Newsroom Stories

As Americans begin to file their last returns under a fading tax system, as President Donald Trump concludes his first State of the Union with a great emphasis on the economy, as the world watches this country undergo tectonic changes, it’s time to cut through the politicking and positioning. Washington University in St. Louis compiled researchers and experts across campus to attempt to put the new tax reform into perspective, plainly speaking.

Congressional Republicans agree on tax cuts more than they agree on nearly any other issue. Tax cuts have been central to Republican economic policy since the mid-20th century.

It’s curious that we heard very little from the C-Suite in the deliberations leading up to the Dec. 22 signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What makes this curious is that the goal of the act was to increase GDP growth above 3 percent by stimulating corporate investments to increase productivity, but no one seemed to be asking CEOs whether the tax cut would have that effect.

Much of the debate over the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act focuses on whether Congress favors rich corporations over poor people. But an expert on tax law at Washington University in St. Louis asks, what about poor corporations?

Overall, aspects of the tax-reform package will reduce the attractiveness of home ownership and mortgages, and it may even adversely affect home prices going forward.

In a research paper set for publication in the journal Behavioral Science & Policy, a team of researchers including two from Washington University in St. Louis demonstrated that — by structuring the messaging in the right way — those taxpayers can be encouraged to save their returns for long-term needs or unforeseen emergencies.

The Beyond Boundaries interdisciplinary program at Washington University in St. Louis offers first-year students a wide array of experiences: exposure to new concepts and people; opportunities to learn from some of the world’s leading scholars across a spectrum of disciplines; and something a bit less tangible.

Washington University School of Medicine researchers have found that circadian rhythm disruptions occur much earlier in people whose memories are intact but whose brain scans show early, preclinical evidence of Alzheimer’s.

For more than a century, the area between Brookings Hall and Skinker Boulevard has served as a welcoming “front door” to Washington University’s Danforth Campus. This spring, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will explore the area’s evolution, as well as the complex relationship between planning, building design and construction, with “Transformative Visions: Washington University’s East End, Then and Now.”

South African artist Diane Victor, who is known for her delicate, ephemeral-seeming portraits of missing children, AIDS clinic patients and other vulnerable populations, will launch the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art’s spring Public Lecture Series with a free talk Monday, Feb. 5.