- Investing
For The Common Good: How Workers' Pensions Can Help Solve The
Housing Crisis A report about how to safely invest pension
funds in housing. (Hint: It's been done plenty of times in the past,
here and in other countries.) Contributor to the report,
published by Americans for Financial Reform
Education Fund and Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for
Labor and the Working Poor.
- An
article at SSRN about statistical problems with the standard
practice of revaluations. A summary
treatment of the same issue, adapted
from a 2004 article in the Rhode
Island Policy Reporter, see issue 4 (August 2004).
A presentation about those
statistical problems, presented at the Providence City Council's
Special Commission for Taxation and Revenue (November 2023).
- Testimony to the RI House
Corporations Committee in favor of 2023 H-5666, a
resolution supporting the establishment of a National
Infrastructure Bank. (March 2023)
-
Measuring Public Pension Health: New Metrics and New
Approaches, study about new ways to look at the health of
a pension fund. In many ways a follow-up to the report
The
Case for New Pension Accounting Standards, see
below. (June 2022)
- A draft proposal to use a
"contractual accrual rate" to price pension
benefits. Work in progress, see also the github repo. (December 2022)
- Viability Study
for a publicly-owned bank in the East Bay Area, California.
(March 2022)
- Testimony to House
Finance in support of H5227, to raise marginal rates on
the very wealthy. (May 2021)
- A proposal to use tax
credits to encourage local economic development to aid in COVID-19
recovery. Legal, easy, fast. (May 2020)
- Municipal
banking made easy, written for
the Just
Public Finance program of
the Othering and
Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. A plan for
taking more control of what is done with public money,
without leaping into the whole commitment of a public bank.
(July 2019)
- The Challenge of
Cannabis Deposits: Is there another way? (Spoiler:
yes.) California (or another state) could deal with the
problems of cannabis finance simply and quickly and
without risk by using tax credits and a novel public
finance institution. (November 2019)
- The
problems with pension fund accounting
(Report sponsored by NCPERS,
2019.) Hard to summarize, but let's just say that when
you read that some public pension is only 60% funded, it
doesn't mean what you probably think it means. (May 2019)
- Lessons
learned from establishing Rhode Island's
Infrastructure Bank. Why the state would be
better served by a real lending institution rather
than just a revolving fund. (2017 Invited testimony
to the Massachusetts Legislature.) Similar remarks
delivered
as invited
testimony to the New Hampshire legislature.
- "Predatory
Public Finance" about the many ways banks and
other financial firms rip off our governments.
(Journal
of Law and Society, 17(1) Fall 2015)
- The dangers of pricing risk in
public finance. 2016 Invited
testimony to the Illinois Senate Revenue and Finance
Committee.
- A book:
Checking the Banks: The Nuts and Bolts of Banking for People Who
Want to Fix It.
Read an excerpt
here about why you should care about the state of
banking. (2014)
- "Moral obligation bonds"
and how to recognize them. Memo for a local activist
group about a specific project, but these are generally
applicable guidelines, using the 38 Studios bonds as an
example. (January 2016)
- "Finding
Clout: Repositioning municipalities in the banking
market", about how governments can foster a
better banking market and better deals for
themselves. (Journal
of Law and Society, 17(1), Fall 2015)
- Pension accounting, specifically
the problems
with aiming at "full" funding. From
the Haas
Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, 2017.
- Also, about pension systems, here's the
famous piggy-bank
visualization of a pension system, from 2015.
- Convert the Vermont Economic
Development Agency into a public bank. Invited
testimony to the Vermont legislature (2014).
- Tax policy and how
to cut a budget. There are five ways. Some work
well, and others are easier. 2012 Testimony to RI
House Finance.
- Tax policy
and the state's investment outlook. What exactly
is the economic outlook? 2008 Testimony to
RI House Finance.
- The property tax circuit
breaker. Aiming tax relief where it's actually
needed. 2007 Testimony to RI House Finance.
- The impact of property
"flipping" on real estate prices: bigger
than you think. 2007 Testimony to RI House Finance.
See also
RIPR Issue
23 on what can be done about it.
- Suggestions
about how to structure a
school department budget presentation. Summary of the
budget advisory group deliberations in a RI school district
(2006).
-
Ten Things You Don't
Know About Rhode Island, a book about economics,
statistics, and my little state.
- And of course don't forget
the Rhode Island Policy
Reporter archive. RIPR, a nearly monthly newsletter
about the nerdiest policy issues in Rhode Island, was
published from 2003--2009. Taxes, budget, debt, pensions,
economics, water pollution, health care, education,
Milton, Locke, fake nuns, you name it.
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