New America Policy Papers: 2011

Papers and other formal publications from our policy programs are available below. To jump to another year in the archives, please use the links at right.

The 12 Principles of Fiscal Responsibility for the 2012 Campaign

December 15, 2011
  1. Make Deficit Reduction a Top Priority.
  2. Propose Specific Fiscal Targets.
  3. Recommend Specific Policies to Achieve the Targets.
  4. Do No Harm.
  5. Use Honest Numbers and Avoid Budget Gimmicks.
  6. Do Not Perpetuate Budget Myths.
  7. Do Not Attack Someone Else's Plan Without Putting Forward an Alternative.
  8. Refrain From Pledges That Take Policies Off the Table.
  9. Propose Specific Solutions for Social Sec
Programs:

Explaining China’s Falling Current Account Balance

  • By
  • Samuel Sherraden,
  • New America Foundation
December 15, 2011

China’s surplus fell from 10.1% of GDP in 2007 to 5.2% in 2010.  Whether its current account will continue to decline or will return to higher levels seen in the mid-2000s is a subject of considerable disagreement.

Programs:

Dealing with Expiring Provisions in a Fiscally Responsible Manner

December 12, 2011

At the end of this month, over 80 tax and spending policies are set to expire. How lawmakers deal with any extensions of these policies has important implications for the federal budget and could represent either a step forward for fiscal sustainability or else a step backward.

Programs:

Going Big Means Don't Stop Until You Get Enough

November 16, 2011

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget – along with many other lawmakers, business leaders, former government officials, and policy experts – has called on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Super Committee”) to go beyond its current mandate of finding $1.5 trillion in savings to recommend two to three times as much in order to stabilize the federal debt and reduce it as a share of the economy.

Programs:

Beyond Barriers

  • By
  • Pamela Chan,
  • New America Foundation
November 14, 2011

Every cloud has a silver lining. In the case of the Great Recession, that silver lining is an increased awareness that Americans—especially those in lower-income households—are better off when they have access to a stock of liquid savings to weather unexpected events.  Without these precautionary savings, families are economically insecure. The process of building up these savings largely depends on access to an array of financial products and services, such as low-cost and high-quality savings accounts.

Programs:

Watching Teachers Work

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Susan Ochshorn
November 8, 2011

Identifying good teachers is a high priority in education reform, yet the debate rarely focuses on how education might improve if policies were based on teachers’ individual interactions with their students. This report argues for improving early education up through the third grade (PreK-3rd) by actually watching teachers in action using innovative observation tools in combination with evaluation and training programs.  

Programs:

Asset Stripping

  • By Dalia Ben-Galim, Institute for Public Policy Research
November 7, 2011

On 24 May 2010, after only a few weeks in office, the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government announced that, as part of a package of measures designed to cut public spending by £6.2 billion, the Child Trust Fund (CTF) would be abolished, saving the government just over £500 million a year. As a result, children born in the UK in 2011 will no longer receive £250 at birth and a further £250 when they reach the age of seven (£500 for poorer families and disabled children).

Programs:

Shaping 21st Century Journalism

  • By
  • C. W. Anderson,
  • Tom Glaisyer,
  • Jason Smith,
  • New America Foundation
  • and Marika Rothfeld
October 27, 2011

As the media industry evolves to meet the challenges of the emerging digitally-networked era, so too are journalism schools. Democracy and healthy local communities require this evolution. As the media industry reshapes itself, a tremendous opportunity emerges for America’s journalism programs. Neither news organizations nor journalism programs will disappear, but both must rethink their missions, particularly now that many more people can be journalists (at least, on an occasional basis) and many more people produce media than ever before.

Programs:

Going Big Could Improve the Chances of Success

October 21, 2011

As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Super Committee) tries to identify $1.2 - $1.5 trillion in savings to meet its mandate, it should consider Going Big instead. While forging bipartisan consensus oneven $1.2 trillion in saving is no easy task, a Go Big approach of saving two to three times as much could actually increase the chances of success.

Programs:

The Price-Induced Energy Trap

  • By John A. "Skip" Laitner, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
October 21, 2011

Even though the U.S. economy grows at an anemic rate of perhaps 1.5 percent and 1.9 percent (or less) in this year and next, the world economy is likely to expand by well over 3 percent in that same two-year period. The world demand for oil is expected to increase, concurrently, by about 1.5 percent annually. The most recent projections by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA 2011a) suggest that – absent major disruptions – the growing demand for energy worldwide will continue to push oil prices up in a slow but steady movement.  Absent dramatic changes in U.S.

Programs:
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