Misleading Projection on Growth — The claim that $1,000 grows to $6,000 in 18 years is presented in nominal dollars and assumes an unrealistically high 10% annual return, ignoring inflation and sky-high current stock valuations.

Inflation Adjustment Matters — In today’s dollars, $6,000 in 2044 would be worth roughly $4,000 — a point the NYT piece failed to clarify, leaving readers with an inflated sense of the accounts’ value.

Biggest Issue is the Policy Trade-off — While giving $1,000 to every child, Trump is cutting essential programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and housing aid — meaning poor families will have locked-away savings they can’t access while struggling with basic needs.

I usually find Claire Cain Miller’s pieces in the New York Times very useful, but her piece on Trump accounts badly misled readers in three ways. While the gist of the piece — that the Trump accounts will increase inequality since they are yet another way for the rich to avoid taxes — is correct, there is no excuse for misleading readers.

The key problem is the comment:

“A $1,000 investment at birth could be worth $6,000 at age 18, the Trump administration has estimated.”

“A $1,000 investment at birth........

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