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Budget

How longer work lives ease the crunch of population aging

Source: JournalistsResource.org

As baby-boomers have aged, so has the population of the United States. This has consequences, in particular for the nation’s labor force. In the 20 years from 1990 to 2010, the labor force in the United States grew 24.4%, keeping pace with the country’s population growth of 26%.  From 2010 to 2030, however, while the population will climb an additional 17.5%, the labor force is expected to grow only 10.5%.

After financial firms collapse: Bankruptcy or bailouts?

Source: JournalistsResource.org

After the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, two reasons are often cited for bailing out banks. First, it is assumed that bankruptcy greatly reduces the value of a firm’s assets. Second, such an action would have negative effects on the firm’s lenders that would ripple outward.  If a company is sufficiently large, it’s seen as “too big to fail,” and thus must be bailed out.