Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren- John Maynard Keynes

We are suffering just now from a bad attack of economic pessimism. It is common to hear people say that the epoch of enormous economic progress which characterised the nineteenth century is over; that the rapid improvement in the standard of life is now going to slow down—at any rate in Great Britain; that a decline in prosperity is more likely than an improvement in the decade which lies ahead of us.

How will we pay for it? – Victorian Socialists

We live in a rich state, yet resources are unevenly shared. We want to tax the wealth of the billionaires and banks. This wealth should fund essential services.

Harnessing naturally occurring data to measure the response of spending to income

Balancing your incomings and outgoings Economic theory predicts that when someone receives money should have little effect on their spending patterns. Gelman et al. constructed a data set of 60 million transactions made by 75,000 people to test this theory. People do seem to go on a mini–spending spree after they get their paychecks or pensions. However, closer inspection reveals that that's mostly explained by the convenience of linking regular payments, such as rent and utilities, to regular income. Unsurprisingly, cash-strapped people are more likely to increase their spending in response to receiving income. Science , this issue p. 212 , How do theoretical predictions of individual fiscal behaviors match up against real-world, real-time data? , This paper presents a new data infrastructure for measuring economic activity. The infrastructure records transactions and account balances, yielding measurements with scope and accuracy that have little precedent in economics. The data are drawn from a diverse population that overrepresents males and younger adults but contains large numbers of underrepresented groups. The data infrastructure permits evaluation of a benchmark theory in economics that predicts that individuals should use a combination of cash management, saving, and borrowing to make the timing of income irrelevant for the timing of spending. As in previous studies and in contrast to the predictions of the theory, there is a response of spending to the arrival of anticipated income. The data also show, however, that this apparent excess sensitivity of spending results largely from the coincident timing of regular income and regular spending. The remaining excess sensitivity is concentrated among individuals with less liquidity.

Dignity and security for older people – Victorian Socialists

Older people deserve dignity and security, not neglect. We’re fighting to ban for-profit aged care and guarantee public housing for pensioners.

FinTech Adoption Across Generations: Financial Fitness in the Information Age

This paper analyzes how better access to financial information via new technology changes use of consumer credit and affects financial fitness. We exploit the introduction of a smartphone application for personal financial management as a source of exogenous variation. FinTech adoption reduces financial fee payments and penalties, but differs cross-sectionally in the population. After adopting the new technology, Millennials and members of Generation X incur fewer financial fees and penalties, whereas Baby Boomers do not benefit from the technological advance. Millennials and Gen Xers save fees by using their credit cards rather than overdrafts to manage short-term liabilities. Moreover, Millennials shift some of their spending to discretionary entertainment, whereas members of Generation X remain more austere. Finally, while men tend to adopt new technology and access information at a higher rate, the economic impact of access is larger for women.

Foreign aid and the ‘root causes’ of migration

Foreign aid is often used to address the root causes of migration as a way to reduce migrant flows. However, the effectiveness of such approaches remains unclear. This column combines individual survey data with data on World Bank projects and on bilateral migration flows to examine how foreign aid influences migration preferences and flows. Results show that aid can temporarily reduce irregular migration but may lead to increased regular migration as conditions improve over time. Policymakers should consider these dynamics when designing migration strategies to balance immediate and long-term effects.

Right on Time: How Cash Helps Families Move Through Life's Transitions - Economic Security Project

Executive Summary Over the past decade, more than 250 guaranteed income pilots, programs that provide people with regular cash with no restrictions on how they use it, have run across 40 states and the District of Columbia. That research has revealed many learnings, and this report focuses on one clear takeaway: cash has its largest…

One Generation Runs the Country. The Next Cashed In on Crypto.

Sons of top Trump administration officials made billions for their families, but their investors didn’t always fare so well.

Use it or lose it: How cognitive skills change with age

Cognitive skills are commonly assumed to begin deteriorating from the age of 30, which could pose a significant challenge for rapidly ageing populations. But this assumption relies largely on cross-sectional data that cannot distinguish between ageing patterns and cohort differences. Using German longitudinal data, this column finds that skills, on average, increase markedly into one’s 40s before decreasing slightly in literacy and more severely in numeracy. In addition, skills decline at older ages only for those with below-average skill usage, outlining a clear policy pathway for avoiding skill declines.

Seniors Are Fighting New Senior Housing as US Faces Shortage

America’s elders need more places to live, but even in liberal enclaves that recognize the problem, developers are facing the fiercest foes of all: America’s elders.

Grandpa Had a Pension. This Generation Has Cryptocurrency. (Published 2017)

After years as a niche market for technologically sophisticated anarchists and libertarians, digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream.

Public & Social Investments | Windfall Policy Atlas

How should governments allocate resources to maintain economic stability and ensure broad access to essential services during the AI transition?

IDS Annual Lecture 2026 with Jason Hickel - Institute of Development Studies

Join us for the IDS Annual Lecture 2026 delivered by world-renowned political economist and author Prof Jason Hickel.

Men not at work: Why so many men aged 25 to 54 are not working | Brookings

The job market is a whole lot better than it was during the worst of the Great Recession, but around 7 million American men between the ages of 25 and 54 – mostly too old to be in school and too young to retire – are neither working nor looking for work.  That amounts to […]