Opening Address For The Seventh Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges

This article is a published version of the opening address of Peter Edelman at the Seventh Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges, which identifies the challenges in lawyering to the poor and proposes approaches for lawyers to reduce poverty. Peter Edelman\u27s speech challenges the private Bar to take on greater responsibility in helping to formulate policy that will work to eradicate the plight of the poor, calls for greater lawyer involvement in policy adaptation and implementation, identifies new roles that lawyers can and should play in helping to build and strengthen community institutions, and maintains that community building needs to become a major focus of lawyering for the poor

TANF and Low-Income Family Support: Hearing Before the H. Subcomm. on Income Security and Family Support of the H. Comm. on Ways and Means, 111th Cong., Mar. 11, 2010 (Statement of Professor Peter B. Edelman, Geo. U. L. Center)

TANF should be a work-based safety net that strengthens families. The history of the past fourteen years shows the way to improving it for the future. It would be more successful in promoting work if it analyzed the individual needs and challenges of recipients and provided tailored education, training, support services, and other assistance to help people get and keep jobs. It would be more successful as a safety net if benefits were increased and if people in need could succeed in greater numbers in gaining access to the program

Poverty in America: Why Can\u27t We End It?

The lowest percentage in poverty since we started counting was 11.1 percent in 1973. The rate climbed as high as 15.2 percent in 1983. In 2000, after a spurt of prosperity, it went back down to 11.3 percent, and yet 15 million more people are poor today. At the same time, we have done a lot that works. From Social Security to food stamps to the earned-income tax credit and on and on, we have enacted programs that now keep 40 million people out of poverty. Poverty would be nearly double what it is now without these measures, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. With all of that, why have we not achieved more? Four reasons: An astonishing number of people work at low-wage jobs. Plus, many more households are headed now by a single parent, making it difficult for them to earn a living income from the jobs that are typically available. The near disappearance of cash assistance for low-income mothers and children—i.e., welfare—in much of the country plays a contributing role, too. And persistent issues of race and gender mean higher poverty among minorities and families headed by single mothers

Poverty and Welfare Policy in the Post-Clinton Era

This is an important time to talk about people in need. There have been major changes recently in public policy toward those in need, and we have seen enough of their effect to be able to discuss the next steps. We have a new President and Congress. A recession is looking more probable by the day. And the 1996 welfare law is coming up for reauthorization in 2002. So this is a good time to look at how we are doing and what we need to do

Conundrum or Complication: A Study of Yield Curve Dynamics under Unusual Economic Conditions and Monetary Policies.

The definition of the decline of long term yields in the light of increasing short term yields as a conundrum by Chairman Greenspan in February 2005 has generated a significant amount of research. This paper presents a study of yield curve dynamics over this period using economic surprise data as the diagnostic tool. Results are presented for both US and Japanese data which indicate a non-linear response of the yield curve to economic data and monetary policy over the period in question. Further, a limited model is presented that is consistent with the observations. This can lead to an explanation of the conundrum in terms of a non-linear yield response to expected long term inflation and a variable expected long term real rate.federal reserve, term structure of interest rates, inflation

The Non-Linear Evolution of High Frequency Short Term Interest Rates

In this paper new results are documented regarding the short term evolution of global short term interest rates. Much work has been carried out concerning the evolution of interest rates over long time scales, on the order on one month or greater. However high frequency data has only been considered in a limited number of studies. In this study the evolution of the short term yield curve, on a day to day basis, is considered and results are presented that suggest that over these short time scales, short term interest rates exhibit non-linear autoregressive behaviour, in contradiction of the efficient markets hypothesis. In addition the high frequency data indicates that the observed co-movement across currencies of longer maturity interest rates result from a vector error correction process (VECM). Greater information on the nature of the process may be obtained by considering a non-linear VECM process. Based on the output of both non-linear uni-variate and multi-variate models, limited short term statistically significant predictions of the evolution of various short term interest rate instruments may be carried out.interest rates, non-linear, high frequency

Keynote Address: Social Justice Week 1997

I am pleased to be here not just to talk about the question of what happens to poor people under the new welfare legislation, but also because you have asked me to speak as part of your Social Justice Week. It is very important that you have Social Justice Week and that so many people are so interested in participating. As I will say in more detail later, it is urgent that we get beyond the debate over welfare at the same time as we pay careful attention to the implementation of the new welfare legislation. Our real effort has to be, in the broadest sense, about social justice. So the fact that you have situated this conversation this morning as the beginning point of your Social Justice Week is very important, and I am doubly pleased to be here on that account