Opinion

Americans look to the federal government to keep the economy strong. It is the top concern voters want the president and Congress to address. But the federal government is wholly unsuited to bring about changes that can have a positive effect on the economic fortunes of Americans. In fact, it often makes things worse when […]

The United States must race for economic growth. Both political parties are addicted to spending. We need to tax consumption, not investment. We need to do so because the federal deficit approaches 100% of gross domestic product. The outlook is bad. It shows deficits are set to rise faster than nominal GDP growth, real growth plus inflation, […]

Politicians from Franklin Roosevelt to Donald Trump have declared themselves the champions of “the forgotten man.” They claim to support the average working-class American whom Washington has purportedly overlooked and left behind.  To some modern commentators, recalling these forgotten men and women requires a robust tariff regime, designed to benefit domestic industries, especially manufacturing. To […]

Social Security, the so-called “third rail” of politics, is ever-present in federal elections. And usually, it features in presidential elections.  Democrats accuse Republicans of seeking to slash seniors’ benefits. Republicans, meanwhile, pressure Democrats regarding the tax increases necessary to keep Democrats’ promises to pay all benefits in full, despite Social Security’s $24 trillion-plus long-term funding […]

Israel has taken out a key Lebanese Hezbollah operative in Damascus, Syria. The strike is meant to send a clear signal to the Iranian-backed terrorist group: Escalate at your own risk. On July 9, 2024, Hezbollah announced that Yasser Qranbish was killed in an alleged Israeli strike on the Beirut-Damascus highway. In its announcement, the terrorist […]

A theme of President Joe Biden’s administration has been an insistence on a more equitable tax system for Americans.  According to the White House, one of their priorities has been to add “real fairness to the tax code.” The White House goes on to say that “one of the most important ways” they have done […]

At a central bankers’ conference in Portugal last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell congratulated himself on his fight against inflation, leading markets to rally back home. But it must have been impossible for him to have missed that his European hosts were able to boast of much better success. This is bad news for […]

Fourth of July kicks off the hottest two-month stretch of the year in the United States, and for much of the nation, it is hard to imagine getting through it without air conditioning. But millions of homeowners whose systems conk out will soon learn that air conditioning has joined the long list of items hit by […]

What the American economy needs is more politics in economic affairs. No, I have not lost my mind —well, perhaps not entirely and not on this particular point.  The Supreme Court is already getting us to take those first few baby steps along this desirable path. The end of the Chevron deference in Loper v. […]

When President Joe Biden’s White House released a policy statement rejecting the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, it correctly noted that “it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections.”  This is true, so far as it goes, but it does not go very far. It is illegal for noncitizens to vote, but […]