Clark Center Forum

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office released a report warning that the “fiscal cliff” would cause a new recession. It came to the right conclusion for all the wrong reasons. Reasons matter. A policy response crafted to satisfy the CBO’s analysis would hurt the economy… Read article> 

 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A. Loans to students attending for-profit colleges are especially risky because students attending them have had default rates that greatly exceed those for comparable students attending public and non-profit private institutions.

B. Rules that tie each college's eligibility for federal student loans to its students' graduation rates and post-schooling employment outcomes would better protect taxpayers from losses on student loans. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A. The way in which money market funds normally trade – at one dollar per share, even though the per-share value of the assets backing them varies over time – made them vulnerable to a run in 2008 before they received taxpayer guarantees.

B. Taxpayers would be better protected if each money market fund in the U.S. were instead required to trade at its floating net asset value.

C. In the absence of floating net asset values, taxpayers would be better protected if each money market fund in the U.S. were required to set aside capital to protect against losses while holding back a portion of shareholders' cash for a time when they seek to withdraw all of their money. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Taxes or bans on large bottles of soft drinks containing sugar are not likely to have a significant effect on obesity rates because people will substitute towards consuming excessive calories in other ways. 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Subjecting online sales from out-of-state vendors to the same retail sales taxes imposed on in-state sales would raise more tax revenue in the states making this change while reducing the pro-online bias of current policy. 

by Luigi Zingales The euro crisis isn’t Angela Merkel’s fault. The real culprits are the founding fathers — Francois Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl, Jacques Delors or Romano Prodi — who created a common currency based on poor economics and worse politics. Read article> 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Consumers would not necessarily be better off if cable and satellite TV firms were required to offer a la carte pricing for individual channels, because the networks' programming charges and the satellite-and-cable fees could adjust in response to this rule. 

By Amir Sufi The failure to address crippling household-debt burdens is leading local governments to embrace the radical idea of using eminent domain to seize and write down mortgages. Over the past month, two cities in California — Stockton and San Bernardino — have made moves to file for bankruptcy… Read article> 

This week’s IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Long run fiscal sustainability in the U.S. will require cuts in currently promised Medicare and Medicaid benefits and/or tax increases that include higher taxes on households with incomes below $250,000.