EconoFact Chats

This week, EconoFact Chats features an abridged version of the EconoFact Ask Me Anything Webinar held on May 27th with Bill Gale, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Co-Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Gale discusses the 'Big Beautiful Budget Bill,' noting that it will provide high-income households with large tax cuts, while likely lowering after tax resources for lo...

The first half of 2025 has been marked by broadening macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. How is this uncertainty likely to affect the U.S. economy over the coming months? And over the longer term? Mark Zandi joins EconoFact Chats to point out that while an immediate recession is unlikely, policies on tariffs, university and research funding, immigration, the budget, and efforts to influenc...

The poverty rate among children is a crucial indicator of child well-being. Yet, the overall well-being of a child depends on more than just economic security. Education, health, and family and community, all play an important role. Leslie Boissiere of the Annie E. Casey Foundation joins EconoFact Chats to discuss the 2025 Kids Count Data Book report, which tracks trends in child well-being across...

The Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs plays a key role in shaping how the United States engages with the world financial system. Jay Shambaugh, Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the Biden administration joins EconoFact Chats to discuss his time in office, focusing on negotiations with China over industrial subsidies and non-market trade barriers, fo...

EconoFact Chats regularly hosts a panel discussion with top economic journalists. Since the panel last met in March, the House passed the 'big, beautiful budget bill,' Moody’s has downgraded U.S. debt, universities face stiff funding challenges, and tariff policy continues to be volatile. Binyamin Appelbaum (The New York Times), Scott Horsley (NPR), Larry Edelman (Boston Globe), and Heather Long (...

Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. social safety net has been geared towards policies that encourage and reward work. While steady jobs and decent wages are the surest routes out of poverty, evidence shows that safety-net work requirements rarely translate into higher employment among beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP–formerly known as “food stamps”). Diane Schanzenba...

This week, EconoFact Chats features an abridged version of the EconoFact Ask Me Anything Webinar held on April 22nd, featuring Maurice Obstfeld, former Chief Economist at the IMF, and a member of the Council of Economic Advisors. Maury answers questions on the role of international trade in the US economy, tariffs and their consequences, dollar weakness, and prospects for the U.S. and the global e...

About one in five Americans receive retirement, survivor, disability, or supplemental income Social Security benefits. These payments represent a vital financial safety net, especially for retirees who have had modest lifetime earnings. This importance of Social Security makes reducing its benefits the “third rail” of American politics. But its pay-as-you-go structure – where today’s workers fund...

This EconoFact Chats episode is an abridged version of the EconoFact Ask Me Anything Webinar held on March 26th that featured John Campbell (Harvard), one of the leading authorities on finance and financial markets. John addressed questions on stock market performance, the links between financial markets and the broader economy, the need for consumer financial protection, and strategies for person...

United States Treasury bonds have long been viewed as a highly liquid investment with very little risk of default. They have served as a safe haven for investors and also provided a benchmark interest rate for mortgages, car loans, corporate debt, and other bonds. Typically, Treasury bond yields fall at times of financial stress as demand for Treasury securities rise. But this time is different. B...

US federal debt is currently almost as large as annual national income, something not seen before the pandemic. Expenditures like interest payments on the debt, military spending, and Social Security cannot be easily trimmed, and the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs act are likely to be extended, adding an estimated $5 trillion to the debt over the next decade. What are the likely consequences...

President Trump inherited an economy that was, at least in the aggregate, performing exceptionally well. Since taking office, however, the stock market has fallen, and there are heightened expectations of a slowdown due to the policies, and uncertainty from the shifts in policies, of the new Administration. Are these concerns well-founded? Or will tariffs, cuts to government jobs, and deregulation...

Tariffs are taxes. But unlike most taxes, politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for maintaining or raising tariffs. The goal is to save jobs and raise revenue. But do tariffs help achieve these objectives? Kim Clausing joins EconoFact Chats to discuss her research on how tariffs negatively impact consumers, shift tax burdens away from the well-off toward lower-income consumers, advers...

Labeled by The Economist as 'the envy of the world' in October 2024, the US economy today is marked by growing fears of a recession amid aggressive tariffs, threats of tariffs, deregulation, and drastic employment cuts across the federal government. Despite the short-term pain, could the Trump administration's policies make the US economy stronger and more productive over the long run? Or is lasti...

In his 2012 book, 'A Capitalism for the People,' Luigi Zingales notes the deep economic problems that arise when people are rewarded for who you know, or even, who you pay off, rather than what you know, or your ability to produce and sell better goods and services. What are the broader consequences of this type of corruption that distorts outcomes like who gets a job, what is purchased, and what...

The United States is an outlier in health insurance coverage. Almost all other high-income countries have near-universal coverage, while almost 10% of the non-elderly US population is uninsured. How did this come to be? And what can policymakers do to improve access to health insurance? Mark Shepard joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these questions. Mark is an associate professor at Harvard Kennedy...

Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, improvements in large language models have continued at an impressive clip, driving a surge of investment in new models, developing new products based on them, and in constructing data centres and other infrastructure needed to run AI models. What will the economic landscape look like as artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive? What are the pro...

Football and basketball teams at Division I universities generate billions in revenue. But the student-athletes themselves do not receive salaries. Should they? Most have scholarships for their tuitions, but to what degree are they students, as well as athletes? And how does the money raised through these big-ticket sports support other, less high-profile sports, and the academic mission of these...

High intensity flooding events, storms, wildfires, and droughts are becoming more frequent in many parts of the world. Are there measures that can help mitigate the number and severity of these events? What adaptations could make fires, storms, and floods less destructive? And is there a greater role for the government and the private sector when it comes to catastrophic risk insurance? Galina Hal...

Much like national economies, countries that economically interact with each other need rules to help ensure markets work well, and that economic outcomes accord with some understanding of fairness and equity. While such rules can constrain what a country does, for much of the post-war era, nations have recognized the benefits of international cooperation and the importance of a stable set of rule...

The basic principles of economics are not only worthwhile reading for students, but for the wider public, and perhaps especially, for those involved in policy. Greg Mankiw, the author of best-selling textbooks for Macroeconomics and Principles of Economics joins EconoFact Chats to highlight how a wider understanding of economic principles such as trade-offs, opportunity costs, how people respond t...

Immigration promises to be a key issue in the U.S. Presidential elections. Candidates from both parties favor limits but differ on the extent of restrictions. Immigration is important for a vibrant economy in a country with a low rate of native population growth. What role has immigration played in U.S. economic and demographic growth in recent decades? What has been the impact, if any, on employm...

Both presidential candidates have supported tariffs, albeit at very different levels. Can tariffs bring back manufacturing jobs, reduce the trade deficit, and provide substantial revenues? Responding to a recent article in The Atlantic, Maurice Obstfeld and Kim Clausing highlight that steep, across the board tariffs, like those candidate Trump proposes, will prove costly to US consumers and produc...

A center-right economic policy agenda has traditionally meant a focus on lower marginal tax rates, fiscal prudence, an openness to immigration, free trade and globalization. In recent years however, there has been significant change in the Republican Party's stance on some of these issues -- especially trade and immigration. Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) joins EconoFact...

President-elect Trump's campaign promises included imposing broad tariffs to bolster U.S. manufacturing jobs, pursuing mass deportations to free jobs for U.S. citizens and ease the housing crunch, and assuming a greater role in setting monetary policy. How likely is it that these policies will be enacted and, if so, what would be their possible consequences? Binyamin Appelbaum of The New York Time...