Economics

Center on Wealth & Poverty

Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It’s Too Late

Many books have been written on conservative politics. Many more have been written calling Christians to holiness and spiritual revival. Few, however, have managed to combine a clear explanation of the conservative political perspective with its corresponding personal and spiritual virtue. In INDIVISIBLE, James Robison, the founder and president of LIFE Outreach International, partners with Jay Richards, Ph.D., a writer Read More ›

We’re Closer to a Credit Crisis Than Most People Think

Your editorial “Obama’s Debt Boom” (June 6) states that it will be around 2025 when Social Security, health-care entitlements and interest on the national debt would absorb the entire tax-revenue base—leaving the building of roads, basic research and the defense budget to be deficit financed. You also point out that between 2022 and 2025 the federal debt requiring interest service Read More ›

Agency Created By Dodd-Frank Has Authoritarian Powers

The chief purpose of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed 2010, was to avert the next financial crisis. So why does the new regulatory agency created by the act — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — enjoy sweeping authority over so many consumer credit and other financial products and services that played no significant role Read More ›

How US Debt Risks Dollar Doomsday

The US dollar is getting perilously close to losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Should it cross the line, the 2008 financial crisis could look like a summer storm. Yes, worries about insolvency in Europe dominate the headlines. Last week, Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s bond rating to BBB+ — a clear sign that Europe’s financial crisis is Read More ›

Turning Away From the Dollar

European debt problems have kept financial markets on edge during much of the last two years, but it is the debt problem in the United States that is far more likely to precipitate a global crisis. Recently, Lawrence Goodman, a former crisis-prevention analyst at the U.S. Treasury, sounded the alarm that investors balked at low coupon rates last year, forcing Read More ›

As U.S. Debt Soars, Dollar May Lose Reserve Status

European debt problems have received a lot of media attention, but it is the debt problem in the U.S. that is far more likely to precipitate a global crisis. Former U.S. Treasury official Lawrence Goodman sounded the alarm recently when he noted that investors are shunning low-yielding U.S. Treasuries, forcing the Fed to buy “a stunning … 61% of the Read More ›

Free Enterprise and Fiscal Sanity Aren’t Social Darwinism

On Tuesday, President Obama denounced Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, which would modestly reduce the rate of growth in the federal budget. Ryan’s plan is a “radical vision,” says the president, which amounts to “thinly veiled Social Darwinism.” Understandably, Ryan has called the comments “surreal,” since the Wisconsin Republican seeks to reform entitlements such as Medicare in order to save Read More ›

Income Mobility, Not Income Gaps

Editor’s Note: This column was co-written by Anne Bradley, PhD, who serves as Vice President of Economic Initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. All-American rocker Bruce Springsteen has taken to the pages of Rolling Stone magazine to lament the existence of income inequality in our country today: “You cannot have a social contract with the enormous income disparity — you’re going Read More ›