a new piece for Time Magazine, author Michael Scherer profiles the work of NDN/New Policy Institute, labeling a chart which is a distallation of years of economic analysis, "The Most Important Chart In American Politics" 

The story details the influence NDN's chart and analysis had on the Obama White House and re-election campaign, something first reported in Scherer's landmark 2012 Person of the Year profile of newly re-elected President Barack Obama. From the piece:

"“There is a single chart — three colored lines on a grid — that shapes the political reality of this country. During the 2012 campaign, one of President Obama’s senior strategists called it “the North Star” and started his internal PowerPoint presentations with it…..The chart tracks three economic trends in the U.S. over the last two decades, between 1992 and 2009. The first two lines — productivity and per capita gross domestic product — are rising. This is the unmistakable American success story, the one reflected in record corporate profits, growing wealth accumulation and the unmatched efficiency of this country’s economy. The third line tracks median household income, as measured by the U.S. Census. It shows the story of frustration and stagnation that so many Americans long ago accepted as a reality…. The chart was originally created by NDN and the New Policy Institute, and it helped Democrats change the way they talked about the frustration of the American people.”"

This economic analysis about the weakening of the historic relationship between GDP growth, productivity gains and jobs and wages was developed by NDN/NPI Globalization Chair Dr. Rob Shapiro.  This analysis was initially developed for Shapiro's prescient book, "Futurecast: How Superpowers, Populations, and Globalization Will Change the Way You Live and Work."  It was also featured in this 2005 essay, "Crafting A Better CAFTA", this 2007 paper, "The New Landscape of Globalization: How America Can Reap Its Rewards and Reduce Its Costs." The chart referenced by Scherer was developed for and first released in a 2009 NDN paper authored by Jake Berliner, "A Lost Decade for Everyday Americans," and can also be found here

NDN is also proud of this story in the British newspaper, The Guardian, which details our long collaboration with the Labour Party and the impact this work has had over there. A recent piece in The Economist features the British version of the chart, and cites NDN's influence in the thought behind it.

Dr. Shapiro's analysis has also been recently featured here in the US in Jim Tankersley's prominent article in the Washington Post.  

For the slide in our presentation, please see the attached file at the bottom of this page.

For recent essays by Dr. Shapiro on this topic, please review the following:

The American Dream is in Big Trouble, February 21, 2013

WaPo Op-ed: Weak Job Creation has Become the New Normal, February 13, 2013.

The Lessons of Today's Troubling Report on GDP, January 30, 2013.

What Actually Happened to the Earnings of Working Americans, And What The Next President Can Do About It, October 31, 2012.

Wage and Salary Growth in the United States: Average Americans Made Steady Progress for Two Generations, Until the Last Decade, October 25, 2012.

GOP Revisionism: Rewriting Economic History Against Obama, August 17, 2012.

How Much Credit Can Obama Claim on the Economy?, June 21, 2012.

An Economic Program for the Fall Campaign and the Next Four Years, June 4, 2012.

Video, 2/1: On the O'Reilly Factor, Simon Celebrates Hillary Clinton's Political Legacy

Simon appeared on Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor" last Friday to discuss Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State and as a political figure.

Video, 1/31: Simon Discusses Economic Growth, Taxes on Fox

Simon appeared on Fox News's "America Live with Megyn Kelly" today to discuss the economy and state taxes. 

Video, 1/30: Simon Discusses New GDP Numbers on Fox Business (Parts 1 & 2)

Simon appeared on "MONEY with Melissa Francis" on Fox Business yesterday to discuss the GDP numbers released yesterday. For more from NDN, see NDN Globalization Initative Chair Dr. Rob Shapiro's statement from yesterday.

Video, 1/30: Simon Debunks "Culture of Violence" Argument on Fox

Simon appeared on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" yesterday to discuss gun violence and possible reforms. For Simon's recent essay on the issue, please see here.

Video, 1/29: Simon Talks Immigration Reform on PBS NewsHour

See Simon in an extended interview with Christina Bellantoni of PBS NewsHour, where he offers his thoughts on immigration reform. For the full story, please see here. See Simon's recent statement on immigration here and more resources from NDN here.

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