The Federal Reserve released a new Survey of Consumer Finances that details consumer financial changes from 2007 to 2010. The big story of the report is the extremely painful impact of the Great Recession. From 2007 to 2010, real median family income fell 7.7 percent, and real mean family income fell 11.1 percent. During the… Continue reading New student debt data from Federal Reserve
Author: Matt Bruenig
A direct action success for DREAM activists
In past couple of weeks, activists from the National Immigrant Youth Alliance staged sit-ins at Obama campaign offices, demanding an executive order halting the deportation of youth eligible for the DREAM Act. Obama caved to the demands, issuing a Department of Homeland Security directive stopping certain kinds of deportations. An estimated 1 million young people… Continue reading A direct action success for DREAM activists
Income taxes are voluntary
One of the fundamental splits between libertarians and left-liberals is the two groups’ understanding of voluntariness. For libertarians, voluntariness is a purely procedural notion. Any agreement made without active force or fraud counts as voluntary, regardless of what else obtains about the agreement. If you are on the verge of starvation and you sign an… Continue reading Income taxes are voluntary
Equity financing for college education
In the New York Times today, Luigi Zingales floated out what most probably consider a terrible idea for financing college education: private investors buying out equity stakes in students’ future income. Investors could finance students’ education with equity rather than debt. In exchange for their capital, the investors would receive a fraction of a student’s… Continue reading Equity financing for college education
Military suicide rate and the importance of demographic controls
Military suicides are in the news again. This year, we have seen an average of one active-duty suicide per day, which is more than the number of combat fatalities in the same period. All suicides are tragic, and clearly the number of military suicides is up from previous years. However, that does not mean that… Continue reading Military suicide rate and the importance of demographic controls