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Begin New Search Political Geography United States Publishing Institution Aspen Institute

21. Reinventing Health Care

Author:
Basit Chaudhry deBronkart, Carole Roan Gresenz, Joseph Hutter, Anjali Jain, Brent C. James, Shawn Martin, Lewis Mattison, Daniel L. Newton, Anthony Nguyen, Brent Parton, Kavita Patel, and Steven Weinberger
Publication Date:
03-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
In many respects, the U.S. health care system is breathtakingly innovative. It produces new technology, medical procedures, and scientific knowledge at a dazzling speed, enabling patient store cover from diseases and injuries once thought incurable or untreatable. As a consequence, the U.S. has one of the highest survival rates for cancers, excels at acute and trauma care, and has produced half of the world's Nobel laureates.
Topic:
Science and Technology and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
United States

22. The Freedom Savings Credit: A Practical Step to Build Americans' Household Balance Sheets

Author:
Lisa Mensah, Raymond O'Mara III, Colby Farber, and Robert Weinberger
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The imbalance of too much debt and not enough assets fuels financial insecurity in many American households. Building Americans' household balance sheets should start with making savings and asset-building incentives more efficient and equitable. Although millions of working Americans currently receive little or no tax incentive to save, modest reforms to our tax code have the potential to dramatically improve their financial futures. The Aspen Institute Initiative on Financial Security (Aspen IFS) proposes the Freedom Savings Credit to create a more equitable and economically efficient savings system that will benefit millions of American households and the nation as a whole.
Topic:
Security, Debt, Economics, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
United States and America

23. Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission

Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
American expectations of how their government secures the United States have evolved substantially, especially during the post-9/11 decade. From the post-World War II, 20th-century evolution of the national security architecture in the United States, focused on countering overseas nation-states with conventional forces, we now face requirements to protect at home. And not only to protect, but to prevent: the new, domestic security architecture is targeted more at securing borders, infrastructure, and cyberspace with defensive measures as it is at pursuing any single adversary with offensive measures.
Topic:
Intelligence, Terrorism, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
United States and America

24. Building an Impact Economy in America

Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Today America finds a new market force emerging: companies that achieve an intimate connection between profit and purpose. And these businesses are supported by a developing system of investors and other financial actors that seek to place capital in firms that are achieving social impact. A new trail is being blazed for our country – open, far-reaching, transformative, offering an opportunity for renewal and growth. This is the Impact Economy.
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Monetary Policy
Political Geography:
United States and America

25. Changing Currents: Turbulence for the Electricity Industry?

Author:
Phil Sharp
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The question is never whether the United States has an energy policy. It has dozens. They come with various decision-makers at overlapping levels of authority, ample numbers of stakeholders, and generally lots of confusing and often contradictory signals.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Energy Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States

26. Global Energy Markets in a Time of Political Change

Author:
Bill White
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
A shift in relative energy consumption among regions and the development of new, unconventional supplies will be the most significant changes over the next twenty years. The dominant fuels in the world energy market until 2030 will continue to be hydrocarbons — oil, coal, and natural gas. Major shifts will occur, however, among the three fuels, among regions and in their supply. Globally, oil will continue to be the most widely used fuel as it supplies more than 90 percent of the energy for transportation. Coal, now the dominant fuel used for electric power generation, will lose ground to natural gas, a less carbon-intensive hydrocarbon. Natural gas will become the second largest overall supplier and well positioned to replace coal as the leading supplier for electric power. Developing countries will lead the way in overall energy growth, with Chinese and Indian energy demand growing fastest. Energy demand in developed countries will remain flat. For the United States, growth in gas shale and oil shale are likely to be “game changers,” altering the supply picture dramatically.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Markets, Political Economy, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States, China, and India

27. Social Security: The House that Roosevelt Built

Author:
Pamela J. Perun and Patricia E. Dilley
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Critics of the Social Security program are fond of disparaging it as a "Ponzi" scheme or as a redistributive transfer of income from the young to the old. Others go even further, labeling the Social Security trust fund as a fiction or claiming the program is bankrupt. Some also suggest that the government bonds held in the trust fund are mere IOUs. Still others say that the program's legal basis is ephemeral, subject to the whims of Congress.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States

28. Race, Crime, and Punishment: Breaking the Connection in America

Author:
Keith O. Lawrence (ed)
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
More than 2.3 million people in america are in jail or prison.sixty percent are african american and Latino.Of all the statistics portraying racial inequity in our country, this is the most alarming: it indicates the failure of so many of our society's institutions; it predicts dire consequences for millions of children and families of color who are already at socioeconomic disadvantage; and it challenges the very definition of our democracy.
Topic:
Crime, Race, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
United States and America

29. Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More Open and Participatory Government

Author:
Jon Gant and Nicol Turner-Lee
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Over the last several decades, local, state and federal government entities in the United States have steadily moved toward more openness and transparency.By definition, openness and transparency allow stakeholders to gather information that may be critical to their interests and offer channels of communication between stakeholders and elected officials. Aided by legislative mandates and public policy decisions, most government entities are now required to make a minimum amount of information available to citizens, operate in the “sunlight” and not behind closed doors, and actively engage citizens in the policy-making process.
Topic:
Corruption, Education, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and America

30. The New World of Natural Gas

Author:
John M. Deutch
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The development of natural gas from shale is providing new possibilities for gas use in the United States and throughout the world. The largest conventional natural gas deposits are concentrated in the Middle East and Russia, but unconventional natural gas, including shale, is spread throughout the world, potentially permitting development in many different countries.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and Globalization
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Middle East