Economics

In Case of Emergency, Hold Mass

L.A.’s Religious Leaders Are an Untapped Resource in Times of Disaster

Any time now, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is going to announce whom he has hired to be the city’s chief resilience officer, the person in charge of increasing the city’s ability to recover from man-made and natural disasters. This is part of a larger global initiative by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote the importance of having a civic officer dedicated to coordinating disaster relief—and, more broadly, to aid in the formulation of civic responses to chronic destabilizers like unemployment and inadequate transportation infrastructures.

This is a good move, but we …

by Brie Loskota and Richard Flory |

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How Poverty Is Crushing the Future of American Kids

Their Parents Can’t Earn a Living Wage, Their Schools Are Underperforming, and The Rest of Us Are Looking the Other Way

As the presidential election season kicks off, we can expect to be inundated with partisan debates about our nation’s biggest problems and how to address them. But there is one …

College Isn’t a Job Training Center

ASU’s Michael M. Crow and The New York Times’ Frank Bruni Discuss the University’s Role in Helping People Thrive

by Jia-Rui Cook |

Liz McMillen can’t remember a time when Americans were more obsessed with the faults of universities than they are now.

“It seems that every other week, every other day, there’s an …

The Great American Art of Failure

From Our Bankruptcy Law to Our Jazz Music, We’re Willing to Take Big Risks to Become Big Successes

by Sarah Rothbard |

I want to argue that Americans are risk-takers, Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs: A Search for the American Character, told the crowd at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of …

Let’s Toast China’s President, California’s Savior

Thanks to Xi Jinping, Chinese Millionaires Have Propped Up the State’s Sagging Real Estate Market, Universities, and Companies

by Joe Mathews |

Dear President Xi Jinping,

This is a thank you note from California.

Thank you, first off, for sustaining our neighborhoods through these last difficult years. Thank you for keeping wealthy Chinese so …

Why Janet Yellen Still Needs to Be Patient

In Today’s Global Economy, Even the Mighty Federal Reserve Isn’t in Charge

by Andrés Martinez |

Sometimes my parenting slackens—say on vacation—and Sebastian gets accustomed to staying up late, taking too much screen time, and passing on his veggies. Pulling him back to normalcy from this …


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