August 3, 2023
Does Money (and Economic Growth) Buy Happiness?
Sure, economic growth may allow us to buy more stuff, buy cooler stuff, help us to live longer, and give us the resources to solve big problems such as global poverty and climate change. That’s fine, I guess. But do the higher incomes that come from economic growth make us, you know, happier? Do they,…
August 1, 2023
How the Middle Class Is Faring: My Long-Read Q&A with Jeremy Horpedahl
Does the typical American family today enjoy better living standards compared to 1985? We may have bigger TVs in our living rooms and smartphones in our pockets, but a recent report from Washington, DC, think tank the American Compass suggests the cost of a thriving, middle-class lifestyle has risen over the past generation. To discuss what that…
July 31, 2023
Biden’s Under-the-Radar Budget Bomb: A New Student Loan Repayment Plan
The Biden administration hasn’t been shy about spending money, and spending on higher education policy has been no exception. The most obvious channel for (attempted) spending was the illegal plan to cancel $10,000 to $20,000 in student debt for most borrowers that was halted by the Supreme Court. But there’s another plan in the works…
July 28, 2023
It Really Is More Expensive to Give Everyone $1 Than to Give Some People $1
In a piece from last year, Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project argues (in the title of the piece) “Universal Benefits Cost Less Than Means-Tested Benefits.” He lays out his central claim in the following passage: Korpi and Palme accept the idea that, for a given welfare budget, targeted programs reduce inequality and poverty more than…
July 28, 2023
The Time Is Now for Workforce Innovation
Over the past two years, I have had the honor and privilege of steering AEI’s Workforce Future’s Initiative in collaboration with colleagues at The Brookings Institution and The Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Workforce. Together, we’ve convened experts to evaluate evidence of workforce program success, discuss workforce policy, and identify priorities for new research on the future…
July 25, 2023
Why Is Economic Growth Good?
As the saying goes, there are no stupid questions. In that generous spirit, it’s certainly legitimate to ask why a continually growing economy is a good thing. Why does GDP have to keep going up? Isn’t life good enough? Economic growth isn’t an economic statistic. That’s just what measures economic growth. A good definition from Our…
July 24, 2023
The Power of the Humble Pub
My AEI colleague, Charles Murray, recently shared a figure showing that beer drinking in the United Kingdom shifted from the pub to the home, noting that the graph was a “Great brilliant indirect indicator. Of what, precisely, has yet to be determined.” The data from the British Beer and Pub Association revealed that 2014 beer sales in UK shops…
July 18, 2023
Yet More Absurdities in Biden’s Housing Policy
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, my colleague Ed Pinto and I recently raised alarms about how the Biden administration is doubling down on the same failed policies that preceded the housing crash of 2008. Unfortunately, policymakers keep dreaming up new and equally absurd housing policies. The latest move comes from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the…
July 17, 2023
The Latest Extraordinary Findings on Pandemic Improper Payments
A recently released US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report benignly titled “A Framework for Managing Improper Payments in Emergency Assistance Programs” serves as a forward-looking guide for policymakers responding to future emergencies. It also includes a number of extraordinary facts about how badly government programs were abused during the pandemic. The following highlights what GAO found: 1….
July 17, 2023
What the Rise in Dog Attacks Signals About the State of America’s Social Capital
If you have ever had the unfortunate experience of being attacked or bitten by a dog, you’re not alone. The one time it happened to me was while walking at night in a park near my apartment. It was dark and difficult to see; I was not paying much attention and was probably staring at…