Income
A Savings Account at Birth
Income is what a household earns this year. Wealth is what it has to fall back on: savings, a home, a retirement account. A…
Blog
Housing
Rules for Rent and Eviction
For a renter, the two biggest unknowns are how much the rent will go up and whether the lease will be renewed. In most…
Housing
Help With the Rent
The main federal tool for helping low-income renters is the Housing Choice Voucher, often still called Section 8. A family with a voucher pays…
Housing
Letting More Homes Be Built
In American cities, the rules decide what can be built long before a builder shows up. On most residential land in many of them,…
Social Safety Net
The 2021 Child Tax Credit Experiment
The Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit are among the largest anti-poverty programs in the country, and both run through the…
Social Safety Net
Signing Up Automatically
Many people who qualify for help never get it. The reason is often paperwork: forms, documents, interviews, and renewals that are hard to manage…
Social Safety Net
The Benefits Cliff
Picture a single parent offered a raise of a dollar an hour. Most of us would say take it. But if that raise pushes…
Corporate Power
Who Owns Your Data?
Most free apps and websites are paid for with data: what you click, buy, search for, and where you go. That data is used…
Corporate Power
Lobbying and the Revolving Door
Every industry has the right to make its case to government, and lobbying is how it does that. The worry is imbalance: organized interests…
Corporate Power
Stock Buybacks, Explained
When a company has extra cash, it can invest it, pay it out as dividends, or buy back its own shares. Buybacks shrink the…
Corporate Power
How Antitrust Changed
Antitrust law was written to stop companies from getting so big they could dictate terms to everyone else. Starting in the late 1970s, courts…
Jobs
Earning While You Learn
A four-year degree remains one route to a good job, but it isn't the only one, and it's an expensive one. Many well-paid jobs…