One of the most interesting ideas that comes out of Gar Alperovitz’s America Beyond Capitalism is using the government as an investor. The government already invests in infrastructure, education, and so on, but with the exception of pension funds, the government rarely invests directly into the stock market or other conventional investment vehicles. Alperovitz thinks… Continue reading The federal government should just borrow money and invest it
Author: Matt Bruenig
What causes teenage births?
Dylan Matthews reports on a massive release of child well-being data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Matthews provides this incredible graph of the correlation of childhood poverty rates and teen births: Childhood poverty explains 78 percent of teenage births. In addition to this finding, recall the study from a short time ago about the… Continue reading What causes teenage births?
Two fresh policy ideas to help underwater homeowners
The latest recession was primarily caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. During the rise of the housing bubble, home prices increased dramatically. When the bubble burst, home prices fell through the floor. This had a large number of really negative effects. Many homeowners who took out mortgages during the housing bubble wound up… Continue reading Two fresh policy ideas to help underwater homeowners
The causal ambiguity underlying the “you didn’t build that” controversy
For a week or so, the media has fixated on what I guess counts as an Obama gaffe. At a campaign stop, Obama said the following: If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system… Continue reading The causal ambiguity underlying the “you didn’t build that” controversy
Animation of transfers reducing poverty across 34 countries
Yesterday I posted about the effect of tax and transfer programs on poverty reduction across 34 OECD countries. Across the OECD, transfer programs play a massive role in reducing poverty, a bigger role than perhaps any other factor. I put together this animation to hopefully illustrate even more clearly the amount of poverty being reduced… Continue reading Animation of transfers reducing poverty across 34 countries