Tricked by Measurement: The Story of the EITC and Baby Bonds

Matt is here with a solo ep (dual ep releasing soon) about one of his great wonk irritations: policies that seem to have a big impact only because they take advantage of quirks in the way we measure certain things like poverty and wealth inequality. These policies achieve great "success" defined as getting a certain statistic to move a lot but actually do not meaningfully address the bigger evil -- the reduction of material deprivation in the case of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the wealth difference between the black and white community in the case of baby bonds.