Special Report: U.S. data dogs on quest for sexier statistics, By Emily Kaiser, July 6, 2010, ABC News: “Alan Krueger can wax poetic about data — literally. The top economic adviser to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Krueger quoted poet Carl Sandburg in an 84-page research paper he co-authored proposing a new database to measure how people spend their time in order to understand what makes the economy tick. ‘Time is the coin of your life,’ Sandburg wrote. ‘It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.’ Before he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy last year, Krueger was a scholar whose passion was time use studies. Now he is in a position to bring this type of information into economic policy decisions in Washington. The United States is deluged with economic data, yet the figures cannot conclusively answer even the most fundamental questions: Is the recession really over? Are people living better? Is government serving its citizens well? Inside the corridors of power, the nerds are stirring. A handful of data-loving economists in key positions at Treasury, the Commerce Department and the White House are pushing for alternative measures to provide a clearer picture of how well the economy is working. The interest is more than just academic. U.S. economic data moves stock markets, drives public policy, and can even swing a presidential election…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty