Wall Street’s banditry was the proximate cause of the Great Recession, not its underlying cause. Even if the Street is better controlled in the future (and I have my doubts), the structural reason for the Great Recession still haunts America. That reason is America’s surging inequality. (more)
Currently, taxpayers aged 18 years or older who are not dependents or full-time students may receive a nonrefundable Saver’s Credit equal to between 10 and 50 percent of their compensation up to $2,000 contributed to an employer-sponsored qualified retirement plan or IRA. Qualified contributions are reduced by distributions from qualified plans and IRAs during the current tax year, up to the due date of the return, including extensions (more)
The Great Recession of 2008-09 has put enormous strain on the social contracts of Western economies. This paper provides an American perspective on how well the social welfare systems of the United States and the European Union countries have performed in cushioning their populations against the economic dislocations associated with the Great Recession and how effective U.S. and European policy has been in softening the severity of the recession and in creating the conditions for future (more)
The limitations imposed by the role of the states in the U.S. unemployment insurance system are the reason why a majority of workers are not protected and why even insured workers receive inadequate protection. (more)
No doubt, the problems we face — massive unemployment, a broken immigration system, a malfunctioning financial sector — are monumental. But it does not follow that each complex, giant problem must be addressed by one complex, giant bill. If anything, history shows that piecemeal reforms are often more lasting than a legislative Big Bang. (more)
While the federal deficit captures the news headlines, there is a deep and pervasive fiscal crisis in state finance. This crisis is largely a result of the Great Recession, which has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record. It is also a structural issue, resulting from unfunded retirement plans that are beginning [...] (more)
The welfare reforms of 1996 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as the primary safety for the poor. But the Great Recession has exposed the failure of TANF as a safety net to catch American families as they experience hardship. As the Great Recession has pulled [...] (more)
The National Broadband Plan was released this past Tuesday with a vision for broadband in America. The Plan proposes two goals for broadband access: a “universalization target of 4 Mbps [megabits per second] download and 1 Mbps upload,” as well as a goal that “100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds [...] (more)
Was Dick Cheney right about deficits? In 2002, a month before he gave George W. Bush’s first treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, the news that he was fired, then-Vice President Dick Cheney is supposed to have told O’Neill, “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter. We won the midterms” (more)
The urgent need to boost American economic growth while reducing the U.S. trade deficit makes it imperative to rebuild America’s manufacturing sector (more)
Given the role played by the financial sector in the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the case for reform of the financial sector is strong. The Obama Administration has proposed that a key element of reform should be the creation of a new and independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. (more)
Given the role played by the financial sector in the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the case for reform of the financial sector is strong (more)
In President Obama’s meeting with Senate Democrats today, Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) pressed the president on why the United States does not have a manufacturing policy. Senator Brown was right to raise the question. (more)
President Barack Obama submitted his second budget request to Congress on February 1st, 2010. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2011 funding levels for individual programs subject to appropriations. (more)
“Is the president finally getting serious about real financial reform? Last Thursday, Obama called for the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s, proposing strict limits on the size of financial institutions and a ban on risky activities such as proprietary trading and internal hedge funds.” So writes Marshall Auerback in a new policy [...] (more)
President Barack Obama submitted his second budget request to Congress on February 1st, 2010. The detailed budget request includes proposed funding levels for all federal programs and agencies in aggregate for the upcoming five to ten fiscal years, and specific fiscal year 2011 funding levels for programs subject to the annual appropriations process. (more)
“Is the president finally getting serious about real financial reform? Last Thursday, Obama called for the biggest regulatory crackdown on banks since the 1930s, proposing strict limits on the size of financial institutions and a ban on risky activities such as proprietary trading and internal hedge funds.” So writes Marshall Auerback in a new policy paper. Although (more)
Yemen is dominated by powerful tribes, some members of which shelter al Qaeda in order to leverage their power vis-à-vis other political actors. Tribal support for al Qaeda is thus political rather than ideological in nature. But despite this support, the relationship between al Qaeda and the tribes is sometimes strained, (more)
The Social Security system was intended not merely to provide public pensions for the elderly but to establish a framework for a comprehensive system of economic security. Steven Attewell writes: “We need to go back to the original drawing board (more)
This backgrounder makes the case for a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (“New START”) between the United States and Russia and rebuts the key arguments from critics of the agreement. Specifically, it responds to nine assertions made by the Senate (more)
