Category: Finance

Nonprofits that provide shelter for homeless people, disaster recovery help, and food for low-income Americans rely heavily on federal funding – they would be reeling if Trump froze that money

Dyana Mason, Associate Professor of Planning, Public Policy and Management, University of OregonLeave a Comment on Nonprofits that provide shelter for homeless people, disaster recovery help, and food for low-income Americans rely heavily on federal funding – they would be reeling if Trump froze that money

On Jan. 27, 2025, the Trump administration ordered a freeze on federal grants and contracts covering a wide array of aid programs to take effect at 5 p.m. the following day. This freeze was partially prevented when a judge responded to a lawsuit filed by the National Council of Nonprofits and other organizations. The flow […]

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Donors are down, but dollars are up – how US charitable giving is changing

Una Osili, Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies; Associate Dean for Research and International Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana UniversityLeave a Comment on Donors are down, but dollars are up – how US charitable giving is changing

Although the US$557 billion Americans gave to charity in 2023 marked a 2.1% decline in inflation-adjusted terms, U.S. donations have increased significantly over the past two decades. Giving has grown by about 42% since 2003, according to the annual Giving USA report – which our team at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy […]

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How nonprofits abroad can fill gaps when the US government cuts off foreign aid

Susan Appe, Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New YorkLeave a Comment on How nonprofits abroad can fill gaps when the US government cuts off foreign aid

The U.S. government gives other nations US$68 billion of foreign assistance annually – more than any other country. Over half of this sum is managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, including funds for programs aimed at fighting hunger and disease outbreaks, providing humanitarian relief in war zones, and supporting other lifesaving programs such […]

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Why building big AIs costs billions – and how Chinese startup DeepSeek dramatically changed the calculus

Ambuj Tewari, Professor of Statistics, University of MichiganLeave a Comment on Why building big AIs costs billions – and how Chinese startup DeepSeek dramatically changed the calculus

State-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude have captured the public imagination by producing fluent text in multiple languages in response to user prompts. Those companies have also captured headlines with the huge sums they’ve invested to build ever more powerful models. An AI startup from China, DeepSeek, has upset […]

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Philly Whole Foods store becomes first to unionize – a labor expert explains what’s next and how Trump could stall workers’ efforts

Paul F. Clark, Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Penn StateLeave a Comment on Philly Whole Foods store becomes first to unionize – a labor expert explains what’s next and how Trump could stall workers’ efforts

Whole Foods workers at the Philadelphia flagship store in the city’s Art Museum area voted to unionize on Jan. 27, 2025. They are the first store in the Amazon-owned grocery chain to do so. Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University, talked to Kate Kilpatrick, The Conversation U.S. Philadelphia […]

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President Carter had to balance employers’ demands for foreign workers with pressure to restrict immigration – and so does Trump

Gabrielle Clark, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Law, California State University, Los AngelesLeave a Comment on President Carter had to balance employers’ demands for foreign workers with pressure to restrict immigration – and so does Trump

President Donald Trump promised during his three presidential campaigns to deport as many immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization as possible. His second administration got underway less than one month after former President Jimmy Carter died in December 2024. This sequence of events brings to mind, for me – a public law scholar […]

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Commerce oversees everything from weather and salmon to trade and census − here are 3 challenges awaiting new secretary

Linda J. Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLeave a Comment on Commerce oversees everything from weather and salmon to trade and census − here are 3 challenges awaiting new secretary

The U.S. secretary of commerce oversees the smallest but arguably most complex of all Cabinet-level departments. Established as a distinct entity in 1913, it has evolved into a sprawling organization with 13 bureaus spanning a wide variety of critical areas that include weather forecasting, conducting the census, estimating gross domestic product, managing fisheries, promoting U.S. […]

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Canada and Greenland aren’t likely to join the US anytime soon – but ‘GrAmeriCa’ is a revealing thought experiment

Peter A. Coclanis, Professor of History and Director of the Global Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLeave a Comment on Canada and Greenland aren’t likely to join the US anytime soon – but ‘GrAmeriCa’ is a revealing thought experiment

For some time now, pundits have been debating whether to take Donald Trump “seriously” or “literally,” as the clever binary coined by journalist Salena Zito in 2016 has it. This choice comes to mind when I think about the 47th president’s frequent comments recently about incorporating Greenland and Canada into the United States. A few […]

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Why government can’t make America ‘healthier’ by micromanaging groceries purchased with SNAP benefits

Benjamin Chrisinger, Assistant Professor of Community Health, Tufts UniversityLeave a Comment on Why government can’t make America ‘healthier’ by micromanaging groceries purchased with SNAP benefits

President Donald Trump’s pick for director of the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has announced a bold plan. He wants to “Make America Healthy Again.” Kennedy’s strategy has gotten a lot of attention for its oddities, such as his opposition to vaccine mandates and support for raw milk. But it includes […]

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Why Trump’s tariffs can’t solve America’s fentanyl crisis

Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLeave a Comment on Why Trump’s tariffs can’t solve America’s fentanyl crisis

Americans consume more illicit drugs per capita than anyone else in the world; about 6% of the U.S. population uses them regularly. One such drug, fentanyl – a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine – is the leading reason U.S. overdose deaths have surged in recent years. While the rate […]

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