As someone who works around a lot of economists in Washington, DC, I am privy to a lot of big talk about the problem of retirement policy. The overwhelming consensus among the learned is that Americans, as a group, aren’t saving enough money for retirement, and that if we can gather sufficiently clever people in … Continue reading Retirement Is Nobody’s Business but Your Own
Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have just introduced a bill that would implement an idea that I have long championed: making drugs, devices, and biologics that are approved in other developed countries also approved for sale in the United States. Highlights of the “Reciprocity Ensures Streamlined Use of Lifesaving Treatments Act (S. 2388), or … Continue reading One Bill Could Massively Improve Access to Lifesaving Drugs
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised to spend twice as much on infrastructure as whatever Hillary Clinton was proposing, which at the time was $275 billion. Doubling down again in a speech after winning the election, Trump now proposes to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure over the next ten years. President Obama had … Continue reading Why One-Size-Fits-All Infrastructure Spending Doesn’t Work
Angus Deaton, the Nobel-prize winning economist (who also sits on the advisory board of HumanProgress.org), recently reiterated his belief that on the whole the world is getting better–if not, as he accepted, everywhere or for everyone at once. Perhaps that comes as no surprise, but the idea that the world is getting better in regards to poverty is … Continue reading 5 Charts That Will Shift Your Perspective on Poverty
President Donald Trump has issued his preliminary federal budget proposal looking to the U.S. government’s next fiscal year. What it shows is that there will likely be no attempt to reduce the size and cost of most of the American interventionist-welfare state. On Thursday, March 16, 2017, the White House released, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to … Continue reading Trump’s Budget Paves the Road to Fiscal Failure
Videos, cable news panels, statistical models, solidarity marches, and countless social media discussions are all focusing on whether a significant gender gap exists in wages after other factors are considered. The media’s hype over the wage gap hype is a sure sign that the American people are prepping for major legislation. In fact, you may have heard that … Continue reading Why Equal Wage Policy Won’t Pay Off
Once again, the United States government is rapidly approaching a fiscal debt ceiling. After March 16, 2017, Uncle Sam will not be legally allowed to borrow any more money to cover its budget deficits, unless Congress votes to raise the debt limit, once again, like it has every time in the past. Uncle Sam’s debt … Continue reading Don’t Raise Uncle Sam’s Credit Limit
Americans who are concerned about unsustainable and reckless government spending have faced a fundamental problem: It’s hard to track what their representatives are doing to either curb, or increase, spending. But thanks to a new tracking tool, those days may be coming to a close. The Coalition to Reduce Spending has just released a tool … Continue reading A New, Easy Way to Track Your Representative on Spending
Until recently, the House was scheduled to vote on the American Health Care Act, the GOP leadership’s proposal to repeal and replace parts of Obamacare. That vote has been called off. While the American Health Care Act would have repealed some Obamacare regulations, the bill does not go far enough. Obamacare caused premiums to rise … Continue reading New Analysis: Obamacare Regulations Drove Up Premium Costs by Up to 68%
Two inmates arrive at a Wisconsin jail. One asks the other, “What are you in for?” “Possession with intent to sell heroin. You?” The first replies, “That’s it? I’m here for possession with intent to sell butter.” True enough, this conversation didn’t happen. But it might as well have. Today in Wisconsin, a crony regulatory … Continue reading Why Wisconsin’s Irrational Ban on Outside Butter Needs to Go
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