By Rachel Goldfarb, originally posted on Next New Deal
Click here to receive the Daily Digest via email.
Why Forks in Your Office Kitchen Keep Disappearing (Marketplace)
Audrey Quinn speaks to Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal about why office support positions are being cut in the recession. Mike says technology made some tasks, like booking travel, much simpler, but someone still needs to wash dirty coffee mugs.
Republican Staffer ‘Beats’ Food Stamp Challenge (MSNBC)
Ned Resnikoff reports that a Republican staffer claims to have "beaten" the challenge that 26 Democrats took on last week. Of course, he didn’t eat any fresh fruits or vegetables all week, which is probably not sustainable for people living this way.
GOPers Want to Keep Food Stamps From People Who Have a Cheap Car or $2,000 in Savings (MoJo)
Erika Eichelberger is angry at Republican congressmen who introduced assets tests as a federal requirement for SNAP. They are concerned that people become dependent on handouts, but it’s the inability to save for an emergency that keeps people in poverty.
RIP, American Dream? Why It's So Hard for the Poor to Get Ahead Today (The Atlantic)
Matthew O'Brien is concerned by data that shows that education cannot solve income inequality: a person born wealthy who does not go to college is 2.5 times as likely to end up wealthy as a person born poor with a degree.
U.S. Wages Fall Amid Overseas Pressure (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
John Schmid says that the Bureau of Labor and Statistics is reporting year-over-year declines in average weekly wages in the U.S. Some of his sources call this a "normal adjustment period," but that doesn't help people whose bills are rising.
The Capitalist’s Case for a $15 Minimum Wage (Bloomberg)
Nick Hanauer argues that entrepreneurs and businessmen like him should all support a higher minimum wage, because at the current minimum wage many people cannot buy their products. Accepting lower profits in the short-term would boost demand and sales over time.
This graph shows how bad the Fed is at predicting the future (WaPo)
Dylan Matthews examines five years of June forecasts from the Fed and finds that they are quite inaccurate. Despite revising the predictions down from year to year, the final growth rates consistently fall behind the projections.
What You Need to Know About Immigration and the Deficit (Slate)
Matt Yglesias explains why we can trust the CBO scoring of the Gang of 8 immigration bill, which says that immigration reform will reduce the deficit by nearly $200 billion over the next ten years.