Trump Accounts have a bigger problem than billionaire stock donations

Jin Huang is the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy and co-director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.

Stephen Roll is an assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University and research director of the Center for Social Development.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that White House and Treasury officials have discussed allowing billionaires to donate shares of stock directly into Trump Accounts, the new $1,000 investment accounts created for (most) American children.

The idea alarmed many readers. One child’s account might receive stock in the next Nvidia while another receives stock in a future Enron.

Within hours, the proposal’s lead advocate, Brad Gerstner, called the report “misleading,” clarifying that all funds would remain in a diversified index fund — the only option the law currently allows to protect children from the volatility of individual stock picking. If that is correct, the immediate investment risk to children is smaller than it first appeared.

The program also lacks........

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