Reconciliation: How the Democrats Can Run the Table
Congressional Democrats will take office in January with the broadest mandate since the post-Watergate midterms in 1974—twice the popular-vote margin the Contract-with-America Republicans won in 1994. The work begins with dismantling most of what Donald Trump and his corrupt, incompetent administration have done over the past two years. Much of what Trump wrought came through his One Big Beautiful (sic)… Continue reading
America Is No Longer a Top Destination for Immigrants
American exceptionalism has become a theme of our immigration debate. From both sides, we hear that America is a uniquely desirable place that, for good or ill, draws an outsized share of the world's immigrants. The truth of this matter is that large-scale immigration is a worldwide phenomenon tied to contemporary globalization. Porous borders and rising education levels have allowed…Continue reading
Bringing Foreign-Based Cyberterrorists to Justice in America
By Paul Stockton As you read this, U.S. adversaries are scouring our financial system, electric power grid, and other parts of our critical infrastructure for vulnerabilities to cyber sabotage. President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco, says that prosecutions of cyberterrorists "will be critical tools for deterrence and disruption" of their attacks. Before we…Continue reading
The Meaning and Misuses of GDP
America's Gross Domestic Product -- GDP -- is a very powerful statistic. Markets and politicians zealously track the quarterly numbers looking for a bottom line on how investors and the rest of us feel about our conditions and prospects. Compiled by some 2,000 economists and statisticians at the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), GDP pulls together everything they can measure…Continue reading
The President’s Budget and the Case for Moving Beyond Austerity
The President released his FY 2014 budget today, and right off, it makes more economic sense than most of what passes for serious fiscal discussion in DC. In particular, it offers up new public investments, uses revenues and entitlement changes to restore long-term fiscal sanity, and phases in those changes down the road when the economy (hopefully) is stronger. Apart…Continue reading
Why We All Have to Worry about Cyprus
With Europe's brazen mismanagement this week of the banking collapse in Cyprus, the Euro crisis moved closer to farce and, potentially, closer to a serious problem for the rest of us. Over the past three years, as global investors have periodically fled the government bond markets of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy, Eurozone leaders have grudgingly spent $650 billion…Continue reading
How a Grand Bargain on the Deficit Could Erode Social…
Paul Ryan’s new budget blueprint released this week — details to follow, as usual — will only intensify the partisan warfare over the deficit. In truth, the deficit is just a cover story here, since the real debate is over the scope and role of government itself. Ryan at least is more upfront about it than most – he includes…Continue reading
Dark Thoughts on the Coming Sequester
This week’s bout over federal spending pits Tea Party militants, conservative pundits and most Republican office holders against the President, his congressional allies and most economists who pay attention. But behind the politics, there is simply no economic basis for the immediate spending cuts that would follow the sequester — or immediate tax increases for that matter. The economy is…Continue reading
The American Dream Is in Big Trouble
The American Dream is a precious and curious thing. According to the basic narrative, if you work hard, opportunities will present themselves – which, to be sure, usually involve working even harder. And if you do this long enough, you’ll be able to raise a family in conditions that prepare your children, like you, to work hard for the opportunities…Continue reading