Dream Hoarders: It's not just the 1%

There's too much emphasis on the top 1 percent of wage earners when looking at who controls wealth and power in the US, Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institute argued at a January 26 talk at UC Berkeley, co-sponsored by the Haas Institute and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

Reeves said we should instead be focusing on the top 20 percent who have tremendous influence over policy and use that sway to pursue their personal interests to the detriment of the bottom 80 percent. The talk was based off his recently published book, titled Dream Hoarders: How the American Middle Class is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, and drew rebuttals from two leading faculty at UC Berkeley: Cybelle Fox, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Paul Pierson, Professor of Political Science, both Haas Institute affiliated faculty. 

Watch a recording of the talk here, which includes the sharp responses from Pierson and Fox.

This talk was part of the Haas Institute faculty-designed Research to Impact lecture series. See more events here.

Fifty years ago next month the historic Kerner Commission report was released. In what would become its most famous statement, the report concluded that America "is moving toward 2 societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal." In commemoration of the report the Haas Institute is organizing "Race & Inequality in America: the Kerner Commission at 50," a national conference that will explore issues of segregation, race, and inequality in every major aspect of American life: housing, education, healthcare, voting, policing, and more. 

Speakers include: Shaun Donovan, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under President Obama; former Senator Fred Harris, the only surviving member of the Kerner Commission; Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans; and many more. See a full list of speakers and register for the conference here.

Housing and Belonging report launched

The Haas Institute and a coalition of partners from Richmond, CA released a report this month that highlights a comprehensive set of solutions to the Bay Area housing crisis at the local level. The “Housing Policy and Belonging in Richmond” report, which includes a set of poems by local residents including Richmond Poet Laureate Ciera-Jevae Gordon, and images of the know-your-rights housing mural, was released at a community event on January 20 in Richmond. The report explores why and how Richmond can continue to lead on creating and implementing policy towards a more equitable housing landscape, and outlines policies that can be implemented in cities and counties across the region, focusing on those that address racial and economic exclusion, historical disenfranchisement, segregation, zoning, community health, and other issues.

Islamophobia and Trump's travel bans

A new piece by Haas Institute researchers Basima Sisemore and Rhonda Itaoui was published this week with The Conversation providing context for the series of anti-Muslim travel bans introduced by President Donald Trump since taking office. Sisemore and Itaoui note that the ban did not emerge in a vacuum, but followed a trend of anti-Muslim laws that emerged in the US from bigoted, right-wing groups in the wake of the 9/11 attacks that aimed to spread fear and othering of Muslims. The article, republished in outlets nationwide including in the LA Times, draws from the "Legalizing Othering: The United Stated of Islamophobia" report published last September.

Read the article here, and the Islamophobia report here.

Elsadig Elsheikh presents 'Moving Targets' report on forced global migration

Elsadig Elsheikh, the head of the Haas Institute's Global Justice program, presented key points from a report published last year on the global refugee crisis at an event this month in Oakland. The report, titled 'Moving Targets: An Analysis of Global Forced Migration' co-authored by Elsheikh and Hossein Ayazi, looks at how neoliberalization, securitization, and the climate crisis led to the current global refugee crisis. The event was co-sponsored by the Haas Institute, the Priority Africa Network, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. Read more about the Moving Targets report here.

In the Media

The Daily Cal published a story this month on Raymond Lifchez, Professor of Architecture and City & Regional Planning and member of the Haas Institute's Disability Studies cluster, who was just honored by the Center for Independent Living with the second annual Ed Roberts Day Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made major contributions to disability rights around the world. Read the story here.

Hillary Hoynes, a professor of public policy and economics, and the chair of the Economic Disparities cluster, was featured in a video published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research talking about the effects of the simultaneous implementation of regressive welfare reform policy in the mid-1990s coupled with a progressive expansion of Earned Income Tax Credit. The result was higher employment, but the loss of a social safety net for the many who lost their jobs during the 2007-2008 Great Recession. Hoynes also notes that while employment has grown since the Great Recession most of the economic gains have gone to higher income people. Watch the video here.

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Friday, March 16: Anne Case of Princeton University is set to speak on “Morbidity and Mortality in Working Class America” as part of Research to Impact. Details here.

See our Events page for latest details on all our upcoming events.