Editor's Note: The faiV is brought to you this week by the Aspen Intitute's Financial Security Program EPIC team: Joanna Smith-Ramani, David Mitchell, Katherine McKay, and Katie Bryan. Their views, etc. though YouTube links are probably mine. Check out their work on income volatility and on consumer debt at aspenepic.org. I'll be back next week.
1. Weaponized Data and American Inequality (Part 3): We learned a lot in reading the faiV’s summary and corresponding links detailing the minimum wage debate consuming economists across the country. While we haven’t reached our own conclusion about whether a $13 minimum wage in Seattle is or isn’t too high, we are following how some state legislatures across the country are actively rolling back minimum wages established by municipal governments. Example? St. Louis was dealt a big blow and the city has received a lot of press this summer.
(ICYMI the debate, here and here are the two papers that offer opposing outcomes of Seattle’s minimum wage increase. If you don’t have time to read the papers, here’s a fun breakdown from Vice.)
2. Living for the City: CityLab profiled recent research on the intersection of urban development and economic inequality, making us think back to Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.” Still relevant. And beautiful. A new study out of the University of Idaho looks at 639 urban counties in the US and the factors that determined when they felt the effects of the 2006-2010 recession. Rarely do we see the Gini coefficient being used in the context of domestic inequality – but we should use this metric more often. Consequently, we were really excited to see this interactive map of the Gini coefficients of counties across the US.
For more on cities, another CityLab piece looks at how housing policies worldwide will only exacerbate urban inequality and housing crises. And this story on how inefficient tax codes, high cost of living, and migration, by both companies and residents, are sending the state of Connecticut spiraling, makes us rethink how we view the fiscal policies of traditionally blue, wealthy states.
3. Income Volatility, Short-Term Savings, Retirement (Oh My): Over the last 18+ months, our team has conducted a deep dive on both the impact income volatility – large fluctuations in week-to-week and month-to-month income – has on US households and potential solutions for mitigating the problem. Our latest briefs look at the role wage insurance could play in helping families cope with job loss or reduced wages and how shortfall savings can serve as a buffer during financial emergencies.
Because we care about both short-term financial stability and long-term security, we also spend our days thinking about comprehensive policy solutions to help expand access to retirement savings opportunities. In our process learning about more about income volatility, we’ve realized it’s particularly hard to save for the long-term when short-term savings are lacking. This new paper looks at the effect income shocks have on retirement savings (the stats aren’t pretty: “96 percent of Americans experience four or more income shocks by the time they reach 70”), and *mark your calendars* later this fall, we’ll be publishing two papers on how volatility affects retirement savings.
4. China, China, China: Cash is king. Right? Hard currency has been with us for nearly three thousand years, after all. But maybe not for much longer. As one reporter details, visit urban China and you will likely, “have to deal with being locked out of China’s online payments infrastructure.” Sweden is also rapidly moving to a cashless economy. “Out of Sweden's 1,600 banks, 900 don’t do cash— you can’t deposit it or withdraw it.”
The advantages of going cashless? The claimed benefits tend to be 1) speed - for both consumers and banks, removing cash from transactions is faster 2) curbing illegal activity – Sweden saw a decrease in drug trafficking and illegal employment and 3) financial inclusion – this one needs to be fleshed out more, but we think and are hopeful that going cashless will require more people to open bank accounts, and the benefits of being “banked” are many. That said, some are concerned that going cashless could undermine other financial inclusion efforts. We may be able to learn from how this plays out in India, where recent moves toward becoming a cashless economy have disrupted many poor communities.
5. Consumer Debt: EPIC’s new topic is consumer debt. Debt is back to pre-Recession levels, subprime auto lending is booming, and we have many many questions: how does income volatility impact people’s ability to manage their debt? And, will we pay off our student loans before our children apply to college? Maybe… if you’re one of thousands of distressed borrowers who learned this week that their private student loans may be forgiven. Because the investors who sued them are unable to prove ownership of nearly $5 billion in student loans. It’s like the foreclosure crisis all over again!
U.S. consumers now have a record $12.7 trillion in debt, leaving many wondering whether it’s time for concern. There’s no easy answer. Based on a new paper from UBS, Business Insider reports “The poorest Americans are suddenly worried about repaying their debts.” We don’t know about that “suddenly” part, but you can’t judge a story by its headline, and those making less than $40,000 are increasingly concerned.
Do you know what it means? Source: Zillow.com via The Basis Point via Ritholtz.com. Apparently none of them know what it means either. I feel like it must have something to do with the serial linking but that's probably wrong. I'm more confident it might have something to do with the record-low labor force participation rate, not charted here.
