Top 10 Brookings Now Posts of 2014

The Brookings Now blog showcases the breadth and depth of the research and commentary from our experts across a variety of fields and issues. Here are the most visited posts published in 2014 (and two published in 2013 that continue to be popular).

11 Facts about the Millennial Generation

In a paper for the Center for Effective Public Management, Morley Winograd and Michael Hais presented new findings about how members of the Millennial generation view banking, finance and corporate America.

8 Facts about China’s Investments in Africa

Yun Sun, in a paper for the John L. Thornton China Center and Africa Growth Initiative, analyzed China’s interests in Africa and how China’s internal bureaucracy makes political, economic and security decisions regarding Africa policy.

Affordable Care Act Will Improve Incomes of Americans in Bottom Fifth of Income Distribution

The Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”) was designed to expand health insurance coverage and hold down the cost of insurance, but it will also change incomes of many Americans according to initial projections of Henry Aaron and Gary Burtless. 

Long-term Unemployment Is #1 Social and Economic Problem in America

The government’s report that the economy added only 74,000 jobs in December (2013), while the unemployment rate dipped to 6.7%, left many feeling dispirited and confused. This post featured a collection of economists’ views and analysis on the issue.

Top 10 Counties by Share of Taxpayers Claiming EITC

In this post, based on Ben Harris’s research on EITC take-up by county, the top ten counties with the highest share of taxpayers claiming EITC were presented.

Brookings Scholars on the Ukraine/Crimea Crisis, 3/20/14

Over the course of a few weeks, as dangerous and uncertain events unfolded in Crimea, Brookings Now presented a daily roundup of what scholars were saying about the crisis.

What Brookings Experts Are Saying about President Obama’s Asia Trip

As President Obama embarked on a four-nation trip to Asia in the Spring, this post highlighted what experts around the Institution were saying about the president’s agenda, challenges, and opportunities.

Why Trade Matters in Four Maps

In her paper “Why Trade Matters,” Miriam Sapiro, a visiting fellow at Brookings and former deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 2009 to 2014, argued that “[w]ith 95 percent of the world’s population living outside of the United States, America cannot recover its economic footing as quickly or as effectively without the ability to deliver on an expansive trade agenda.” The post presented four maps from Sapiro’s report that demonstrate important aspects of America’s trade position in the world. 

Why You Should Go to College

Brookings is home to extensive research on the benefits of and challenges to postsecondary education in America. This post highlighted Brookings research on key areas related to the value of a college degree: the economic return to a college degree; student loan debt and paying for college; the changing model of postsecondary education; and overcoming barriers to college.

Watch: A Snapshot of Social Mobility in America

In his Brookings Essay, Richard Reeves examined an issue so threatening to the American ethos that President Obama called it “the defining issue of our time”—social mobility and the fading promise of the American Dream. This post featured Reeves using a set of LEGOs to present a snapshot of social mobility in today’s America.  

Two posts published in 2013 continued to be popular in 2014:

What Percentage of U.S. Population Is Foreign Born?

How has the size and share of the immigrant population waxed and waned over the last 150 years? This post presents a chart—adapted from data gathered by Audrey Singer for her paper on contemporary immigrant gateways—that shows immigration trends and share of total U.S. population by decade.

The Family Relationships that Couldn’t Stop World War I

In her Brookings Essay, historian Margaret MacMillan compared current global tensions to the period preceding the Great War. One aspect of the war upon which she remarked was the close connection among the three principal monarchs of the age, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. In fact, they were all cousins with each other, as shown in the family tree chart in this post.