Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: report 28 behavioral science & policy | volume 3 issue 1 2017A t the end of the first quarter of 2016, U.S. households held $102.6 trillion in assets: $71.1 trillion in financial assets and $31.5 trillion in tangible assets, mostly real estate.Offsetting these were $14.5 trillion in household liabilities, mostly home mortgages ($9.5 trillion) and credit card debt and other loans ($3.5 trillion).1 These statistics are the aggregations of the myriad decisions that individuals and households make almost every day: how much to spend versus save, whether to pay with cash or credit, how to invest, whether to rent or own a home, what type of mortgage to choose, how much and what types of insurance to get, whether to attend college and how to finance it, whether to pay bills in full and on time, whether to claim social welfare benefits, how much to work and earn, and so on.These decisions are made amid an array of regulations meant to shepherd the U.S. economy fairly and efficiently.The alphabet soup of federal organizations that oversee these economic activities includes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Reserve Board (FRB), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Department of Education (DOE), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).With a workforce of over 4 million people, 2 the federal government also plays an important role as an employer.
Source: Behavioral Science & Policy
Language: English
Subfield: Accounting
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2762034435