Americans are living longer, and also are more likely to be working in their 60s and 70s. The Congressional Budget Office provides an overview of some patterns in "Employment of People Ages 55 to 79" (September 2019). CBO writes:
Each year, the Analytical Perspectives volume produced with the proposed US Budget includes a table of "tax expenditures," which is an estimate of how much various tax deductions, exemptions, and credits reduce federal tax revenues. For example, in 2019 the tax deduction for charitable contributions to education reduced federal tax revenue by $4.1 billion, the parallel deduction for charitable contributions to health reduced federal tax revenue by $3.9 billion, and the deduction for all other charitable contributions reduced federal tax revenue by $36.6 billion.
When it comes to holding down the concentrations of atmospheric carbon, I'm willing to consider all sorts of possibilities, but I confess I had never considered whales. Ralph Chami, Thomas Cosimano, Connel Fullenkamp, and Sena Oztosun have written "Nature’s Solution to Climate Change: A strategy to protect whales can limit greenhouse gases and global warming" (Finance & Development, September 2019, related podcast is here).
Want to prove that US wages are rising? Want to prove they are falling? Either way, you've come to the right place. Actually, the right place is a short essay, "Are wages rising, falling, or stagnating?" by Richard V. Reeves, Christopher Pulliam, and Ashley Schobert (Brookings Institution, September 10, 2019).
A few months ago we commented that there will be no energy transition without competitiveness, and given the proposal of Germany to carry out another huge green plan, the European Union faces the opportunity to correct the mistakes made in the past with the wrong subsidies and policies. An opportunity to strengthen the economic fabric of the eurozone. However, the risks of repeating the same mistakes are not small.
When I'm talking to a public group, it's surprisingly common for me to get questions about when or whether the US dollar will fade as the world's dominant currency. Eswar Prasad offers some evidence on this question in "Has the dollar lost ground as the dominant international currency?" (Brookings Institution, September 2019). Prasad writes:
The drone attacks on Saudi Arabia had an important impact on the country’s oil infrastructure, but we should not exaggerate its impact on world supply.