October 15, 2024
Why Should the US Wish to Be More Like China?
In my new paper for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, I argue: The protectionism, trade wars, and industrial policies of the Trump and Biden administrations have not succeeded at meeting their goals and likely will not succeed at meeting their goals. They have caused manufacturing employment to decline, not to increase. They have not reduced the…
October 14, 2024
Another Terrible Idea: Abolishing Child Welfare
The only thing surprising about Dorothy Roberts winning a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” earlier this month is that it took the organization so long to do it. Roberts, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has long been a darling of the critical-theory Left for her writings advocating the abolition of the child welfare…
October 11, 2024
Let’s Open the Black Box of Selective College Admissions
The aftermath of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) has put a spotlight on the capriciousness of admissions practices at selective colleges. In SFFA, the Supreme Court ruled that race-based admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After immense consternation about the impact of the ruling, dire warnings, and earnest discussion about…
October 11, 2024
HUD’s Housing Misfire: When Bureaucrats Know Better than Markets
Kamala Harris’s proposal for a $40 billion fund for local governments to explore “innovative” housing solutions will likely funnel money into projects burdened by self-defeating government-mandated affordability requirements, which HUD loves but markets abhor. By further empowering federal bureaucrats, it will do more harm than good. The case in point is the Department of Housing…
October 11, 2024
It’s time to face up to our social poverty problem
Over the past half-century, virtually all aspects of social life have deteriorated in America. We spend less time with fewer friends, form fewer families and have turned away from organized civic life and religious institutions. We trust less than we used to, and we provide each other less social support. Rather than owning up to our glaring social poverty problem, policymakers have…
October 10, 2024
Harris’s Housing Plan and the Five C’s That Will Derail It
Kamala Harris’s latest campaign ad pledges to “end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals.” However, her plan is unlikely to significantly increase the overall housing supply. The cornerstone of her proposal is an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)—a program plagued by the Five Cs: Rather than expanding the LIHTC…
October 9, 2024
How to Make Millionaire Teachers
The very best teacher in America makes about the same salary and teaches about the same number of students as the very worst teacher. This is because we treat educators like interchangeable widgets rather than uniquely talented professionals. While a doctor might choose to work within a large hospital or start an independent practice, teachers…
October 9, 2024
Learning the Right Lessons from the “China Shock”
An influential 2013 paper by economists David Autor, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson finds an average reduction in manufacturing employment of 90,000 jobs per year from 1990 to 2007 because of U.S. competition with imports from China. Those economists published another important paper, along with economists Daron Acemoglu and Brendan Price, that found import growth from China led to…
October 9, 2024
Two Cheers for California’s Ban on Legacy Admissions
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a new statewide ban on legacy admissions. It bars all colleges and universities, public or private, from taking into consideration an applicant’s relationship to alumni or donors after the ban takes effect in September 2025. In a signing statement, Newsom said, “In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through…
October 9, 2024
Kamala Harris’s Main Priority Is Expanding Welfare, Not Strengthening the Middle Class
Last week’s vice-presidential debate was chock-full of references to the middle class and plans to improve conditions for the middle class. That’s also a common refrain to the stump speech of presidential candidate Kamala Harris: She touts that she comes from the middle class, supports the middle class, and values the work ethic that defines the…