Brookings Institution

Executive summary Over the past several decades, the social safety net has been reoriented towards providing economic support for low-income families through the tax code. Refundable tax credits, meaning those that can yield a payment even if the tax filer has no tax liability, have largely supplanted monthly cash welfare transfers and are now among the largest federal tax expenditures.

Every election cycle, tens of millions of Americans vote without setting foot in a polling place. Their local election office mails them a paper ballot, they mark it at home, and they hand it back to a letter carrier to return.

At the recent NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, wary European leaders sought an equilibrium with the United States. Against a backdrop of ongoing conflict in Iran and Ukraine, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş asked Thomas Wright and Mara Karlin about the dynamics at play.

The productivity numbers from generative artificial intelligence (AI) are remarkable, and they are real. Across knowledge industries, output per worker is rising in ways that would have been hard to imagine three years ago. The natural conclusion, drawn by many, is that we are at the early stage of a long economic boom, with the gains compounding as adoption deepens. But this conclusion rests on a hidden assumption, and that assumption is becoming less true every day.

Federal economic data and statistics are essential for both public and private sector decisionmakers across the United States. They make it possible to monitor and understand the performance of the economy, craft public policy to effectively address challenges facing households and the nation, and make informed business and financial decisions. Their collective value to the users of these data—from policymakers to businesses to researchers—is immense.

The violence perpetrated against white Americans during federal crackdowns on immigration in cities earlier this year can create a pathway to confronting the lived reality Black communities have endured for generations. When federal immigration enforcement officers fatally shot two unarmed white Americans in January during Minneapolis’ immigration operations, it led to legislative hearings that have not occurred when similar incidents unfolded in communities of color across the nation.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh does not like forward guidance—the practice of a central bank telling markets and the public what it expects to do with interest rates in the future. “I don’t believe that I should be previewing for you what a future decision might be,” Warsh said at his confirmation hearing.

Artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) is being promoted and introduced as a transformative solution to persistent education challenges, such as teacher shortages, large class sizes, and uneven education quality. Yet, as it is designed and used, AIEd is not and can not deliver on its promise for Global South learners, especially with the existing digital divide and access-related issues.

In an era of rising energy demand, global industrial competition, and growing risks of climate change, the United States needs to manufacture, generate, transmit, and deploy abundant clean electricity at scale and speed. Yet this imperative is running headfirst into a series of workforce, permitting, and governance bottlenecks that, as a recent Brookings report argues, will only be overcome when U.S. state governments better align their economic development and energy policies.

Summary The shift from traditional pensions to individual savings accounts profoundly changed the retirement experience of most Americans. Under traditional pensions, retirees received ongoing fixed annuity payments from their plan that they knew would continue through the rest of their lives and their spouse’s.