News
SPECIAL BRIEFING: HOW TO UNDERSTAND TOMORROW'S ECONOMY TODAY
Ozy, Monday, December 31, 2018WHAT TO KNOW It’s been a decade since the Lehman Brothers collapse marked the start of the financial crisis, and the global economy is still feeling the impact. More recently, markets have reacted with volatility to President Donald Trump’s policies, among other prominent factors, feeding... Read More »
Twelve leading economists on the research that shaped our world in 2018
Quartz, Friday, December 28, 2018At the end of every year, culture critics get to compile best of the year lists. At Quartz, we decided they shouldn’t get to have all the fun. Just like films and albums, economics deserves a little year-end reflection. To identify the economics research that mattered most in 2018, Quartz... Read More »
The Deadly Stress of Being a Black Woman in America
Ms. Magazine, Friday, December 21, 2018The evidence is irrefutable: Racism is getting away with murder as the leading cause of maternal and infant deaths and premature births among Black women. Such is the conclusion of two major reports released this year in 2018. The first is a collaboration between the University of California San... Read More »
Recent “Baby Bonds” Proposal Uses Research by RSF Grantees Sandy Darity and Darrick Hamilton
Russell Sage Foundation, Thursday, December 20, 2018New Jersey senator Cory Booker recently announced a proposal for “baby bonds,” or the creation of public trust funds for children as a means to ameliorate wealth inequality, and in particular, the racial wealth gap. His proposal is partly modeled on the work of economists and RSF grantees... Read More »
Ben’s Chili Bowl Inspires D.C.’s Black Business Owners to Invest in Themselves
Washington DC Eater, Friday, December 14, 2018Virginia Ali, cofounder and owner of Ben’s Chili Bowl, says the iconic 60-year-old business would have folded a long time ago if she and her late husband, Ben Ali, didn’t have the foresight to buy the building on U Street NW. Today in Washington, Ben’s stands out as a shining example of a... Read More »
Why do Democrats love trapezoids?
Washington Post, Friday, December 7, 2018Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), one of the Democratic Party’s possible 2020 presidential contenders, earlier this year proposed an enormous tax cut for the middle class. Under Harris’s plan, the government would create a tax credit that matches each dollar an American family earns up to a... Read More »
How Cory Booker’s “Baby Bond” Proposal Could Transform the Reparations Debate
The New Yorker, Thursday, December 6, 2018Cory Booker, one of a half-dozen Democrats routinely mentioned as a Presidential contender, is a man of singularly intense enthusiasms. He is a vegan and, after a Rhodes Scholarship and finishing Yale Law, he famously moved into the Brick Towers housing project in the central ward of Newark,... Read More »
When a Job Is Not Enough
Center for American Progress, Wednesday, December 5, 2018Introduction and summary Wealth—a family’s financial net worth—measures how well people are prepared for the future. It allows them to purchase a home, start a business, enjoy a secure retirement, and put their children through school. Wealth also provides security in the face of emergencies,... Read More »
Booker’s ambitious proposal to close the racial wealth gap
Think Progress, Wednesday, November 28, 2018As he ponders mounting a campaign for the White House in 2020, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is preparing to introduce radical and ambitious legislation aimed at narrowing the persistent black-white wealth gap. His idea — commonly described with the catchy monicker, “baby bonds” — is a proposal... Read More »
My ancestor owned 41 slaves. What do I owe their descendants?
America Magazine, Wednesday, November 28, 2018A few years ago, Cheryl Benedict, an education administrator and historian from Virginia and my first cousin, discovered on Ancestry.com that our great-great-great-grandfather, a Texas farmer named Augustus Foscue, had owned 41 slaves. I was saddened, not surprised. Although I grew up... Read More »