Tag Archives: Alan Krueger

White House Press Office

Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest Aboard Air Force One en route Miami, FL, 3/29/2013

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By The White House

Aboard Air Force One
En Route Miami, Florida
10:55 A.M. EDT
MR. EARNEST: Bienvenidos aboard Air Force One as we make our way to Miami today. Typically, at the beginning of gaggles like this, I’ll have a little presentation to preview for you the remarks of the President and give you a sense of the argument and the case the President will be making. Rather than doing that myself today, I’ve actually brought along an expert, Alan Krueger, who is the President’s chief economist.
Prior to working at the White House, Alan worked at the Treasury Department, where he was instrumental in putting together some of the administrations’ proposals related to the infrastructure bank and to the Build America Bonds that have proven to be so popular and helpful in stimulating economic growth and creating jobs all across the country. So I want to give Alan the opportunity to give you a sense of the case the President will make today about the infrastructure proposals that the President will be laying out, and the impact it would have on the economy and creating jobs. Alan can then take your questions about the event, and then we’ll open it up to other questions you may have on other topics today.
All right. So, Alan, do you want to give us a little opener here?
MR. KRUEGER: Sure. So why don’t I say a few words at 30,000 feet about how infrastructure is the right thing to invest in in the economy right now.
The U.S. is underinvested in our infrastructure. If we invest more in infrastructure, we’ll be more competitive — businesses tell us that. Businesses tell us, and the President cites this in his speech, that if we improve our infrastructure, that will bring more jobs back home to the U.S. Other countries that we compete with economically have been investing quite heavily in infrastructure.
On top of that, now is a particularly good time to invest in our infrastructure. No industry was harder hit by the downturn than construction. Fully 20 percent of the jobs that were lost from the end of 2007 to the end of 2009 were in the construction sector. The unemployment rate for construction has come down, but it still remains over 15 percent. So we have resources that we could put back to work today to improve our competitiveness tomorrow. It makes a great deal of economic sense.
The President today in Miami is going to discuss three proposals to make smarter, more leveraged investments in our infrastructure. And this builds on his previous announcement for the Fix it First initiative, and a good deal of research suggests that maintaining our existing infrastructure has a very high payoff.
One area where we do a very poor job in terms of infrastructure, given the siloed nature in which we …read more
Source: White House Press Office
News, Politics, Government

Greg Mankiw's Excellent Question: Why a $9 Minimum Wage? Why Not $90? Or 90 cents?

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By Tim Worstall, Contributor Given that Greg Mankiw is a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers this is an excellent question he poses, one that’s well worth answering: There is one question I would like to see some reporter ask Alan Krueger, the president’s chief economist: How did they decide that $9 per hour is the right level?  Why not $10 or $12 or $15 or $20?  Presumably, the president’s economic team must believe that the adverse employment effects become sufficiently large at some point that further increases are undesirable.  But what calculations led them to decide that $9 strikes the right balance? That is, a past holder of that job as economic advisor would like to see someone ask the current holder of it to explain the evidence leading to this particular number. And while I’m not even an economist, let alone anyone ever going to be in the running for that type of job, I can provide an answer. Which is that this appears to be around and about the rate at which anything actually happens. A minimum wage below around 45% of average wages seems not to affect anything or anyone very much. One of over 45% or so of average wages appears to have large bad effects and no really noticeable goods ones. Thus, given that average hourly wages in the US are around the $20 level at present, a $9 minimum wage would be, around and about, the level at which very little of anything much happens but we don’t therefore have many bad effects. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 2/7/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
10:07 A.M. EST
MR. CARNEY: Good morning, everyone. I wanted to give you a little information before I take your questions in this off-camera gaggle.
Well, first of all, as you know, the President will be speaking in an open press event to House Democrats in Leesburg later today, so you’ll have that to look forward to.
Also today, senior administration officials will meet with businesses association groups and small business association groups here at the White House. Valerie Jarrett, Jeff Zients, Gene Sperling, and Alan Krueger will be in attendance. The larger business association meeting takes place right about now. How about that? And it includes representatives from the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the Business Roundtable, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the National Retail Federation. I think we provided you a full list of participants, so I will not take up time reading them.
In the afternoon, the same senior administration officials will meet with representatives from a number of smaller business associations, including the Small Business Majority, the NFIB, the National Association of Women Business Owners, and others. The groups will discuss the President’s efforts to find a balanced approach to reduce the deficit and avoid the devastating effects of the sequester along with the discussion of the President’s approach to comprehensive immigration reform and how it fits into our broader economic agenda.
And with that, I go to your questions. Mr. AP.
Q Thanks, Jay. Senator Hagel’s confirmation vote has been postponed with Republicans saying they need more information from him. Should Senator Hagel provide Congress with more information about his past activities?
MR. CARNEY: Well, Senator Hagel has provided extensive information about his activities. I’m not sure which activities you’re referring to. I think there’s been a question about past speeches. And as you know, Senator Hagel has conducted an exhaustive search for all of his speaking engagements over the past five years, as the committee requested. He has provided all available prepared texts and transcripts from those speeches to the committee. There are some speeches that Senator Hagel gave for which there were no prepared remarks and no transcripts. A list of those speeches has also been provided to the committee.
So the broader issue here is we continue to expect the Senate to act quickly to confirm Senator Hagel. As you know, since his confirmation hearing, more senators on both sides of the aisle have announced their support for his confirmation. That includes Senators Johanns, Harkin, Gillibrand, Begich, Udall, Hagan, and Blumenthal.
We continue to urge the Senate to move quickly. This is a uniquely qualified nominee for the position of Secretary of Defense, A. And B, the position of Secretary of Defense needs to be filled. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House Press Office
News, Politics, Government

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 2/6/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

11:58 A.M. EST

MR. CARNEY: Hello, everyone. Thanks for being here. Before I take your questions, I just wanted to mention that earlier today, at the White House, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor; Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council; Jeff Zients, Director of OMB; and Alan Krueger, the President’s chief economist met with the following business leaders in the defense contracting industry: Wes Bush, Chairman, CEO and President of Northrop Grumman Corporation; David P. Hess, President of Pratt & Whitney; Linda Parker Hudson, President and CEO of BAE Systems Inc.; John S. Langford, Chairman and CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation; David F. Melcher, CEO and President of ITT Exelis; Mike Petters, President and CEO, Huntington Ingalls Industries; and Marion C. Blakey, President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association.

The focus of the conversation was the potential devastating impacts of the sequester going into effect as a number of the participants noted the notion that allowing the sequester to take effect would someone have limited effect or would be reversible, that notion was disputed heavily in the meeting. For some of these major companies, the impacts would be long lasting, as they would have to make decisions about programmatic changes they would make and therefore contractual changes. A company like Northrop Grumman, I believe, would have, for example, something like 20,000 small businesses in their pipeline that would be severely affected by implementation of the sequester.

And a lot of these companies, while they are defense contractors, also have a significant civilian side business operations that would be negatively affected by the impacts on their R&D budgets, for example.

So this is a very serious matter. I would also note that the participants did not support proposals thrown out there that we could somehow address only the defense spending side of the sequester, take care of that, but let the nondefense cuts kick in, across-the board cuts, or double up on the nondefense across-the-board cuts, because these companies depend for their workforces of their future on investments in education and in STEM education in particular, and in other areas of investment that this government makes to help build the foundation for our future economy. So it was a very good meeting and about a very important topic.

And with that, I go to the Associated Press.

Q Thank you. Does the White House have any response to the Boy Scouts delaying their decision on allowing gay members and leaders?

MR. CARNEY: We have no response. I don’t have a response to their process. You know that the President believes the Boy Scouts is a valuable organization that has helped educate and build character in American boys for more than a century. He also, as you know, opposes discrimination in all forms, and as such believes, as he said just on Sunday, that gay Americans ought to be able to participate in the Boy Scouts. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House Press Office

Articles of Interest

White House: Sandy To Blame For Lack Of Growth

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By Breaking News

White House SC White House: Sandy to blame for lack of growth

WASHINGTON (OfficialWire) — The White House says Superstorm Sandy is partially to blame for the unexpected contraction of the U.S. economy.

Top White House economist Alan Krueger says the storm, which battered the East Coast, disrupted economic activity and destroyed $44 billion in fixed capital. Krueger also says federal defense spending shrank, in part because of uncertainty over automatic spending cuts that could have kicked in at the start of the year.

Read More at OfficialWire .

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism