Economic Growth

Last week President Bush again laid out a faith-based view of the world and again took heat for it. Human history, the president said in his inaugural address, "has a visible direction, set by liberty and the author of liberty." Accordingly, America will pursue "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world" -- and Mr. Bush has "complete confidence" of success. Critics on the left and right warned against grounding foreign policy in such nanve optimism (a world without tyrants?) and such unbounded faith.

Ever wonder why Social Security didn't crash and burn years ago? After all, for nearly all of the program's history, each generation of retirees has taken far more money out of the system than it contributed in taxes.

The answer is simple, though largely ignored in the current debate over Social Security reform. Today's retirees may not have paid anywhere near as much in taxes as today's workers do. But most contributed something far more valuable to the system: They created, raised and educated the baby boomers.

California may be the nation's super-state, but Los Angeles ranks as the dominant metropolis of the western United States, and only the second western city among the world's 10 largest. In some senses, its importance on the global stage, and within the context of the United States, surpasses that of the entire state of California.

It's happening in rich countries. It's happening in poor countries. It's happening among Christians, Hindus, and especially Muslims. It's a trend that has everything to do with sex, death, money, and power, yet rarely draws a headline. Everywhere in the world, people are having fewer and fewer children.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini once famously dismissed an aide worried about inflation by telling him that "this revolution was not about the price of watermelons." Today, Khomeini's successors are finding the high price of watermelons -- not to mention of meat, housing, and cars -- much harder to ignore. The untold story of post-revolutionary Iran is one of economic decline: the steady, 25-year deterioration of a nation that once boasted a per capita income equivalent to Spain's, pumped six million barrels of oil a day, and nurtured a vibrant middle class.

A midst the coverage of John Kerry's nomination in Boston last summer, the region that produced him -- New England -- received remarkably little intelligent scrutiny. For the most part, the area was portrayed as quaint, idiosyncratic, and brainy, a kind of screwball seafood stew of Harvard, the Red Sox, and ethnic diversity spanning Yankees, Italians, Irish, and a host of more colorful recent newcomers.

Sponsored By:
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PolicyAmerica
Center for Social Development, Washington University
Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University

A key question the panelists and audience explored was, "What are the components of the next generation of anti-poverty policies in the U.S.? What roles do asset building and financial services play? What are the other components? And how can a new anti-poverty agenda move forward?

Political theorists don't agree on much, but they tend toward a healthy majority on one issue: large, vibrant middle classes spur demands for greater democracy and help sustain democratic institutions.

In nations both rich and poor, families are having fewer children. As people move to crowded urban areas, and as women gain more educational and economic opportunities, countries are beginning to see their populations decline. This could have grave consequences for their economies.

As election day approaches, the Bush campaign seems baffled by the continued reluctance of voters to credit the president for the past year's generally positive economic numbers. On the campaign trail in Ohio last week, President Bush insisted, "The economy is strong, and it's getting stronger." But, according to recent polls, most Americans believe the economy is getting worse or just holding steady, and the number who approve of Bush's economic stewardship has dropped significantly from the beginning of the year.