Economic Policy

As President Obama prepares to make a "major" speech on the economy today, our past reports describe the challenges the middle class has faced in the past decades.

Banks are going to have to hold more capital as a cushion against losses, under new rules adopted today by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Federal Reserve Board, which developed the rules jointly with the other banking regulators, approved them last week. The new capital rules, intended […]

President Obama’s trip to South Africa this week aims to strengthen economic ties between the two countries at a time when China’s growing economic presence in the region has added a new dynamic. According to the European Commission, in 2011, China accounted for a larger share of South Africa’s trade than the U.S. did. And the […]

Overview In a second term marked by a series of controversies and little legislative success, President Obama’s job approval rating has nonetheless remained fairly steady. Currently, 49% approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president while 43% disapprove. That is little changed from a month ago, before the NSA surveillance controversy and […]

While the stock market has been surging, there is a big gap who who benefits that has implications for the strength of the economic recovery.

Overview As Oklahoma recovers from severe damage caused by last week’s tornado, a majority of Americans (59%) say federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid that does not need to be offset by cuts to other programs, while 29% say such spending must be offset by cuts to other programs. While there […]

While Americans increasingly see the tax system in need of repair, there is no consensus about its biggest shortcomings.

Overview So far, public interest in a trio of controversies connected to the Obama administration has been limited. Roughly a quarter (26%) of Americans say they are very closely following reports that the IRS targeted conservative groups. About the same number (25%) are tracking the Benghazi investigation very closely, and even fewer (16%) are very […]

Eurostat, the European statistical agency, announced today that the European Union’s annual inflation rate in April was 1.4%, down from a rate of 2.7% in April 2012. Nonetheless, across eight EU nations surveyed by the Pew Research Center in March 2013, a median of 67% said rising prices were a “very” big problem in their […]

Popularity is no protection against budget cuts: The parts of government that Americans like the most — state, cities and counties, and the U.S. Postal Service — are also the ones shedding workers the fastest. The most recent nonfarm payroll figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the public sector continues to be a drag on […]