A simple SIB message – government is bust. Anybody who thinks it can really pay for social programmes in future is in economic denial…that’s todays SIB News in a nutshell, enjoy the read:
Impact Investing: Free Lunch For Revenue-Starved Government?
Paula Goldman & John Goldstein – The Hill
President Obama recently put in a request for $5 billion to fight a terrorist threat most people had never heard of a few months ago. Before that, he pushed for $1.2 billion to deal with a border crisis that few people knew was coming. And before that, he signed a $16 billion bill to fix scandals at the VA that few people knew existed.
Day after day, new issues, crises and scandals emerge that strain federal, state and local budgets. And on top of those are the ever-growing costs of entitlement programs like Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid alone now accounts for 24 percent of state spending,which is double its share in 1990.
Meanwhile, chronic social problems like homelessness, crime, unemployment, lack of opportunity continue unabated, and government at all levels can’t seem to find the resources to address them, much less solve them.
What’s especially troubling about this picture is the fact that there are literally trillions of dollars left sitting on the table — along with an untold amount of creativity, energy, results-oriented approaches and financial discipline necessary to tackle these problems.
This capital and talent is being mobilized by a growing movement called impact investing, which seeks to marshal private capital to support the public good. Impact investments, simply put, offer a return on investments that target specific social needs.