Poverty Law Prof Blog

Children's Budget 2008

First Focus: Making Children and Families the Priority, a research/lobbying organization, has finished a report that looks at the amount the U.S. spends on children.  "Children's Budget 2008" does a couple of helpful things: it breaks down the different programs that focus on children and also highlights the direction (up or down) of spending on such programs.  The report is arranged in a way that its findings are easily understood and I think could make a good background assignment for a class.  There is also an associated powerpoint presentation. 

The key findings of the report include:

• For the past five years, only one penny of every new, non-defense dollar spent by the federal government has gone to children and children’s programs.
• Children’s spending now makes up only ten percent of the entire non-defense budget.
• The overall share of federal, non-defense spending going to children’s programs has dropped by 10 percent over the past five years.
• Real discretionary spending on children has declined by more than 6 percent since 2004, while at the same time all other non-defense discretionary spending has increased by more than 8 percent.
  

-Thanks to Christopher Spina for forwarding the info to me.  E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Frank I. Michelman on Socioeconomic Rights in Constitutional Law

Though this blog has not spent time highlighting socioeconomic rights papers, Frank I. Michelman recently presented a draft of a theoretical, yet approachable, piece: "Socioeconomic Rights in constitutional law: explaining America away."  The abstract is below:

The apparent omission of a socioeconomic commitment from United States
constitutional law gives rise to continuing debate. The case is unclear that
this omission has any likely bearing on the actual performance of American
governments in the social welfare field. Might there be other reasons for
treating the omission as problematic? If so, might the omission
nevertheless be explained in terms consistent with belief that some kind of
socioeconomic commitment ideally belongs in the constitutional law of a
country like the U.S.? After briefly reviewing the uneasy instrumental case
for a constitutionalized socioeconomic commitment, this article suggests a
different possible ground for favoring inclusion as a matter of political-moral
principle. It then canvasses possible responses to the American case.
These include both a possible denial that socioeconomic guarantees are in
fact lacking from U.S. constitutional law, and a possible claim that omitting
them is the correct choice for the U.S. as a matter of “non-ideal” political
morality.

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Conference Announcement: Labor History

The Pacific Northwest Labour History Association and the Labor & Working Class History Association are sponsoring a conference entitled Indigenous, Immigrant, Migrant Labour & Globalization, June 6-8, 2008 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  The call for papers deadline has passed. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu

Global Food Crisis

The "globe's worst food crisis in a generation" is occurring right now and the Washington Post today published a good introduction to the crisis.  Anthony Faiola, "The New Economics of Hunger," Washington Post, April 27, 2008.  A photo gallery is associated with the story, as are two very good graphics, one on which countries have grain, and one presenting reasons for the rise in grain prices. 

Judge Posner and Gary Becker have both commented about the rising prices on their blog (click by name).  A New York times Op-Ed by Tyler Cowen, "Freer Trade Could Fill the World's Rice Bowl" April 27, 2008, makes its premise clear in its title.  The World Bank's website includes a statement by President Zoellick as well as a video overview of the crisis and a policy statement of the crisis/World Bank response.  Maros Ivanic & Will Martin also have a working paper on topic "Implications of Higher Global Food Prices for Poverty in Low-Income Countries" (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4594, April 2008).

UPDATE: A number of other blog postings have covered this crisis in much greater detail (thanks to Patrick S. O'Donnell's comment, which I though was worth bringing out of the comment part of the page):

• Patrick S. O'Donnell at Ratio Juris Blog
• Deven Desai at Concurring Opinions
• Rebecca Bratspies at IntLawGrrls

 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu