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September 18, 2023

Biden’s Latest Student-Loan Plan Is Another Disaster

Late last month, President Biden and his Department of Education announced the launch of the “SAVE” Plan, a reform that expands existing income-driven repayment (IDR) programs to the tune of up to $550 billion. Now, it’s been reported that as many as 4 million borrowers have signed up for the plan, many of them enrolled automatically. Last week, Senator Bill…

September 17, 2023

Tracking ‘two-parent privilege’ in Utah

Utah was just acknowledged by WalletHub as the happiest state in the nation, and it’s no secret that Utah leads many state performance rankings in America. From the economy — including growth, a favorable business climate, work environment and economic mobility — to life satisfaction, Beehive State residents enjoy enviable levels of success. What’s the key to…

September 15, 2023

Why Industrial Policy Fails

With Democrats and Republicans alike supporting a shift from free markets toward government planning, the United States has clearly entered a new era of economic policymaking. Yet all the reasons why such strategies generally fail to make good on politicians’ promises are as valid as ever. WASHINGTON, DC – Industrial policy is all the rage…

September 15, 2023

What Does a Good Economy Look Like?

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve written one column arguing that the economic situation for working class America is now better, relative to a decade ago, than some pessimistic populists make it sound, and another arguing that the eating-away at American wages because of inflation explains some important measure of President Biden’s political difficulties. I think both of…

September 14, 2023

The Privilege Hiding in Plain Sight

The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind, by Melissa S. Kearney (University of Chicago Press, 240 pp., $25) Imagine you are twelve years old and your public-school teacher asks you and your seventh-grade classmates to stand side by side in a line. The instructor lists a series of personal attributes and…

September 12, 2023

Who Is Happiest? Married Mothers and Fathers, Per the Latest General Social Survey

Social media and mainstream media are replete with stories suggesting marriage and parenthood are not fulfilling, especially for women. Not surprisingly, many Americans now believe the key to being happy is a good education, work, and freedom from the encumbrances of family life—not getting married and having a family. These cultural developments raise an important question answered by this Institute for Family…

September 12, 2023

Time Is a School’s Most Precious Resource. Where Does It Go?

In schools, it can feel like there’s never enough time. Even though American students spend as much or more time in school as their peers around the globe (a fact that’s not widely known), valuable units, lessons, conversations, and projects are always running into time constraints. Teachers, for instance, articulate a clear set of priorities for which…

September 6, 2023

Why Staten Island seceding from NYC makes sense — for multiple reasons

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is right that Staten Island is not likely to succeed in seceding from the city of New York. The borough needs the approval of both the City Council and the state Legislature — neither of which agreed to the idea even after Staten Islanders voted to split off from Gotham in a 1993 referendum,…

September 1, 2023

Paying People to Have Kids Can Only Do So Much When You’re in a Spiraling Baby Bust

“Frankly, whenever elections come up politicians tend to unveil grand measures aimed at resolving the birthrate issue,” Choi Seul-ki, a demographer in South Korea, told the Wall Street Journal. “But cash is a limited incentive in changing people’s outlook on life.” Indeed, South Korea has spent more than $210 billion in the past decade in an effort to…

August 31, 2023

Where Are The Energy Stamps, Joe?

As summer temperatures rise , the Biden administration has pushed its green energy agenda hard — all the while ignoring the financial pain those policies disproportionately cause lower-income Americans. Last month, the Department of Transportation released fuel economy standards constituting a de facto mandate to purchase new electric vehicles. With the average EV price exceeding $60,000 , government subsidies may help the well-off…