Asset Building Program

Archives: Asset Building Program Articles and Op-Eds

Don’t Hate Jerry Brown For Making You Save

  • By
  • Aleta Sprague,
  • New America Foundation
May 7, 2013 |
Programs:

It’s Retirement Security, Not Social Security

  • By
  • Joshua Freedman,
  • Justin King,
  • New America Foundation
April 9, 2013 |
Programs:

Spotlight on Wealth Inequality Goes Viral

  • By
  • Reid Cramer,
  • New America Foundation
March 15, 2013 |

Inequality is hardly a new American phenomenon, but last week it finally went viral. Over the last three decades, the distribution of income in the U.S. has become increasingly skewed. Median incomes remained largely flat, while the most dramatic growth occurred among the top one percent.

Programs:

The American Dream, Redeemed

  • By
  • Reid Cramer,
  • New America Foundation
January 14, 2013 |

Is the pursuit of the American Dream through homeownership just an elaborate bait and switch? It’s understandable why many might now think so. The collapse of the housing bubble has particularly devastated minority families who, after generations of discrimination in housing and mortgage lending, at last got a home of their own, only to find that it destroyed what little wealth they had.

Programs:

Time to Reduce Poverty

  • By
  • David Rothstein,
  • New America Foundation
December 20, 2012 |

We have the chance, right now, to make smart decisions that can stabilize families, raise resources from those most able to pay, and keep in place important programs that reduce poverty and build the middle class. As we navigate those choices, here are two novel ideas to keep in mind: don’t make a deal that increases inequality and don’t make a deal that impoverishes more children.

Programs:

The Lottery Effect: Basing Policy on Outliers Is a Bad Idea

  • By
  • Rachel Black,
  • Aleta Sprague,
  • New America Foundation
December 10, 2012 |

Last year, two Michigan residents won the state lottery. Ordinarily, this would not be a newsworthy occurrence, but they were also Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. Despite their windfall, they continued to receive SNAP benefits.

Michigan was one of around 40 states that don’t require SNAP recipients to document their savings to determine eligibility. Technically, neither winner was in violation of the rules. Still, it didn’t take long for charges of waste, fraud, and abuse to draw attention to this “loophole,” and Michigan reinstated its asset limit.

Programs:

Enhancing the Impact of Cash Transfers

  • By
  • Vishnu Sridharan,
  • New America Foundation
July 13, 2012 |
One of the most successful tools in the fight against poverty, one that has attracted increasing attention over the past decade, is social protection via cash transfers. In fact, the New America Foundation’s Global Savings and Social Protection Database – which focuses on Latin America, Africa, East and Asia – has identified over 90 cash-transfer programs in 45 countries, with over a half billion beneficiaries. As the Chronic Poverty Research Centre puts it, “social protection is critical in preventing descent into chronic poverty and reducing the depth of poverty...
Programs:

The Asset Agenda

  • By
  • Reid Cramer,
  • New America Foundation
July 11, 2012 |

Over the course of the last two decades, a community of academics, policy wonks, and practitioners has been busy developing and testing ideas for helping ordinary people to save more and build their assets. Here are a few of the signature proposals of what has come to be known as the asset-building movement.

Programs:

Introduction: Jobs Are Not Enough

  • By
  • Paul Glastris,
  • Phillip Longman,
  • New America Foundation
July 11, 2012 |

More than any election in living memory, the 2012 race is shaping up to be about one thing: jobs. Pundits are convinced that the rate of job growth between now and November is the magic number that will determine the outcome. The main policies the candidates are debating—whether to cut taxes or raise them on the rich; whether to shrink government or increase investments in infrastructure or research—are all pitched as ways to “grow” jobs. The presumption is that if we can get the economy to create jobs like it used to, America will be back on the right track.

Programs:

The Hole in the Bucket

  • By
  • Phillip Longman,
  • New America Foundation
July 11, 2012 |

Never before in history has the great American middle class obsessed so much over financial planning as during the last forty years or so. In the 1970s, this obsession fueled the growth of hot new magazines like Money and TV shows like Louis Rukeyser’s Wall $street Week. By the 1980s, it had led to the creation of personal finance sections in almost every newspaper, and to myriad radio talk shows counseling Americans on what mutual funds to buy, how much they should put into new savings vehicles like Individual Retirement Accounts or Keoghs, and how to manage their new 401(k) plans.

Programs:
Syndicate content