Next Social Contract: Recent and Upcoming Events

When it comes to the economy, it's often said that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Yet most economists have been confounded by the failure of recent productivity gains to significantly raise the incomes for the majority of American workers.

At this special event, a presentation of the Next Social Contract Initiative at the New America Foundation, MIT economists Frank Levy and Peter Temin presented their new paper “Inequality and Institutions in 20th Century America,” which… more

American politics is in a time of upheaval, as old ideological lines dissolve and the changing economy demands a rethinking of the social contract. Recently, several prominent thinkers have proposed new policy and political syntheses that marry approaches usually favored by the right with solutions from the left. In a December 2005 article in The Weekly Standard entitled "The Party of Sam's Club," Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam suggested that the Republican Party pay attention to the … more