Frank Micciche

Malaise has made a comeback.

How else to describe the results of a recent Rockefeller Foundation/Time magazine poll in which 49 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds surveyed said that America was a better place to live in the 1990s and will continue to decline. Nine in 10 of all respondents agreed that just getting by is as hard as or harder than ever before.

At the root of such pessimism is the failure of the nation's social contract – the policies and institutions that support… more

On Thursday, July 17, the New America Foundation’s Next Social Contract Initiative hosted a panel discussion for Grand New Party: How Republican’s Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream by Ross Douthat, Senior Editor of The Atlantic and Reihan Salam, a Fellow at New America and Associate Editor of The Atlantic. On the panel, along with the authors, were Frank Micciche from New America; Ramesh Ponnuru, Senior Editor of the National Review; and Noam Scheiber,… more

On June 18th the New America Foundation’s Next Social Contract Initiative held a book launch for Professor Gil Troy’s latest book, Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents. Professor Troy is a history professor at McGill University and a Visiting Scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. Frank Micciche, Deputy Director of the Next Social Contract, moderated the event. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Professor Troy… more

Most discussion of the impending wave of Baby Boomers entering retirement age focuses on the capacity of entitlement programs to support them. Under-examined is the question of Boomers’ abilities to support themselves and what policy changes might be necessary to help them do so. The ongoing instability in financial markets and its effect on the assets that many Boomers have planned to tap for retirement add to the uncertainty. Macroeconomic developments, workplace norms and existing policy barriers all make the… more

**This event has been postponed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience.**

The yeoman tradition—in which the small property owner and the entrepreneur represent an American ideal—inspired many of the nation’s founders, Thomas Jefferson most notably. Yet today, deregulation and a lax interpretation of anti-trust law make it increasingly difficult for small businesses to even access local markets. Mega chains may be ruthlessly efficient in driving down prices, but their near-monopoly positions create tremendous barriers to entry and… more

Frank Micciche is Deputy Director of the Next Social Contract Initiative at the New America Foundation. The initiative seeks to bring together the various domestic policy programs at New America, along with outside experts, to discuss the challenges that have badly strained the current social contract and to develop public… more