Asset Building Program: Latest Articles

Paying City Students Is a Wise Investment

Ron Tang — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:59:00 -0400

Summer has arrived in Baltimore, and so has summer school -- bringing with it a chance for students who improve on their High School Assessment exams to pocket something more than academic success. A few months ago, Baltimore schools CEO Andres Alonso unveiled a controversial proposal to improve city schools: Pay students to perform. It's a simple idea that has generated quite a bit of controversy from purists who cringe at the thought of paying students to learn and from realists who believe there simply must be a more effective way to spend $1 million in a failing school system.

Yet… more

Wheels Versus Welfare

Ron Tang — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:36:00 -0400

With falling home prices, rising food and fuel costs and an unemployment rate well above the national average, the current economic downturn may push already vulnerable California families to the brink of financial destitution. Thousands of people may turn to welfare for support in the coming months. That's OK -- that's the purpose of temporary assistance. It's not as if this is the money-for-nothing welfare of the early 1990s; these folks are required to start looking for work the second they land on the rolls. Yet to qualify for assistance, many families may be forced to give up the most… more

Making a Transaction and Savings Account a Certainty, Just Like Taxes

adminn — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:00:00 -0400

In the Feb. 20 issue of Paybefore Update, my colleague, Melissa Koide, discussed a proposal to use prepaid cards to deliver tax refunds through a unique alliance of government and industry, Viewpoints: A Convergence of Opportunities: Delivering Prepaid Accounts at Tax Time (February 2008). We believe the prepaid sector can and should play a major role in working with government to provide an "assets and transactions account" (ATA), a low-cost, high-value transaction account that facilitates savings for financially underserved consumers. The ATA would be opened when a tax filer's refund is deposited at a regulated financial institution… more

Don't Spend Your Tax Rebate!

Ron Tang — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:41:00 -0400

The IRS was so confident in the legendary observation of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. that “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society” they chiseled it above the entrance to their Washington D.C. headquarters. Still each year Tax Day makes incumbent politicians uneasy -- especially at times when recession fears mount and fall elections loom. This year this perilous combination spurred them on to take prompt and bipartisan action. Who wants to be accused of sending families their tax bill as economic growth slows and hardship spreads?

The bipartisan prescription to jumpstart the economy was to deliver over $100… more

A Convergence of Opportunities: Delivering Prepaid Accounts at Tax Time

Ron Tang — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

What if there’s a way to bring prepaid products to millions of new consumers, with the help of the federal government?

I think there is. By leveraging billions of dollars in annual tax refunds, there’s the potential to deliver a prepaid product that benefits consumers, industry and the government alike. Called the Assets and Transaction Account, or ATA for short, it’s envisioned as a network branded prepaid account that would be delivered through the tax filing process and loaded with tax refunds, to start.

Each year the U.S. Treasury Department issues millions of refund checks worth billions of dollars to tax filers.… more

Viewpoint: Fed's Mortgage Move is a Good Start

Ron Tang — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0500

With foreclosures reaching record levels and predictions for further trouble ahead, the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday unanimously approved potentially sweeping changes to how mortgages are marketed, made, and serviced, especially in the nonprime market. Will the Fed be able to meet its goal of a "comprehensive set of protections to consumers" when the comments come flying?

The proposed revisions to regulations under the Truth in Lending Act are designed to realign relationships in the mortgage business, so borrower and lender are once again interested in the same result: a good mortgage.

The rules, unlike guidelines bank regulators issued over the last… more

Technology is Helping Firms Reach Unbanked

Articles — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:24:00 -0500

Over a dozen financial institutions have applied to be the issuer of the Treasury Department's Direct Express electronic bank accounts for depositing Social Security and other federal benefits.

The Treasury touts the product as a safer, easier, and more convenient way to receive and access monthly benefits. In part, this is a strategy by the federal government to lower expenses for taxpayers by saving on the issuance of benefit checks. Compared with the 89 cents for sending a check each month, electronic deposits cost a mere 9 cents a transaction — a savings of up to $125 million a… more

Don't Throw Baby Bonds Out With Bath

Articles — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:54:00 -0400

For better or worse, America has a habit of conducting much of our policymaking through the presidential election process. This can be dangerous when meaningful reform efforts get trumped by volatile politics. Sure, we’d like campaign promises to mean something but it’s counter-productive if we let the consideration of good ideas get easily diverted into the gutter.

A case in point was the recent discussion of Hillary Clinton’s Baby Bond proposal, which was quickly hijacked by partisan politics. That’s a shame because the idea of creating a system of children’s savings accounts has good politics behind it and… more

Baby Bonds Pay Bipartisan Dividends

Articles — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:33:00 -0400

At a recent campaign stop with the Congressional Black Caucus, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account.”

That was enough to generate a few headlines and some right-wing outrage. The Drudge Report was quick to tweak one of its favorite targets and drive some Internet traffic with a bold banner, “A Bond for Every Bassinet.”

The conservative Washington Times and New York Post blasted the idea within 24 hours, and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani called it “pandering” and promptly incorporated it into his next fundraising appeal.

But… more

Forget Easy Money

Articles — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:12:00 -0400

Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has a curious new idea -- or, more precisely, an old one. No longer will it use wads of Chinese cash recycled through Wall Street to make subprime loans to unqualified borrowers. Instead, it will take in deposits from small savers and lend them out to people who might actually repay them -- just like that humble thrift institution president George Bailey did in It’s a Wonderful Life.

Imagine: a bank that promotes thrift! This could be the start of something big. Writing recently in the American Banker, Eugene Ludwig, a former comptroller of… more

Let the Poor Save for Their Future

Articles — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:23:00 -0400

In 1990, newspapers around the country profiled the story of Grace Capetillo, a welfare mom from Milwaukee who, after managing to save $3,000 in the bank, was hauled into court by the county Department of Social Services and charged with fraud. Having breached the limit on allowable assets, Ms. Capetillo was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $1,000, spend down another $1,000 of the money she had worked hard to save, and promise not to save again if she wanted to stay on assistance.

The country was rightfully outraged; the system was clearly broken. Yet today, 17… more

Restoring the Value of Saving

Articles — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:09:00 -0400

The value of saving is finally making a comeback. After years of over consumption and accelerating debt -- and more than two years with a negative personal savings rate -- Americans are finally beginning to fret over their empty coffers and negative balance sheets. As headlines profile subprime borrowers going into default around the country, the average American’s sense of economic security has jumped from unease to panic. As policymakers scramble to develop new policies to bolster working families, echoes calling for the return of the American value of thrift are beginning to grow louder.

Any middle class American will tell… more

Bloomberg Tackles Poverty

Articles — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:40:00 -0400

Even for public servants with the best of intentions, the seeming intractability of poverty in America can be awfully discouraging. Its causes are complex and past efforts have met with limited success. Until Hurricane Katrina hit land, poverty had been absent from the public agenda for so long that there was little consensus among policymakers in how to respond. Not only was the toolbox of effective antipoverty proposals empty but partisan gamesmanship often seems to block innovative, good faith efforts to address it.

Yet persistent, concentrated, and intergenerational poverty remains a scourge upon our prosperous society, an enduring challenge… more

Investing Your Way Out of Poverty

Articles — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:54:00 -0400

The mayor of New York’s new antipoverty plan, which is scheduled to begin in the fall, will pay as much as $5,000 a year to poor families to help them meet specific goals like getting regular medical checkups, holding down full-time jobs and attending parent-teacher conferences.

Experience in developing countries shows that such ‘‘conditional cash transfer’’ programs are effective in combating poverty. Those who participate wind up with better education, health and life prospects than those who don’t. Such a program in Mexico -- the initial inspiration for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan -- has had particular success in improving the… more

Kids' Accounts Warrant Debate

Articles — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:38:00 -0400

Governor Schwarzenegger was cheered when he recently talked about post-partisanship in Washington, D.C. But the post-partisan waters don’t run deep back home in California. Two state senators who just crossed the aisle to forward a creative solution to a pressing problem are getting more grief than glory.

Senator Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Robert Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, held a press conference on February 28 to introduce their bill to create a California Kids Account for every newborn. The goal is to encourage parents to start saving early for their children’s future and, in the process, build the whole family’s financial know-how.… more

On Taxpayer-Funded Savings Accounts

Articles — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:32:00 -0400

Even though California is being modeled as the birthplace of post partisanship, ideological divisions still run deep in the political process. Two state senators who just crossed the aisle to forward a creative solution to a pressing state problem are getting more grief than glory.

Sens. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Robert Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, held a press conference two weeks ago to introduce their bill to create a California KIDS Account for every newborn. The goal is to encourage parents to start saving early for their children’s future and, in the process, build the whole family’s financial literacy. This bill… more

Going for Broke

Articles — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:55:00 -0500

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast with such ferocity in late August 2005, Americans were shocked by the broadcast images of desperately poor people left to fend for themselves. The depth and consequences of poverty in America, normally hidden from public view, had once again become the subject of debate and national soul-searching. And yet, a year and a half later, the subject of poverty has fallen so far off the public’s radar screen that President Bush did not give it a mention in his recent State of the Union Address. How can our prosperous… more

Against Gentrification

Articles — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:56:00 -0500

Marcel Diallo is at war. It’s a war he thinks he has about 18 months to win. As he walks the sidewalks of a neighborhood known as "the Bottoms" in West Oakland, he points out his enemies with a spoon, between dips into a pint of strawberry soy ice cream.

There are the punk rockers, who thought they’d found an industrial neighborhood where no one would mind their loud parties. There’s "the Indian cat and his partner from Palo Alto," who got a deal on one of the neighborhood’s many Victorians. There’s the "speculator" -- a white guy in a… more

Saving Grace

Articles — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 01:58:00 -0500

Next week the Commerce Department will release a pedestrian report that should produce a shocking headline in the papers: America’s Savings Rate at Lowest Level since the Great Depression. Indeed, 2006 marked the second consecutive year that the country’s personal savings rate was negative, matching the dubious performance of that bygone decade. Not only is our spending exceeding disposable income, but consumer debt is at record levels, making families especially vulnerable to rising interest rates and fluctuating incomes.

This wasn’t always the case. We used to be a nation of thrift. Historically, this didn’t mean being cheap or stingy; it… more

Savings Programs for Working Families

Articles — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:13:00 -0500

When the California Working Families Policy Summit convenes Thursday in the Sacramento Convention Center, a familiar list of topics -- child care, after-school programs, cash assistance -- will dominate the agenda. These critical programs help families get by. What will be missing are bold proposals to help them get ahead.

The California Center for Research on Women and Families is sponsoring the summit for legislators and their staffs, administrative officials and other civic leaders to discuss public policy issues for this legislative session. Many important safety nets are already in place to support California’s working families. But we haven’t been as… more