Fourteen questions. Zero softballs. Listeners from Tacoma to Montreal wrote in to ask about retirement savings, taxing capital gains, home-buyer assistance programs, corporate profits in the tariffs era, what one state employee can or cannot accomplish, and whether meaningful economic reform will arrive before Millennials drop dead. And more. The inbox did not disappoint.

00:00 Announcements

01:59 Is a retirement savings crisis brewing?

04:32 Tax credits for first-time home buyers… good idea?

08:10 What if tax breaks for capital gains only applied to new investments?

13:39 Explain the $1,700 tax credit scholarship program in OBBA?

16:23 Are institutional investors wrecking the housing market?

21:37 What quick policy moves could reverse worsening inequality?

27:32 Will meaningful reform arrive before Millennials retire?

30:56 Is a hotel tax the right way to fund a stadium?

33:05 Can I move the needle on labor policy from inside the system?

35:08 Why has the responsibility and risk for employment shifted onto workers?

37:50 Is fixing the care economy easier than we think?

40:47 Do rent caps work?

44:50 Can we prevent price gouging by companies?

47:53 If states roll out good policies, does the federal government need to do it too?

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The corporate income tax rate got hacked nearly in half by the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act. So nine years later, how’s that working out? Corporations’ effective tax rate (about 9%) is lower than what the average American household pays (about 14.5%). After-tax corporate profits have hit record highs for the last four years — about 9% of GDP, a figure not hit since 1929. Workers' share of total national income, by contrast, is at a 70-year low. If corporate taxes go back up, some companies may threaten to reincorporate somewhere cheaper. Call that bluff. Someone else will deliver the toilet paper and make the coffee.

• Donate to keep Optimist Economy going: https://optimisteconomy.com
• Video clips are on the Optimist Economy YouTube channel⁠⁠.
• Consume leisure with us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy or TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy. Or meet other Optimists on our Substack chat.
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Got economic questions, concerns, or executive orders? Send them to optimist.economy@gmail.com

Switchboard operators. Typists. Secretaries. Lots of factory workers. The economy has a long history of technology slowly eliminating not just jobs but entire occupations. The U.S. also has a long history of not doing a lot to help those thrown out of work by major economic shifts. Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards, who literally wrote her dissertation on unemployment insurance (her professional assessment: "it sucks"), makes the case for a wholesale rebuild that triages joblessness, distinguishing between those who need time to job hunt and those who need to pivot to a new career.

• Donate to keep Optimist Economy going: https://optimisteconomy.com
• Video clips are on the Optimist Economy YouTube channel⁠⁠.
• Consume leisure with us on Instagram at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy or TikTok at ⁠⁠@optimist_economy. Or meet other Optimists on our Substack chat.
• Feel like dis-saving? Our merch: https://merch.ambientinks.com/collections/optimisteconomy

Send your economic questions, concerns, or executive orders to optimist.economy@gmail.com