Manufacturing Works: New Post-Election Analysis Finds Manufacturing, China, and Outsourcing Dominated 2012 Political TV Advertising

November 13, 2012 by

Nearly 1 Million Ad Occurrences Focused on Jobs, Trade, and Outsourcing

Alliance for American Manufacturing

November 13, 2012—More than 975,000 mentions were made in presidential TV advertising about the key issues of jobs, outsourcing, and trade generally or involving China specifically, and Gov. Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital, according to a new report released today by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) conducted for the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM).

The new report analyzed the broadcast TV advertising airtime devoted to the presidential race as well as key Senate races in four industrial states: Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The analysis was based on advertising tracked in all 210 U.S. media markets as well as on 11 national broadcast networks and more than 80 national cable networks.

“America’s airwaves were jammed with 30- and 60-second ads about persistent joblessness, the government bailout of the automakers, and the impact of outsourcing and trade—specifically, trade with China—on domestic employment,” said Elizabeth Wilner, vice president of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. “Even in today’s service-and-dotcom economy, one of the most popular images in 2012 political advertising was the American factory. Whether depicted as desolate through chained gates or shot from a brightly lit, busy floor, the factory starred in an air war dominated by debate over the American economy.”

According to AAM Executive Director Scott Paul, “Both the Democratic and Republican candidates spent a stunning amount of money on television advertising to convince voters that they could best represent the interests of America’s manufacturers and their workers. Obviously they latched on to the right issues because jobs and outsourcing are absolute, top-of-mind issues. Across the partisan spectrum, these issues move voters.”

This summer, bipartisan pollsters Mark Mellman and Whit Ayres conducted a national poll for AAM that found voters greatly concerned about outsourcing, with 62 percent of voters saying Washington needs to get tougher when China violates trade agreements. And fully 83 percent of voters express an unfavorable view of companies that outsource jobs to China.

China dominated the trade debate overall. In all five of the races examined by CMAG, the majority of trade-centered TV advertising put the spotlight on China. In the Wisconsin and Indiana Senate races, China was the focus of all the TV advertising about trade. In the Pennsylvania Senate race, it was the focus of all Republican advertising about trade. In the Ohio Senate race, the vast majority of trade-related advertising focused on China—and all of it was aired by Democratic advertisers.

“China has become a pivotal issue,” said Paul. “The only question now, after all the hundreds of millions that have been spent, is whether the winning candidates will follow through on their promises. Voters will be watching for action.”

Added Paul, “The auto rescue may have been unpopular when it was initiated in 2009, but it was a key to the President’s victory in Ohio in 2012. Persuading voters that you stand for American manufacturing is going to be a litmus test for any serious national candidate moving forward.”

Some key findings from the study:

o Republicans outspent and out-aired Democrats on jobs. In all five races, Republicans spent more money and had higher spot count rates than Democrats on advertising that mentioned “jobs.”

o Democrats’ ads about jobs focused on businesses that sent jobs overseas and laid off workers, which explains why the two sides’ spending and spot-count levels on jobs were closer to parity in the Presidential contest but much further apart in the Senate races. While Bain Capital’s business practices were a major theme of advertising in the race for the White House, the issue was exclusive to that race.

o Despite being outspent and out-aired, Democrats’ messaging on jobs proved more effective.

o Republican mentions of “jobs” tended to increase, and Democratic mentions tended to decrease, around the release time of the monthly jobs reports.

o “Jobs” was the most-mentioned issue in 2012 advertising by far, not just in the five races but in federal races overall.

o In the four Senate races in particular, Republicans outspent and out-aired Democrats on jobs mentions by anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1. The Democrats used their ads about outsourcing and firing workers to distance the Republican candidates from the voting blocs they needed to win, often punctuating them with taglines such as, “He’s not for us anymore,” and “If [he] wins, the middle class loses.”

o Looking more closely at the presidential race, Democrats spent $57 million in TV advertising attacking Gov. Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, for its alleged practices of shipping jobs overseas or eliminating them altogether. The Obama campaign also devoted substantial advertising to the outsourcing angle, including an ad suggesting that, under Romney’s leadership, Bain laid off workers and destroyed livelihoods.

o While the anti-Bain ads received enormous media attention, more money—$68 million—actually was spent to advertise about trade. The two sides spent roughly the same amount on ads mentioning trade, about $34 million, but all the Republican spending went toward ads specifically mentioning China trade. The Romney campaign in particular used ads to accuse the President of not being tough enough on China trade and currency manipulation.

o The Ohio market in general and Cleveland in particular were dominant for both presidential ad spending and occurrences on all these issues. Across all markets seeing presidential advertising, Cleveland ranked second-highest for both spending and spot mentions of jobs: $37 million and 33,877, respectively. For anti-Bain mentions, it ranked second-highest for spending and highest for spots: $4.8 million and 5,676. On trade, it ranked second-highest for spending and highest for spots: $5.8 million and 5,138. And on China trade, it ranked highest for both spending and spots: $4.6 million and 4,722.

READ THE FULL REPORT: Post-election analysis by Kantar Media/CMAG.

DOWNLOAD: Kantar Media/CMAG’s full summary of election ads and costs.

VIEW A CHART: Spot count trend of TV ads mentioning "jobs" in the election.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing is a non-profit, non-partisan partnership formed in 2007 by some of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers to explore common solutions to challenging public policy topics such as job creation, infrastructure investment, international trade, and global competitiveness. For more information, please visit www.americanmanufacturing.org. 


Filed Under: Announcements, Economy, Elections, Media, Trade Tagged With: , ,

The Small- Dollar Loan Problem

August 29, 2012 by

Payday loans and the “debt trap”.

For Immediate Release: August 29, 2012
Contact: Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115

Washington, D.C.– As the recovery from the recession slowly continues, many struggling households may find themselves without the resources to cover necessary expenditures. Some of these households turn to small- dollar loans like payday lending to meet their immediate needs. But these loans are only beneficial if the borrower is able to repay the loans at reasonable cost. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research argues that there are two aspects to the small-dollar loan problem in the United States — substantial unmet demand for high-quality, small-dollar loans and a too great a supply of ultra-high-cost loans that do far more harm than good to borrowers.

The report, “Small-Dollar Lending,” provides an overview of the current small-dollar loan industry and the regulations currently in place as well as proposed legislation currently being considered in Congress.

“The great majority of the twelve million Americans who obtain payday loans each year – at an average of eight loans each – would be better off receiving no loans at all. Public policy should help these households identify genuinely helpful alternative ways to address their financial problems,” said Jim Campen, the author of the paper.

The banking industry and consumer advocates have established four criteria for identifying high-quality small-dollar loans: an APR of no more than 36 percent; a loan repayment term of at least 90 days; repayment in installments rather than a single lump sum; and an assessment by the lender of the borrower’s ability to repay the loan. But with just over one quarter of all U.S. households lacking access to traditional lines of consumer credit, the number of borrowers far outstrips the supply of these higher-quality loans. As a consequence, millions of consumers end up with payday-type loans that can charge  APRs of 390 to 520 percent, and are due in a lump sum in a matter of weeks. For a typical loan of $350, a borrower would pay $409.15 just two weeks after receiving the loan. Often this creates a “debt trap” when the borrower’s inability to repay the initial loan leads to the need to take out another loan to pay off the first. Research indicates that over three-quarters of all payday lopans are made within two weeks of the due date of a previous loan. And  payday lenders rake in $7 billion in fees from borrowers annually.

While these loans make up the vast majority of small-dollar loans, there is a pool of high-quality loans that are affordable and welfare-enhancing for the borrower (and economically sustainable for lenders). Expanding this pool of loans is one means of reducing more harmful loans.  A better regulatory regime is another. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), established by the Dodd-Frank Act, has great potential to reduce the extent to which consumers are hurt by high-cost small-dollar loans via greater federal supervision for compliance with federal laws and regulations. Regrettably, current proposed legislation, particularly the “Consumer Credit Access, Innovation and Modernization Act” falls short and actually paves the way for introducing payday-type loans into states that  currently prohibit them. The loans created under this legislation would not meet the above criteria for a high-quality small-dollar loan.

The report suggests that there are ways for policy makers, responsible lenders, interested non-profits organizations and others to help consumers meet their needs in times of financial distress and deal with the problem of small-dollar loans. They can try to ensure that the supply of high-quality loans is increased, encourage initiatives that that work to reduce the reliance on small-dollar loans such as increased savings and other forms of asset building, and support  initiatives by the CFPB that seek to eliminate abusive features and practices at all stages of the loan cycle.

The full report can be found here.

Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-5380 , Fax: (202) 588-1356


Filed Under: Announcements, Economic Policy, Finance, Human Rights, United States Tagged With: ,

Save the BBC World Service, Says IFJ

March 11, 2011 by

Save the BBC World Service, Says IFJ

Today the International Federation of Journalists and its regional group the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) called on journalists in Europe and around the world to join hands in defending the iconic BBC World Service, one of the world’s major independent media sources which has been an international inspiration for people fighting for free expression. The world service is in a fight for its survival says the IFJ affiliated National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK which is taking its campaign to defend the service to the British Parliament in London next week.
"The BBC has been a symbol for decades of the struggle for quality and independence," said EFJ General Secretary Aidan White. "But savage spending cuts and the removal of the BBC in medium wave across Europe are a brutal attack on public service". The EFJ says a spending review will see several language services removed from the world service network, while countries such as Russia, China and Iran with a record of political interference in journalism are investing heavily in boosting their own foreign-language media.

On 25 February, radio news programmes in Portuguese for Africa, Serbian, Albanian, and Spanish for Latin America were already removed. On 4 March the Macedonian language service disappeared and at the end of the month Russian, Chinese, Azeri, Vietnamese, Hindi, Indonesian, Kyrgyz, Nepali and Swahili services will go. From 27 March, the BBC will stop transmitting its medium wave English language service on 648 kHz and will only be available in Europe by satellite, cable and online.

"The BBC World Service is needed more than ever. These services provide independent and quality news from areas where profound political changes are taking place," said White. "in a global media environment the market cannot provide people with the information they need. That is why a public service is vital."
The NUJ has organised a public meeting in parliament on Tuesday 15 March in the House of Commons at 6.30pm and is encouraging supporters to come to Parliament. Everyone is welcome to come along to show support for the BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring.

Members of the EFJ and IFJ are being urged to:
-          sign an online petition to stop the cuts. Please ask your friends, family and colleagues to sign:http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savews.
-          send messages of support tocampaigns@nuj.org.uk
-          get involved by contacting the nearest British Embassy and inform them of the support for the campaign (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/find-an-embassy/ ). 

Please also copy any correspondence tocampaigns@nuj.org.uk
For more information, please contact IFJ on + 32 2 235 22 00
The IFJ represents more than 600.000 members in 125 countries

La FIJ appelle à sauver le World Service de la BBC

La Fédération internationale des journalistes et son groupe régional, la Fédération européenne des journalistes (FEJ) a appelé les journalistes en Europe et dans le monde à s’unir pour défendre l’emblématique BBC World Service, l’un des médias indépendants les plus importants du monde et qui a été une inspiration internationale pour les personnes luttant pour la liberté d’expression.  Le World Service est en pleine lutte pour sa survie, selon l’affilié de la FIJ au Royaume-Uni, le syndicat national des journalistes (NUJ) qui présentera sa campagne pour défendre le service au Parlement britannique à Londres la semaine prochaine.

"La BBC a été un symbole depuis des décennies de la lutte pour la qualité et l’indépendance", a déclaré le Secrétaire général de la FEJ, Aidan White. "Mais des réductions de dépenses drastiques et la suppression de la BBC en ondes moyennes dans toute l’Europe sont une violente attaque envers le service public".  La FEJ rappelle que le réexamen des dépenses de la BBC impliquera la suppression de plusieurs services linguistiques, tandis que des pays comme la Russie, la Chine et l’Iran, qui pratiquent une ingérence politique dans le journalisme, investissent massivement dans le renforcement de leurs propres médias en langue étrangère.

Le 25 février, les programmes d’information à la radio en portugais pour l’Afrique, en serbe, en albanais et en espagnol pour l’Amérique latine ont déjà été supprimées. Le 4 mars le service macédonien disparu et à la fin du mois russe, le chinois, l’azéri, le vietnamien, le hindi, l’indonésien, le kirghize, le népalais et swahili seront également supprimés. A partir du 27 mars, la BBC va arrêter la transmission de son service de langue anglaise en moyennes ondes sur 648 kHz, et ne sera plus disponible en Europe que par satellite, câble et en ligne. 
"La BBC World Service est plus que jamais nécessaire. Ces services fournissent des nouvelles indépendantes et de qualité dans des régions où de profonds changements politiques sont en cours ", a déclaré White. "Le marché seul ne peut pas fournir aux gens l’information dont ils ont besoin dans un environnement mondial des médias. C’est pourquoi un service public est essentiel. " 
Le NUJ a organisé une réunion publique au Parlement le mardi 15 mars à la Chambre des communes (Londres) à 18:30 et encourage tous les supporteurs à se rendre au Parlement pour montrer leur soutien à la BBC World Service et au BBC Monitoring.

Les membres de la FEJ et la FIJ sont invités à: 
- Signer une pétition pour arrêter les coupes budgétaires. Collègues et amis peuvent signer en ligne:http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/savews
- Envoyer des messages de soutien àcampaigns@nuj.org.uk
- S’impliquer en communiquant avec l’ambassade britannique le plus proche le soutien à la campagne (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/find-an-embassy/ ). 
Veuillez copier toute correspondance  àcampaigns@nuj.org.uk
Pour plus d’informations, veuillez contacter la FIJ au + 32 2 235 22 00
La FIJ représente plus de 600.000 membres dans 125 pays du monde

Ted Lipien

Free Media Online

Truckee, CA 96161

USA

FreeMediaOnline.org supporting free media worldwide

GovoritAmerika.us US-Russia multisource news analysis

Opinia.US US-Poland expert analysis

Tel. +1 415-793-1642


Filed Under: Announcements

New Report: Stemming the Rising Costs of Health Care Through Globalization

October 6, 2009 by

Study Projects Substantial Savings From Allowing Medicare Beneficiaries to Buy into Health Care Systems of Other Countries

CEPR

Center for Economic and Policy Research

For Immediate Release: October 6, 2009
Contact: Alan Barber (202) 293-5380 x115
Washington, D.C.- As the national debate continues over health care and the long- term budget picture, a report just released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) suggests a substantial savings to both the government and individuals through the globalization of Medicare and Medicaid.
"In the United States, per person health care costs averaged $6,714 in 2006, compared with an average of $2,964 in the 26 nations with longer life expectancies," said Dean Baker, Co-Director of CEPR and an author of the report. "A gap this large suggests significant benefits and gains from trade."
The report, "Free Trade in Health Care: the Gains from Globalized Medicare and Medicaid," outlines the potential gains to both the U.S. Government and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries that would result if these beneficiaries were allowed to buy into the health care systems of the 26 countries with longer life spans than the United States. This voluntary program would give beneficiaries vouchers to move to another country to take advantage of lower health care costs. These beneficiaries, retired for the most part, are not bound by work to one particular area. Since many beneficiaries have family, business, or other ties to some of these countries, a voucher option may be quite attractive.
"While the U.S. would have to negotiate arrangements with each participating country, the process would be simpler than far-reaching trade agreements like NAFTA, and the potential economic gains would be much larger," Baker continued.
The projections in the study show:

  • If 10% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries take advantage of this program, the government would save $8.6 billion a year by 2020, $19.5 billion by 2030, and $288.9 billion by 2085 (all numbers are in 2008 dollars).
  • If 10% of those eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid opted to take part in the program, the savings to U.S. Government (Federal and State) would be $18.1 billion in 2020, $99 billion in 2045, and $505.3 billion in 2085.
  • At the state level alone, the savings in 2020 at a 10% take-up rate would be $2.9 billion in 2020, $8.8 billion in 2045, and $27 billion in 2085.

For individuals, the savings would vary from country to country, but would be substantial in most cases. In Spain, beneficiaries would pocket $10,900 in 2020, equal to 61 percent of the Social Security benefit for a medium earner retiring at age 65 in 2020. In Canada, they would get $5,600 a year from taking part in the program, equal to 31.3 percent of a medium earner’s benefit. By 2045, these sums are projected to increase to $26,700 and $22,600 a year, respectively. These gains are, respectively, 22.6 percent and 3.8 percent above projected Social Security benefits for a medium earner retiring in 2045. In 2085 the gains from moving to these two countries would be $74,700 and $77,500, respectively, both more than double the projected Social Security benefits for medium earners retiring in 2085.
The projections from the study clearly show the significant savings to the U.S. Government and potential for increased retirement income for beneficiaries who sign up for a Medicare or Medicaid voucher. The full analysis and further details can be found here.

Center for Economic and Policy Research, 1611 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 293-5380, Fax: (202) 588-1356


Filed Under: Announcements, Economy, Health Tagged With: ,