Economic Policy News

Could the U.S. economy be growing more than the official growth figures let on? In a recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, “Why is Growth Better in the United States Than in Other Industrial Countries,” Martin S. Feldstein, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, suggests that government statisticians have been underestimating…

Today, many people argue that trade disproportionately hurts poor Americans. They say free trade creates a wage gap between low- and high-income earners, and constructs barriers that make it increasingly difficult for the less fortunate to climb the economic ladder. But recent data from The Heritage Foundation shows that this simply is not true. The…

Last Sunday, economic freedom and sound governance took a hit in Ecuador. Lenín Moreno, the nation’s former vice president and socialist candidate, won by a narrow margin amid widespread charges of electoral fraud. The outcome all but secures a fourth consecutive term for outgoing President Rafael Correa’s socialist Alianza Pais party. Ecuadorian law prevented Correa…

America must kick its addiction to spending before it becomes an insurmountable crisis. On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released its “2017 Long-Term Budget Outlook,” which lays out budget and economic projections for the next 30 years. The report shows that time to fix the nation’s skyrocketing debt levels is running out and Congress must…

When then-North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed H.B. 2, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (commonly known as the “bathroom bill”), into law on March 23, 2016, critics argued that corporate backlash against the measure would cost North Carolina dearly. Now, more than a year later, the Associated Press has provided an updated estimate…

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…

President Donald Trump’s long-awaited skinny budget is finally here. This slim budget reprioritizes defense spending and reverses eight years of Obama-era shifts in spending from a core constitutional priority toward the president’s domestic pet projects. Federal agencies, beware: The era of fiscal profligacy may be coming to an end, and quickly. Trump’s first budget plays…

In 1990, with the fall of the Soviet Union and following eight years of military buildup under President Ronald Reagan, the American people seemed to agree: The United States was spending enough on the military. Fast forward to 2017, and it’s obvious that sentiment has gone the way of the dinosaurs. A Gallup poll released…

A new report from the United States trade representative links America’s trade deficit with other countries to trade deals entered into going back to the Reagan administration. Those deal include the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Uruguay Round Agreements that created the World Trade Organization, China’s 2001 Protocol of  Accession  to  the  World Trade…

Last weekend, Ecuadoreans did something they haven’t done since 2006: They voted in significant numbers against the socialist Alianza Pais party of three-term leftist President Rafael Correa. After a suspiciously delayed ballot count, electoral authorities finally certified on Feb. 23 that more than 60 percent of Ecuadoreans voted for a candidate other than Correa’s hand-picked…

The news of Michael Novak’s death Feb. 17 saddened close friends and colleagues in the community of think tank scholars who drew so much from his writings and lectures. Novak’s perspectives expanded our conceptual grasp of economic liberty beyond dry formulas to include a more complete picture of the creative, human, and virtuous nature of…

It’s already been eight years since the Great Recession, yet the U.S. economy has been just inching along, with its productivity flagging and millions being locked out of the labor market. One critical underlying factor for this lack of economic dynamism has been the startling decline of America’s economic freedom, an unfortunate legacy of Barack…

When members of Congress defend earmarks with “power of the purse” rhetoric, don’t fall for it. Congressional earmarks threaten the integrity of government spending. This January, Senate Republicans led by Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake voted to continue the moratorium on earmarks for the 115th Congress. Flake backed his sentiment with a witty comment that “you…

Late last week, we were reminded of how much work needs to be done to clean up the mess President Barack Obama left when the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced the economy grew at a dismal 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter—wrapping up 2016 with a growth rate of just 1.6 percent. This growth is…

The Congressional Budget Office’s budget and economic outlook for the next decade paints a grim picture of the nation’s fiscal situation and shows we continue to be on an unsustainable budget path. Despite years of warnings by CBO and others that this path will lead to fiscal disaster, Congress continually has failed to make substantive reforms….

In a win for the economy and the environment, President Donald Trump signed executive orders backing the construction of two unnecessarily controversial energy infrastructure projects: the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. Getting the green light for the completion of the pipelines is kind of like receiving your appetizer halfway through your meal….