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Politics and Policy

Understanding the Healthcare Impact of Mass Firings in Washington‌‌

The scale of cuts to the federal healthcare workforce is now coming into focus. Dr. Howard Forman explains the potential life-and-death consequences of cuts to key programs and the departure of longtime leaders. ‌

A federal worker who lost her job leaves the Department of Health and Human Services on April 1. 
  • Are Elections Imperiling Our Democracy?

    Every Election Day, politicians sporting flag pins step into voting booths and come out proclaiming their pride in the democratic process. But take a step back and things don’t look so rosy. Between badly run elections and a new wave of “dark money” entering campaigns, reformers fear that the very nature of our democracy is at risk.

  • Coworkers Affect Retirement Savings Rates

    Investment companies including Fidelity, Putnam Investments, and Voya Financial are rolling out tools that tell investors how their retirement savings compare to those of their peers. This social comparison is intended to motivate investors to increase their savings; however, new research shows that it can have the opposite effect.

  • Did Culture Cause the Financial Crisis?

    Nobel Laureate Robert J. Shiller says that an event on the magnitude of the 2008-2009 financial crisis has to have many causes, but he sees “the spirit of the times” as a driving force behind many of them. In a lecture at Yale SOM, he described how he sees this spirit acting in everything from Fed policy to the growth in casinos.

  • What’s the State of the European Banking System?

    Europe is still struggling to emerge from the financial crisis. Though recent stress tests by the European Central Bank gave passing grades to 90% of the region’s banks, critics question the transparency and rigor of the tests. Professor Sascha Steffen of ESMT European School of Management and Technology, a member of the Global Network for Advanced Management, talked with Yale Insights about the state of the banking system and the challenges of designing and implementing a single system to oversee banks across the Eurozone.

  • Should Europe Stay a Union?

    Continuing weakness in the European economy, plus squabbling between Germany and France over the direction of Europe, has sparked new concerns about the future of the Eurozone. But José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, argues that reforms made since the last financial crisis should help keep Europe afloat.

  • Can Ecotourism Boost the Economy in the Philippines?

    Millions of people around the world want to swim in tropical waters and take in unsullied wilderness. Can the Philippines build a productive ecotourism industry around its natural environment? The Asian Institute of Management’s Fernando Y. Roxas talks about the country’s chances of claiming a link in the “tourism supply chain.”

    A beach in the Philippines
  • What Will Climate Change Do to the Economy?

    Modeling the economic consequences of climate change is difficult, uncertain work. In addition, any result is sure to be subjected to political attack. For decades, Yale's William Nordhaus has been developing models that can inform policy decisions.

    Nordhaus image
  • What Does the Future of the European Union Look Like from Spain?

    Former Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero discusses Spain’s long, difficult recovery from the global economic crisis and the lessons of the crisis for the future of the European Union.

  • Can We Fix the Public Pensions Crisis?

    Millions of government workers in the U.S. are relying on pension plans for retirement, and yet these plans are underfunded by at least $1 trillion. Asset manager Ranji Nagaswami ’86 argues that addressing this challenge is about more than assets and liabilities—we have to look at how funds are run and, critically, how they think about risk.

  • Buying Insurance Against Climate Change

    In a New York Times op-ed, Professor Robert Shiller writes that efforts to prepare for climate change should include the use of private institutions of risk management, such as insurance and securitization, to share risk and smooth the unpredictable effects of future disasters.