This blog originally appeared on Public Finance In the UK, low and middle income families face flatlining or falling living standards. But the so-called ‘squeezed middle’ is under even greater pressure in the US. What can we learn? New analysis of the ‘squeezed middle’ in America and Britain, launched today by the Resolution Foundation, raises some important pointers … Continued

This blog originally appeared on Bright Blue Today sees the launch of ‘The Squeezed Middle: the pressure on ordinary workers in America and Britain’ – a collection of essays from America’s leading thinkers in the field of living standards to understand what lessons, if any, we might draw from the US experience. You may well wonder what we … Continued

In the three months I’ve been working on low income households in the US, a wry smile and an emphatic “no” is the almost universal response I get to my question “does the US have any lessons for the UK?” It is certainly true that American safety nets, where they exist at all, are more … Continued

Last month, Tom Harkin, one of the Democrat giants of the Senate and Chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, convened the first of several meetings to examine why the American Dream appears to be ever harder to reach, even for those who – in Clinton’s words – ‘work hard and play by the … Continued

It was only a month ago that America narrowly escaped a Federal government shutdown, caused by the intense difficulties of reaching a consensus on the 2011 budget. But if that skirmish seemed significant, it is nothing compared to the battle that is erupting between Democrats and Republicans over Obama’s 2012 budget proposals, and his accompanying plans … Continued

From time to time we’ll be posting pieces from the USA and elsewhere to gain international insights on the plight of low-to-middle earners. Here Sophia Parker, a Research Associate of the Foundation, sets out the growing crisis facing low-and-middle income America and considers what it means for the Obama administration. “The problem”, declares American academic … Continued