10 Economics Stories to Jump on Now by Josh Harkinson

10 Economic Stories To Jump On Now Easy ways to find great narratives that resonate beyond the financial pages

Background: It’s The Inequality, Stupid!

Even as the wealthy earn a larger share, they get taxed less. . .

You have nothing to lose but your gains

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Congressional Budget Office, Economic Policy Institute, Census Bureau

Growth is back

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Stephen Gordon, Université Laval

But jobs aren’t

Source: Ibid

Meanwhile, people who still have jobs are working harder

Source: Center for American Progress

1) Localize the inequality story

Back To Work Meet the region’s skilled but undervalued workers

By Joe O’Sullivan Starts at a job recruitment seminar with compelling narrative of out-of-luck workers looking for a break.

Nut graf:

Colvin is one of many in the region who had, until recently, led a largely middle-class life. . .But as the middle class faces stiff headwinds, Colvin and about 20,000 others in Spokane County must scrap for a living . . .These jobseekers must also contend with the Inland Northwest’s shift to a more diversified economy that demands specialized education and skills. And they must make these transitions in an era of stagnant wages and rising education and health costs.

Great stats in this story: •  Region has seen a 26% decline in manufacturing jobs

since 2000

•  “Between 2000 and 2010, the largest share of Spokane-area job growth occurred in the 40 percent of jobs that paid the least”

•  “[P]eople in Spokane County have the same purchasing power they had in 1996.”

•  Places in context of national trends: flat wages, rising healthcare costs, decline of unions, cuts to universities

Where to find this kind of info

•  Purchasing power stat came from a local economics professor

•  Bureau of Labor Statistics

•  US Census Bureau

•  Local Chambers of Commerce often pull together economic stats

•  Regional development councils and associations of governments

How to really localize the inequality story

"   The US Census Bureau measures income inequality by county

"   How they measure it: the Gini Coefficient

"   Their survey happens every 3 years. Most recent survey was in 2010.

"   Use this data to see how counties in your area compare to each other and against other regions.

2) Tell the story of a besieged Middle Class worker in first person

"   Steven: Air-traffic controller, Florida

I told them to get somebody else to help me track all these airplanes. And then as I sat up in my chair to reposition myself, I totally lost the picture. I'm like, Oh shit. There were five pieces of the puzzle that I was juggling and I couldn't remember where they were going. The backup guy saved me. But in the six years since we developed a severe staffing shortage, that kind of backup hasn't always been available.

The “As Told To” Format

"   Captures voice and words of subject as much as possible, but. . .

"   Highly edited for brevity and clarity. You may need to write your own transitions between thoughts.

"   Feels more real and direct than third-person accounts. Perfect for telling tales of regular folks

"   Can work as a package of several narratives

"   See Texas Monthly for other great examples

3) Become a wage slave and write it up

Otherwise known as the Barbara Ehrenreich approach

"   Find a job that exemplifies the challenges of the middle class and apply for it

"   Beware of the legal implications: Don’t lie on your resume and don’t disclose the name of the business

"   You can bring in stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

4) Squatters and Foreclosure Defenders

Last Thursday in New York City, a soft-spoken man with a thick beard, whom I'll call Paul, casually approached a brick apartment building and broke off a padlock with a bolt cutter. A spotter called to say a squad car was on its way, but Paul didn't feel his phone vibrate; he was too busy jamming a crowbar in the door. "Fortunately, the cop car just drove up the street and turned," he recalls a few days later as he and his wife wait at a subway stop to meet up with members of his cleanup crew. He'd installed his own lock on the door, which led to a vacant unit where the crew hoped to install a family of squatters.

"   Take Back the Land: a sort of squatting umbrella organization

"   Squatters vs foreclosure defenders

"   Check with people in your local Occupy group

"   Check with housing rights organizations, such as the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative

5) Profile your local plutocrat

Where do I start?

"   The Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans

"   Forbes list of America’s highest-paid CEOs

"   Contact your county tax assessor to see if you can get a list of the names of the biggest property tax payers

"   Cross-check names against local, state, and federal campaign contributions and lobbying records

"   If you can’t get an interview, buttonhole them at public events

Look for a local angle

"   A few examples from my own reporting:

"   Michael Dell: The Making of an American Oligarch How a homegrown geek outsourced, downsized, and tax-breaked his was to the top Dell began in Austin and landed huge local subsidies before shipping jobs overseas

"   Ira Rennert’s helicopter ignites a class war in the Hamptons (in the next issue) Helicopter noise pits the merely wealthy against the fantastically wealthy, illuminating multiple class divides

6) Profile businesses that serve billionaires

Ideas "   Executive protection firms. They are all over the country

"   Firms that train “executive protection dogs,” which sell for up to $230,000 each (a bargain compared to human guards)

"   Armored car companies

"   People who build “safe rooms” and other elaborate security systems

"   Modern butlers

"   Fancy restaurants that serve VIPs

7) Profile a wealthy neighborhood

"   People of similar incomes tend to cluster in the same neighborhoods, which means you probably have a zip code like Highland Park in your area

"   Chances are, the zip code in question is tops in something, and that can be your hook. For example, the Beretta handgun store in Highland Park sells more guns than any other Beretta store in the world. That was how I began the piece.

"   This is why it’s important to talk to business owners

8) Warren Buffett and other heretics

Net worth: $44 billion

"   Warren Buffett doesn’t think it’s fair that he’s taxed at a lower rate than his secretary. He’s the namesake of Obama’s tax-the-rich plan, the Buffett Rule.

"   Why is this story appealing?

"   It’s counter-intuitive

"   There are plenty of other Warren Buffetts out there

This guy is the former head of the Pacific Stock Exchange

This woman is a Harvard-trained quantitative trader who worked at Larry Summers’ hedge fund

More recently, she founded Occupy Wall Street’s Alternative Banking Group, along with a bunch of other Wall Street insiders, to advocate for stronger financial regulations

How do you find these people?

"   Go to protests and talk to lots of folks

"   Look for recent retirees and people who have changed careers. They are more willing to talk.

"   Look for really wealthy people who are involved in grassroots political groups such as MoveOn.org and get to know them and their friends

9) Hedge-Fund Landlords

"   While renting out houses has typically been the province of mom-and-pop landlords, it should come as no surprise that Wall Street wants in. For years, a glut of foreclosures has suppressed home prices even as tighter lending standards and a sluggish economy have kept many buyers away. Banks, meanwhile, still sit on huge "shadow" inventories of foreclosed and abandoned properties, which means fewer places for people to live. The result of all this is a red-hot rental market—primed for speculation

"   In February, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced a pilot program to sell discounted batches of Fannie Mae-owned homes to large investors in six major urban areas on the condition that the buyers lease out the properties.

"   Advocates claim the program will give blighted properties a makeover and provide displaced homeowners with more rental options.

"   Critics worry that these landlords could become white-glove slumlords, that converting houses to rental homes will lower property values in the long-run, and that consolidating ownership will increase rents in the long-run

How to report this story

"   Realtors should know which private equity groups are big players in your area

"   Many cities have agencies that field complaints from renters. You can see if hedge-fund landlords are doing a good job.

"   Look for lawsuits against the companies. For example, hedge fund foreclosure-to-rental player Carrington Investments has been sued more than 100 times. Its founder claimed to have invented mortgage-backed subprime securities.

10) Decaying cities as laboratories for innovation

Artists and innovators reshape the economy

"   Phil Cooley’s latest Corktown project, the Pony Ride, has a fun name but a serious mission: To turn the foreclosure crisis on its head. The Slows Bar BQ owner beat out would-be land speculators in a tax sale this spring, purchasing a 30,000-square-foot building at the corner of Porter and Vermont for a cool $100,000. Instead of sitting on the property, Cooley is offering cheap or near-free rent to socially conscious entrepreneurs and artists committed to improving the community.

Metro Times covers artist who paints mural at Pony Ride

Metro Times, May 8, 2012

"   The street artist known as Revok, who has all but been chased out of Los Angeles for his work there, has found a receptive greeting in Detroit. The artist, who has reportedly moved into a space in Eastern Market, has been making friends all over town, delighted to have a famous artist adorn our buildings. “I got off the plane and started driving around, sliding all over the ice in the streets and fell in love with it instantly,” he said. “This place is fucking awesome.”