NDN Blog

NDN is proud to release a new paper from Dr. Rob Shapiro, Chair of NDN's Globalization Initiative.  Titled, "Wage and Salary Growth in the United States: Average Americans Made Steady Progress for Two Generations, Until the Last Decade," the paper begins: 

"Americans are dissatisfied with their economy’s recent performance, and understandably so.  By most measures, unemployment remains high, growth is slow, and most households have seen their wages and incomes fall in recent years.  These developments also have ignited a partisan debate over what policies are responsible.  Many conservatives point to high taxes, outsized deficits and extensive regulation, which they attribute to President Obama.  For many liberals, the true causes lie in how financial and other markets operate within the new global economic environment, and in the government’s failure to invest more in education and training, basic research and infrastructure, which they pin on Republican presidents and Congresses.

This debate goes beyond questions of which party or president to blame for today’s stalled incomes and unemployment.  It involves identifying the very nature of the current economic distress.  We focus here on the basic earnings of Americans, because no other measure captures more directly people’s real economic conditions.  We analyze the wage and salary gains Americans have experienced over time, tracing the earnings of age cohorts as they age, focusing on what has happened to people’s earnings during the expansions of the last 30 years.

The record is clear:  Average Americans achieved steadily rising earnings through the economic expansions of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the Reagan expansion of 1983-1989, for example, the median earnings of Americans born in the early 1950s and those born a decade later increased an average of 3.2 percent per-year, as they aged.  Similarly, in the Clinton expansion of 1992-2000, the earnings of working Americans born in 1950, 1960, and 1970 grew an average of 3.8 percent per-year, as they aged through the expansion.  This pattern ended, however, with the expansion of 2002-2007, when the earnings of those born in 1950, 1960 and 1970 and working in those years increased on average by just 0.5 percent per-year.  The financial meltdown of 2008-2009 and the deep recession and slow recovery which have followed did not create this problem but rather, as would be expected, exacerbated the new pattern." 

To read the rest of Dr. Shapiro's paper, please click on the link below.

Simon appeared on "America Live with Megyn Kelly" today to discuss the Obama administration and Libya. For more, read the piece Simon wrote on Libya last week, as well as Eli Lake for The Daily Beast on the latest news on Benghazi.

On October 23, Simon appeared on "Happening Now with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee" arguing that President Obama won the final presidential debate in Boca Raton, FL, while Mitt Romney failed the leadership test. To see Simon's tweets from the night, please find him on Twitter at @SimonWDC.

On October 18, 2012, NDN President Simon Rosenberg appeared on "America Live with Megyn Kelly" to debate Libya and foreign policy. Please find both segments below.

Simon appeared on BBC News on October 17, 2012 to do a recap of the previous night's presidential debate. To read his take on last night, click here. 

On October 17, 2012, Simon appeared on "Happening Now with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee" to recap the second presidential debate that took place on October 16 at Hofstra University. For more from Simon, read his take on the debate here. 

Simon wrote a piece for leading Mexican journal Letras Libres. The piece, titled "¿Avance o retreceso?" looks at the importance of the 2012 presidential election and advocates for President Obama's re-election. Please find excerpts below, and an English version here:

Lo que no sabíamos en 2009, después de la salida del presidente Bush, fue lo terribles que serían los resultados de su presidencia debido a sus fracasos o a la serie de fracasos mayores en el Partido Republicano moderno. El ascenso del Tea Party en 2010 y la incorporación de Paul Ryan, un líder intelectual de una nueva derecha todavía más reaccionaria, a la campaña de Romney dejaron claro que la resistencia y el miedo a la modernidad están en el corazón del Partido Republicano actual. Lo que anima y une a la derecha en 2012 es la búsqueda de un gobierno más pequeño y menos impuestos, un perspectiva que no es distinta de los argumentos de “gravar y gastar” de décadas pasadas...Lo que me parece que es desconcertante, y no solo decepcionante, sin embargo, es el ascenso en el pensamiento dominante de estrategias antidemocráticas por parte de la derecha. Muchos estados con legislaturas republicanas han aprobado nuevas leyes que dificultan que la gente vote, algo que afectará mucho más al electorado joven y más diverso y que se inclina en favor de los demócratas...La gran pregunta de la política estadounidense es cuándo se modernizará el Partido Republicano, si es que lo hará, y cuándo se adaptará a las nuevas realidades del siglo XXI, si es que lo hará, y elegir así ir hacia adelante y no hacia atrás. Hacerlo será sin duda bueno para Estados Unidos y para el mundo. Pero el modo en que esto suceda y quién será el que lo lleve a este lugar mejor es todavía muy difícil de discernir desde Washington, D. C. en el otoño del 2012.

On October 12, 2012, Simon appeared on Fox's The O'Reilly Factor with host Laura Ingraham to recap the VP debate and discuss post-debate polling.

There is a nice profile of Simon in the current issue of Poder Magazine.  It reviews Simon's decade long efforts to help political leaders better understand the changing demographics of the US, particularly the rising impact of the growing Latino population in the US.  It begins: 

Simon Rosenberg was at it again. Immigration hadn’t been in the news much on the campaign trail in recent months. But in June, President Obama granted relief from deportation to an estimated 800,000 young people, Mitt Romney gave a speech on immigration to Latino elected officials and the Supreme Court announced its decision on Arizona’s divisive law, SB1070.

Rosenberg began sending out the sort of memos he has used to guide policy and politics on immigration since the middle of the last decade, offering his take on each event.

A long roster of national figures in politics, communications and activism can speak to the impact of these memos and the rest of Rosenberg’s work, particularly as founder and president of NDN, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank and advocacy organization formerly known as the New Democrat Network.

They’ll tell you Rosenberg is a pioneer in polling and other research that firmly established the importance of the Latino voter to presidential elections, and that he continues to shape the ongoing debate over the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration reform.

On "America Live with Megyn Kelly," Simon gave his take on the first presidential debate in Denver, CO. Please find Simon's statement from earlier today here.