President Trump, frustrated that Congress has not approved the funding for his border wall, proposed escalating tariffs on Mexico until Mexico ends illegal immigration. According to the president, the tariffs—akin to a tax on US consumers—would start at 5 percent on all Mexican imports in June but could escalate as high as 25 percent by the fall. Foreseeable Consequences This…
Political campaigns are about more than electing someone to office in a particular year. Campaigns frame the policy debate for years to come and popularize ideas. Nowhere is this truer than in the extraordinarily public presidential campaigns played out on our national stage every four years. Unlike the gaggle of Democratic candidates vying for the 2020 nomination and introducing themselves…
Polls suggesting that millennials have a favorable view of socialism are well publicized. Less known are polls showing that 90 percent of millennials have a positive view of entrepreneurship, and 58 percent of millennial respondents believe they are more entrepreneurial than previous generations. So far, though, millennials have not been as entrepreneurial in practice as prior generations. But there is hope that this could change given their…
American college graduates are suffering financially under the weight of $1.5 trillion of student loan debt. The bulk of that debt stems from worrisome federal student loan practices and ballooning state tuition costs. Approximately 75 percent of college students attend a state university or college with tuition rates set by legislatures or state institutions. Over 85 percent of student loans…
Ray Dalio, billionaire and co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, recently penned an essay warning that America faces an existential threat if capitalism isn’t reformed. Even in the overheated rhetoric of 2019, this is a bold claim from a professional capitalist. So, what is the state of the American economy? Wage Stagnation After a decade of slow…
Whether it’s the hype about the MoMo Challenge, the Jussie Smollett hate-crime hoax, the Fyre Festival swindle, or politicians scaring us to blazes about this or that emergency, it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction and prudent ideas from rash action. We live in a time when too much of our news resembles something between the Pravda and the Onion.…
Although the United States government has run up a national debt that exceeds the Gross Domestic Product, two spendthrift United States senators have the temerity to lecture American corporations about how the latter should manage their balance sheets. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) recently proposed forthcoming legislation that aims to prevent corporations from buying back their own…
There’s a perception of millennials as quirky (and problematic) young adults who haven’t quite bought into the system that has built America into the most robust economy the world has ever seen. But millennials are now in their 20s and 30s, and they make up the largest share of laborers in the workforce. Despite millennials’ much-publicized embrace of socialism, millennials…
Nothing in 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) brief work history as a bartender qualifies her to direct a massive transformation of society. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is the co-author of a bill popularly called “The Green New Deal.” The dubious premise of the bill is that the world as we know it will end in 12 years if we don’t take immediate and…
The world is changing at dizzying speed. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet-of-things, and 3D printing are disrupting the economy and the labor market. The changes are so epic that some say we are living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It has been estimated that 73 million existing jobs will be eliminated by the year 2030 due to automation.…