Another week, another reminder that heavy-handed government industrial policy is in fashion. Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Spence recently endorsed it as embodied in the newly passed “CHIPS ” legislation, an attempt to bolster America’s semiconductor industry. The endorsement, like so many, rests not on evidence or economics, but on blind faith in Congress and President […]
There was once a bipartisan agreement that free trade was good for both America and the world. After the financial crisis of 2008, Occupy Wall Street, the election of Donald Trump, and the resurgence of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, that consensus fractured. Free trade and globalization have given Americans more spending power, […]
For a few years, I have sounded the alarm that a growing wave of conservatives are working to make Republicans indistinguishable from Democrats on social spending. Some say that to win elections, Republicans need to pay more attention to families—by which they mean dole out ever more money to families like the Democrats do. Exhibit […]
Los Angeles hotel owners are speaking out against a ballot measure that would force them to house homeless people in vacant rooms. The Los Angeles City Council last week voted to place the measure on the March 2024 ballot. The city would pay the hotels the “fair market rate” for rooms occupied by the homeless. […]
California lawmakers are considering a bill that would require any company with at least 250 employees to make public the pay of all of its employees in the state and to break it down by age, race and gender. Advocates say this will help address inequities they believe exist in corporate pay. “It’s very simple: […]
Immigrants are 80 percent more likely than native-born Americans to found a firm, according to a study released this May by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But more than that, a report released this week by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) indicates that immigrants are disproportionately responsible for starting high-value companies. […]
Industrial policy is making a comeback. For those of you under the age of 50, this is just another term for corporate welfare—a lovely name for the unlovely practice of a government granting subsidies, protective tariffs, and other privileges to politically influential industries or companies. It’s often done in the name of some lofty goal […]