Author: Matt Bruenig

The debt dance

I’ve already written my piece about the latest Fed report that showed all young people are taking out less car loans and mortgages in the wake of the recession. The report showed that youth with student debt reduced their mortgage and car debt by slightly more percentage points than youth without it. Extrapolating anything meaningful… Continue reading The debt dance

Policy Shop: The Most Viable Way to Give a Boost to Low-Income Workers

New post at Policy Shop. Excerpt: But, as Hacker correctly points out, my view is almost certainly an outlying one. For cultural or other reasons, Americans tend to be more supportive of equality-producing measures that get baked into paychecks than they are of equality-producing measures that go through more overt government channels. As a result,… Continue reading Policy Shop: The Most Viable Way to Give a Boost to Low-Income Workers

MOOC of the day

Check out this $3,675.00 MOOC offered by a company called Barbri, complete with recorded video lectures and everything. Law graduates sign up en masse for it to study for the legal bar exam. Barbri claims to have the highest pass rate of all bar preparation services. Someone should study its attrition rates and related quality… Continue reading MOOC of the day

Argumentation 101

Let’s say I am arguing with a right-winger about implementing a universal basic income (“UBI”). They say to me “I oppose it because 1) it wont actually make the lives of the poor better and 2) I think private charity is the correct institution for this kind of thing.” The right-winger’s reasoning is clear, but… Continue reading Argumentation 101