By Shahar Ziv in Forbes The American dream has “become a disappointment” for many Americans, Bill Ackman recently argued in a New York Times DealBook essay. Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, noted that an impetus for rising inequality in America is the stagnation of wage growth vis-a-vis the boom in investment returns, which disproportionately favor wealthy Americans. To reduce inequality, Ackman proposes funding an investment account for every newborn in the US that …
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The Big Idea – Baby Bonds: A Leg Up for Everyone
By William A. Darity, Jr. Duke Sanford Darity and his colleague Darrick Hamilton propose giving every newborn in the United States a “baby bond” at birth, to be held in trust until the child reaches adulthood. It would belong to the child, not to the family. The trust could provide capital start-up funds – an endowment to begin asset-building, to help pay for college, to buy a house or to start a business. Darity became an economist to study the problems of poverty and inequality and …
Tackling the inequality pandemic: Is there a cure?
Zia Qureshi Brookings Institute / brookings.edu Inequality was bad and the COVID-19 pandemic is making it worse. The immediate priority is to protect the disadvantaged and the vulnerable from the health and economic impacts of the crisis. But policies must also address the deeper, structural drivers of the rise in inequality. THE ISSUE “The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history.” The pandemic has thrown into stark relief the high and rising economic inequality in …