finance
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BRICS and the Shift Away from Dollar Dependence
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For nearly a century, the U.S. dollar has dominated global trade and finance, accounting for 59% of global foreign exchange reserves as of 2024 (IMF, 2024). In response to this enduring dominance, BRICS — an alliance of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — is…
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The Rise of Digital Lending
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Traditionally, businesses and consumers have obtained loans from banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. However, in recent years, alternative forms of credit have arisen from the burgeoning financial technology (“fintech”) industry and large, established technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft (“Big Tech”). Rapid credit growth can often forecast…
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Death to “Buy, Borrow, Die”
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Every year millions of Americans begrudgingly file their taxes. Each household must spend countless hours deciding which deductions to take, bemoaning the complexity, and eventually sending off the precious dollars they must pay to fund our roads, bridges, firefighters, and military. At the end of the day, taxes serve as…
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A Solution in Search of a Problem: Cryptocurrency and Institutional Trust
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Imagine a cutting-edge new platform for economic development. It has value because everyone says it does. That value tends to fluctuate wildly. Accessing an account requires remembering a random string of letters and numbers. Some services allow users to use a traditional password, but if someone cracks that password or…
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Inflation: Moving Beyond a Basket of Goods
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Two topics dominate discussions of both the current state of the economy and the political environment in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections: how can policymakers fight inflation and is the economy currently in a recession? Like everything else today, COVID-19 plays a role in the answers to both…
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Piece of the Action: Debt vs. Equity for Bailouts
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American citizens often think of their country as a bastion of free-market capitalism. Indeed, the ethos of American economic policy is devoted to minimal government intervention to ensure that private enterprise can succeed. Proponents of this policy argue that businesses do not fail due to bad management; instead, they fail…
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When Even the SEC Can’t Police Bad Behavior: The Facebook Whistleblower
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When you think about corporations harming society, Facebook tends to jump to the top of the list. Whether fomenting civil unrest or enabling ethnic cleansing, the world’s largest social network seems to be at the mercy of a barrage of negative headlines. The recent testimony by whistleblower Frances Haugen in…
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The Racial Wealth Gap and Recovering from Income Shocks
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The racial wealth gap in the United States is a legacy of nefarious actions and policies such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, and redlining. Based on data from the Survey of Consumer Finances in 2016, the median white family had a net worth of $188,200, nearly eight times that of…
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Standing out from the Crowd: How College Degrees, Internships, and Academic Performance Influence Hiring Decisions
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A new study uses experimental data from a resume audit to determine whether college degrees and internship experience have an impact on job opportunities for recent college graduates.
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Taking a Closer Look at Elderly Medicaid Recipients
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Understanding how elderly individuals ultimately rely on Medicaid could be key to implementing changes that protect the fiscal longevity of both Medicaid and Medicare.
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Better School Outcomes Aren’t Free
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A new analysis demonstrates that funding increases make a huge difference in schooling outcomes, especially for students from low-income families.