Prof. Daron Acemoglu, Prof. Peter Diamond and Prof. Simon Johnson are among the six Nobel laureate economists that warn the “massive budget bill passed by Housemakers last month… would weaken key safety-net programs while greatly lifting the federal debt,” reports Alain Sherter for CBS News. The economists also said that “large tax cuts under the legislation, combined with the hits to Medicaid and food stamps, would increase inequality,” writes Sherter.
Prof. Tali Sharot speaks with Darian Woods of NPR’s The Indicator from Planet Money about why members of Gen Z may be feeling financial dysmorphia. “In order to be happy and satisfied, we need to see ourself progressing,” says Sharot. “That is true on every level, whether it is intellectually or whether it's financially.”
Prof. Albert Saiz speaks with Salon reporter Cara Michelle Smith about the barriers to homeownership. “If you sort Americans by wealth, and forget about the top 10% or 20%, most of our wealth is indeed in housing,” says Saiz. He adds: “Obviously, getting that first home is the hardest of the steps. Because once you have a house, you can build collateral, and that equity is going to be helpful for you to buy a second home.”
Prof. Jonathan Gruber speaks with GBH’s Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan about the CARD Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “There is a legitimate role for credit in our society for those who use it appropriately,” explains Gruber. “And you don’t want to shut that down… We need to really be rethinking how we do regulation in the U.S.”
Researchers from the MIT AgeLab and Transamerica have found that individuals ages 40 to 59 are more likely to struggle with preparing for increased longevity, reports Lorie Konish for CNBC. “The research finds while 74% of people in their 50s say it is extremely or very important to save enough money to eventually stop working, just 57% said they expect to be able to retire,” writes Konish. “Moreover, half of people in midlife are struggling to get by financially, more than other age groups studied.”
A new working paper by Prof. Christian Wolf and his colleagues explores a “mechanism by which a government could run deficits and never have to pay them,” reports Peter Coy for The New York Times. The researchers found that “‘deficits contribute to their own financing via two channels.’ First, they can accelerate economic growth, which generates more tax revenue. Second, they can cause inflation to rise, which shrinks the effective cost of debt.
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes the importance of including climate change as part of retirement planning. “Preparing for possible conditions and costs of climate change should now be part of our retirement plan,” writes Coughlin.
As part of a SHOOKtalks session, Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab, discusses how the pandemic has altered the way financial advisors work with clients, reports R.J. Shook for Forbes. “The one thing COVID did is it pushed technology into our lives,” says Coughlin. “It is not a novelty. COVID showed us that technology actually adds new value.”
Writing for Forbes, research affiliate Thomas Davenport examines the feasibility of robot taxation based on a debate at MIT Technology Review’s Emtech Next conference. “At some point we may need to replace the tax revenue from human jobs lost to automation,” writes Daveport. “If that day ever comes, I hope that the tax revenues issue is the most critical one we have to deal with.”
An MIT AgeLab survey finds that many Americans have unrealistic expectations for retirement, writes Richard Eisenberg for Forbes. Research scientist Chaiwoo Lee suggests that financial advisers use the survey results to “create messages and images and materials for potential clients and provide clients with a better education about life after career.”
Research co-authored by Prof. Christopher Palmer in Sloan found that loan rates vary substantially, even when two borrowers are relatively similar, due primarily to the variations in the lender’s markup. “You would never get away with this if you were selling milk,” Palmer told Jo Craven McGinty of The Wall Street Journal. “It would be the same price for everyone.”
A study co-authored by Visiting Assistant Prof. Maria Loumioti finds that male bonding between loan officers and customers often leads to poor loan outcomes, reports Suzanne Woolley for Bloomberg. This feeling of common identity creates a sense of trust simply because “you identify yourself through this bond,” says Loumioti.
Sloan Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen speaks to Matt Miller of Bloomberg Markets about the risks associated with investing in junk bonds and emerging market bonds with potential interest rate hikes. “If the Fed raised interest rates the U.S. dollar would go up, it would hurt these currencies in the emerging markets,” Pozen explains.
A study by Prof. Antoinette Schoar finds that hiring a CEO whose first job was during a recession can help boost a company’s shares, writes Alina Dizik for The Wall Street Journal. The researchers found a close connection between “starting one’s career in a recession and developing a reputation as a conservative, low-risk manager.”
Writing for the Financial Times, senior lecturer Robert Pozen explores how the retirement health care plans offered to the employees of many U.S. cities and states could pose budgetary problems. Pozen writes that the "unfunded liabilities for retirement healthcare could bust the budgets of many cities and states over the next decade."