Presented in partnership by the New America Foundation's Global Assets Project and Open Technology Initiative 

Mobile connectivity is the critical infrastructure of the information age and, as the Arab Spring has exemplified, a solid foundation for a more empowered, connected, and inclusive society. Nearly 6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions exist worldwide, and mobile penetration has reached 87 percent globally, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

On November 22^nd, the Asset Building Program hosted a panel of experts to discuss how Americans are faring in the years since the Great Recession according to different measures. Speakers from Wider Opportunities for Women, the Half in Ten Campaign, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Pew’s Economic Mobility Project joined moderator, Rachel Black, for a discussion of current data and indicators, who’s falling short according to these measures and by how much, and policy ideas for  making progress.

Did you know that a child with a savings account in his or her name is seven times more likely to attend college, regardless of the size of that account? Or that 30% of Californians lack enough savings to get by for 3 months in the event of a job loss? The need for supporting asset building strategies at the local, state, and national level is clear.

Who was the greater economist—Adam Smith or Charles Darwin? In his latest book, Robert Frank, New York Times columnist and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, predicts that within the next century Darwin will unseat Smith as the intellectual founder of economics. The reason, Frank argues, is that Darwin's understanding of competition describes economic reality far more accurately than Smith's.