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October 3, 2024

Protectionism is Failing and Wrongheaded: An Evaluation of the Post-2017 Shift toward Trade Wars and Industrial Policy

Abstract The Trump–Pence and Biden–Harris administrations enthusiastically embraced protectionism. Each administration explicitly argued for a break from the bipartisan consensus of recent decades that has been generally supportive of free trade and of allowing markets to shape US industrial and employment composition. But the protectionism of the Trump and Biden administrations has not succeeded and…

October 3, 2024

Stop the insanity. Our national debt now tops $35 trillion…

America’s political leaders have a spending problem.  They know entitlement programs feature benefit promises far exceeding their tax base, but have done nothing to make them sound. Meanwhile, both parties demand more spending increases — despite the national debt soaring to $35 trillion, or more than $100,000 for each American, rich and poor alike. Under rosy assumptions, over $20 trillion in…

October 2, 2024

The effect of taxes and transfers on low-earning workers’ income.

Despite misperceptions that the United States is limping through late-stage capitalism, American workers are more highly compensated than ever before—even the lowest earners. The 20th percentile earner—worse-off than 80 percent of workers—had annual earnings 19 percent higher in 2022 than in 1979, after accounting for inflation and a decline in women choosing to work only…

October 2, 2024

AOC’s “Social Housing” Dead End

New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an avatar of the progressive Left, recently shared her vision of how America’s housing shortage should be addressed in a New York Times op-ed cowritten with Senator Tina Smith of New Jersey. Ocasio-Cortez’s vision resurrects the debunked Great Depression-era argument that the private housing market is fundamentally flawed and must be replaced by…

October 2, 2024

Higher Education: Making Education Beyond High School Work for All

Executive Summary and Introduction: For generations, society has told high school students that college is a great investment. The case is familiar: college graduates typically earn more money than their peers without degrees, and a college education is necessary for the 21st century labor market. For low-income students especially, college has been sold as a…

October 1, 2024

For the Sake of the Kids: Strengthening Families in the Lone Star State

The family is the fundamental unit of society. As Pope Saint John Paul II so eloquently stated, “as the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.” Unfortunately, rates of marriage and family formation have hit record lows across the nation in recent years. This report focuses…

September 30, 2024

Our Academic Productivity After the Council of Economic Advisers

Abstract Gordon Tullock wrote that government economists found capable of “firefighting” are assigned to do more of it, “with the result that the higher ranks of government economists aren’t able to read.” We here offer ourselves as confounding data points, for our experiences have been otherwise. We read a lot. This article reports how doing…

September 27, 2024

Justice at Any Cost?

“Almost 9,000 children in California foster care could soon be taken from homes over insurance crisis,” reads one among a dozen similar headlines that have appeared in West Coast media over recent weeks. The stories all suggest a situation that snuck up on the child-welfare establishment and political leaders. Yet this problem has simmered for…

September 27, 2024

Food Insecurity Increases Driven by Middle- and High-Income Households

Last month, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released their annual report detailing the prevalence of food insecurity in the United States. The report found that 13.5 percent of all US households are food insecure, or, in plain language, have “limited or uncertain access to adequate food”—a significant increase from the year prior. Just a…

September 25, 2024

Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life

Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary At one time, American social and civic life was characterized by robust networks of social connections and activities. But in the years following the pandemic, which curtailed social opportunities and community activities, there are few signs of recovery. The American Social Capital Survey reveals that American civic life…