Brief Analyses / Energy and Natural Resources

Climate Change: Developing Countries Control the Thermostat

In December 2009, representatives of nearly 200 governments met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to hammer out the details of a new climate change treaty. Treaty drafts indicated that industrialized countries would be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions – primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) – up to 80 percent by 2050. Developing countries would not be required to reduce emissions much, if at all. However, no agreement was reached and no firm emissions reduction commitments were made.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

Financial Crisis: Lessons Learned

There are many critical lessons to be learned from the financial crisis that began in the fall of 2008 and how it has since been handled. The federal government responded aggressively – at a huge cost – but nearly two years later little progress has been seen in the country's economic health. If the nation's financial services industry is to be revived, the system needs to be restructured and rebuilt from the ground up.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

Financial Crisis: The Fall of the House of Cards

Each financial crisis is different, yet they all feature financial institutions making promises they cannot keep. The conventional explanation for the 2008 financial crisis and recession is that it was caused by a housing bubble, spurred by the Federal Reserve's low interest-rate policy and by lax regulatory oversight. All three claims may be true, but they do not identify the underlying institutional cause.

Brief Analyses / Health

Ten Small-Scale Reforms for Pre-Existing Conditions

Most proposals for dealing with the problems of pre-existing conditions would completely divorce health insurance premiums from expected health care costs, requiring health plans to enroll individuals regardless of their health status. Yet a policy of trying to force health plans to take enrollees they do not want risks jeopardizing the quality of care they receive.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

The Politics of Estate Tax Reform

If it seems as if Congress has been wrangling over the estate tax for decades, that is because it has. Though majorities in both houses of Congress have supported repeal and the law has been changed frequently, the death tax just will not die. Why not? The short answer is: because politicians like seeing the tax languish on its deathbed.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

Is Uncle Sam Bankrupt?

When it comes to nondisclosure, the United States government is the father of all financial malfeasants. Indeed, Uncle Sam has been misrepresenting the nation's finances for decades. In the process, he has run up an undisclosed bill that makes the financial bailout and economic stimulus spending look paltry.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

The High Marginal Cost of the Estate Tax

The estate tax is not yet dead, by a long shot. Federal taxes on estates fell as a result of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA). In fact, the estate tax will even disappear for one year (2010) due to EGTRRA. In 2011, it is scheduled to return with a higher tax rate and lower exemption than before. However, Congress is expected to pass legislation applying the tax retroactively to those who die in 2010.

Brief Analyses / Health

Concierge Medicine: Convenient and Affordable Care

Concierge medical practices take many forms and go by different names, such as direct practice physicians. They all strive to make medical care more accessible and convenient to patients by rebundling and repricing medical services in ways that are not possible under third-party insurance. The result is innovations that raise quality and improve patient care coordination.

Brief Analyses / Health

Retail Clinics: Convenient and Affordable Care

The growth of the Internet, high-speed telecommunications networks and electronic medical records have made it possible for patients to seek care in a variety of clinical settings without losing the continuity of care a primary care provider offers. Health care entrepreneurs using these technologies in retail clinics are making medical care increasingly accessible and convenient, while raising quality and reducing costs.

Brief Analyses / Retirement

10 Ways to Wreck Your Retirement

People have a great deal of control over whether or not their retirement will be comfortable. Millions of Americans are preparing for retirement by saving in tax-favored retirement accounts – principally Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. But savers must be aware of common practices that can derail even the best-laid retirement plans.

Brief Analyses / Retirement

Roth 2010: Should You Convert?

Beginning in 2010, a new rule change allows people with an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to reduce their tax burden at retirement by converting a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. Before deciding if such a conversion would benefit you, there are a few important things to consider.

Brief Analyses / Health

Medicare at 55

A proposal to allow 55- to 64-year-olds to buy Medicare coverage is gaining traction in the Senate deliberations on health care reform. What will this mean for Medicare's finances? How much will it cost to buy the coverage? How will this expansion affect the labor force participation of older Americans?

Brief Analyses / Welfare

Barriers to Affordable Housing

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers housing affordable if it costs less than 30 percent of a family's income. Yet, according to HUD, 12 million renters and homeowners spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Many of these are low-income individuals or families. But in some areas even middle-income families find the supply of affordable housing limited.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

Estate Tax Myths

Congress is facing a tax deadline. Under legislation passed in 2001, the federal estate tax is being phased out: The tax rate is falling and the value of the property of the deceased that is exempted from the tax is rising. The tax is scheduled to disappear in 2010, but it will return in 2011 at pre-2001 rates – up to 55 percent for estates valued in excess of $1 million. The Senate voted in April 2009 to reduce the rate of the revivified tax to 35 percent, but the House of Representatives has not acted.

Brief Analyses / Retirement

Is the Mattress a Good Place for Money?

In fall 2008, the stock market suffered a severe decline. Fear prompted a number of individuals to suspend contributions to their 401(k) retirement accounts. They reasoned that holding the money and having it retain its face value was preferable to putting it in a money-losing investment. Even employees who were invested in bonds, rather than equities, stopped contributing. Some companies temporarily suspended their matching contributions.

Brief Analyses / Health

Crisis of the Uninsured: 2009

One of the primary goals of health reform is to ensure that all Americans have health insurance. Yet it is generally overlooked that the proportion of Americans without health coverage has been relatively stable over time.  According to the Census Bureau, in 2008 the number of individuals in the United States lacking health coverage rose from 45.7 million to 46.3 million.  The proportion of uninsured Americans remained virtually unchanged, rising from 15.3 percent to 15.4 percent.

Brief Analyses / Energy and Natural Resources

The High Cost of Cash for Clunkers

The $1 billion set aside for the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), or "Cash for Clunkers," ran out quickly this summer. CARS aims to encourage the purchase of more fuel-efficient vehicles by offering a $3,500 to $4,500 government-funded rebate to consumers who trade-in vehicles that get less than 18 miles per gallon (mpg) for new cars that get more than 22 mpg or new trucks that get at least 18 mpg.  Congress refueled the popular stimulus program with another $2 billion – enough to buy a total of approximately 750,000 trade-ins.

Brief Analyses / Welfare

Improving Savings Incentives for the Poor

Americans have been saving less and less of their after-tax income for the past 15 years. The annual personal savings rate averaged 8 percent from 1929 to 2000, but reached a historical low of 0.4 percent in 2005. With the onset of the 2008-2009 recession, however, the savings rate rose again to more than 6 percent.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

Soaking the Rich and Drenching Small Business

As soon as 2010, small businesses could face three simultaneous tax hikes that would raise their marginal tax rate as high as 66.9 percent. Democrats in Congress plan to raise taxes on top earners by allowing some of the Bush tax cuts to expire. Draft legislation in the House of Representatives to overhaul the health care system contains two additional proposals that aim to soak the rich. However, these tax hikes will drench small businesses.

Brief Analyses / Taxes

The New Federal Tobacco Tax: Who Loses?

The recent expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) was funded by an increase in federal excise taxes on tobacco products. Congress increased the federal tax on cigarettes by 61 cents per pack and raised the tax on other tobacco products, with the goal of equalizing the tax per pound of tobacco.