Robert Litan

Dec 14, 2023 | brookings.edu | Robert Litan |Beth Schueler |Kimberly Willingham

Civil, informed debate is essential for any healthy democracy. This is truer than ever judging from the often uncivil, fact-free public discourse one sees too often on television and social media. Knowing how to debate this way is a learned activity, yet only a small fraction of students in our secondary schools acquire such skills. But does participation in formal debate training improve educational outcomes?

May 11, 2023 | brookings.edu | Sanjay Patnaik |Robert Litan

Executive SummaryThere has been increasing political awareness regarding the national security issues posed by TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Lawmakers and the public are right to be concerned—numerous data points are now available, from ByteDance’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party to its potential for social manipulation to its gathering of American personal data.

Apr 21, 2023 | brookings.edu | Alice Cho |Robert Litan

The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Treasury Department recently took extraordinary actions to help prevent the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank from spilling over and igniting a potential financial contagion. The Fed created a new lending program and took other steps to infuse liquidity into banking institutions in distress.

Apr 21, 2023 | brookings.edu | Alice Cho |Robert Litan

Alice Cho, Alice Cho Board Member - First Interstate BancSystem and Globe Life Robert E. Litan Robert E.

Apr 14, 2023 | fortune.com | Robert Litan |Martin Lowy |Lawrence White

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed because it invested too much in long-term bonds that lost value when interest rates went up. That’s what our accounting rules encourage banks to do. As a consequence, U.S. banks, including some of America’s leading banks, are estimated to have over $600 billion of unrecognized losses on the “underwater” securities on their books.