Kathryn Anne Edwards writes: “In his State of the Union address, the president announced a new type of government retirement account designed for Americans who don’t have access to one. Whether he can make good on this promise remains to be seen, given the likely need for legislative approval from a deeply divided Congress in an election year.”

“It’s not something to be proud of,” said Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist and policy consultant. “If anything, it just reflects that they might be more desperate for money.” For families across the country, the cost of living has become an escalating challenge. Grocery prices have increased more than 25 percent over the past five years. Many Americans are straining to pay for health care, education and housing. Child care prices in most states have increased more than twice as fast as prices overall, according to the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank.

Kathryn Anne Edwards writes: Mehmet Oz is not an economist, but he occasionally plays one on TV. Speaking last week at a televised forum on mental health, the medical doctor and administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed an idea for how to boost the US economy: Americans should just work longer. Adding a year of work would generate $3 trillion, he said, enough to “remove the [national] debt.

Kathryn Anne Edwards writes: When it comes to housing affordability, the logic of “build build build” is straightforward enough: Housing is too expensive. If there were more of it, prices would fall. Ergo, build more housing. Homebuilders are even pushing a plan for a million new affordable houses, which they are calling “Trump Homes” to appeal to the president.