The national government has lurched from one crisis to the next in recent years – the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling, the Bush tax cuts and the recent shutdown. Those deals were always done to stave off major economic disaster. Brookings Scholar Ron Haskins says there is a better way.
Adele Morris of the Brookings Institution is proposing a policy that she says would fix both the energy and fiscal problems of the United States simultaneously. A carbon tax - across all forms of fossil fuel energy - would raise additional revenue, encourage energy conservation and stimulate the development of new forms of renewable energy that would not attract the tax. She tells us why it's a great idea for the Mountain West.
So you only need to get 50 percent of the votes to pass a bill in Congress right? Well, not quite, says Brookings Institution Fellow Molly Jackman. In fact, the rules in the legislature have an enormous impact on what happens with a law and with government policy. Of course, we're seeing that played out in Washington right now with the looming shutdown of the government. So how do those rules affect what happens and do we need to reform those rules?
Americans have had an unending stream of bad news about science, technical, engineering and math education. We're middling or worse. But this misinterprets the nature of the STEM, argues Brookings Institution scholar Nicholas Rothwell. These numbers overestimate the need for higher degrees and misrepresent how much skill we actually have in the workforce. So how should we think of these disciplines? Are we really doing as well as we can?
Nevada ranks last in the per capita receipt from the federal government. But why? Sometimes, the state won't match federal funding, and sometimes we just refuse to compete. But Nevada's poor haul from the federal government results from many factors, argues Brookings' scholar, Tracy Gordon.
Nevada ranks dead last in per capita federal funding for health, education, housing, science and transportation, according to the Brookings Institution.
As Las Vegas and Southern Nevada continue to emerge from the Great Recession, our regional leaders are engaging in a concerted effort to acquire the basic urban infrastructure needs essential for our growth. The opportunity is here to promote economic diversification while gauging infrastructure assets and deficits. On the plus side, Las Vegas possesses a high-capacity and globally connected airport and a world-class performing arts center, and a major downtown redevelopment effort is underway. Our region is, of course, home to the largest convention and hotel complex in the U.S.
Colorado's politics have become positively Californian lately. There are new restrictions on guns. Pot is legal. The legislative agenda featured an expansion of alternative-energy use requirements for rural consumers. Gay couples can now enter into civil unions.
Living alone? You've got company. More than one in four households had just a single person in 2012, greater than at any time in the past century, according to new Census Bureau findings. In 1970, one-person households accounted for just under one in six. In 1900, it was one in 20.
For a region scarred with high unemployment and a struggling education system, free money from the federal government for community colleges to retrain unemployed workers for high-wage, high-skill jobs would seem like a perfect fit for Southern Nevada. So college officials had that covered, right?
Who keeps more of Southern Nevada’s federal tax money — Washington, D.C., or Carson City? Turns out it’s a toss-up. So how do we fix the problem? With D.C., we need to get in the game. With Carson City, we need to change the game.
Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell says Las Vegas has the potential to be a “sleeper city,” that is, one that surprises the rest of the country and the world with its innovation and industry.
Gerald Gardner, the governor’s chief of staff, told the Nevada Senate Finance Committee on June 2 that he “disagrees that there is disparity in the distribution of (highway) construction money (between Clark County and the rest of the state).” Rudy Malfabon, head of Nevada’s Department of Transportation, echoed this claim and submitted data that showed a rough parity based on taxes paid in the “state highway construction funds in the past five years.” These misleading statements suggest the appearance of equity in state road construction money, ignore huge disparities in highway maintenance funds and exclude massive expenditures of federal dollars.
The latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index says Las Vegas has enjoyed 24 percent increase in prices over 2012. But that may not all be good news. What if the city is facing another housing bubble? What if this is destined to collapse again after another flurry of speculation? When is the time to buy?
House prices are going up. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index in March, prices were up nearly 11 percent over the past year in the 20 cities surveyed. That's the fastest increase in seven years.
The nation's big cities are riding out the first years of the post-downturn era with plenty of company — boosting their population via a youth movement.
Once more into the breach. Once more a failure.
Constructing the $600 million freeway between Reno and Carson City sticks in the craw of Clark County officials who maintain the highway needs of Southern Nevada are being ignored.
As one of the co-authors of the Brookings-SRI study that led to the state’s current economic development plan, I am concerned that Nevada is sending the wrong message to businesses in its new brand: “A world within. A state apart.”
As Nevada continues to grow, we need to revise and reform the way we govern the Nevada Department of Transportation.
An uneven economic recovery continues in the Mountain West, with Colorado Springs struggling to make gains on all fronts, according to a report from the Brookings Institution.
From the patio dining area of Tacos El Gordo on Las Vegas Boulevard, there’s a view of the city’s past five agonizing years, its uncertain present and its possibly exhilarating future.
Economic recovery continued in the major metropolitan areas of the Mountain West – including Denver – in the fourth quarter of 2012, said a report released Thursday by Brookings Mountain West.
Just because Congress has not acted on climate change does not mean the president is powerless. The Environmental Protection Agency has considerable power to make regulations that would reduce carbon emissions. So how well can it work and what is the best way to achieve lower carbon? Brooking Institution Fellow Philip Wallach will be discussing those questions at a lecture at UNLV.