Footnote Failure: Gap Between Productivity and Pay Is Overstated
Paul Krugman and many others argue that compensation has not grown as fast as productivity. However, most of the apparent gap between the growth… Read More
Internet Sales Tax: Wishful Thinking Can’t Make It Pro-Growth
A new study argues that the misnamed Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), better known as the Internet sales tax, would be good for economic growth. But… Read More
VIDEO: Three Reasons to Reform Social Security Now
In a recent video by ReasonTV, Nick Gillespie describes Social Security as a “fiscal and demographic disaster.” Heritage research provides further support that the program… Read More
China GDP Claims Don’t Matter
China’s State Statistical Bureau (SSB) announced second-quarter real gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.5 percent and first-half real GDP at 7.6 percent. High or… Read More
A Band-Aid for Derivatives Trading
American regulators yesterday agreed, both internally and with the European Union, on how to deal with the trading of financial derivatives beyond U.S. shores. The… Read More
An Investment Treaty with China: Don’t Hold Your Breath
The U.S. and China yesterday announced that they are restarting talks on a bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Given China’s track record, it’s not clear that… Read More
Trade Promotion Authority Should Mean Authority to Promote Trade—Period
There’s a good chance Congress will consider legislation this summer to extend trade promotion authority (TPA) to President Obama. If it does, lawmakers should pay… Read More
Phil Gramm’s Excellent Tax Reform Game Plan Has Just One Flaw
The momentum for tax reform continues to build. Adding to it is former Senator Phil Gramm (R–TX), who wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street… Read More
Deficient GAO Report Hurts Tax Reform Efforts
There is broad consensus that corporate tax reform is necessary to unleash business investment that the currently uncompetitive system prevents. Regrettably, some will use a… Read More
Hurrah Too Soon: White House Budget Revision Shows $759 Billion Deficit in 2013
The President’s Midsession Review, released this week, projects the 2013 deficit to be lower by $214 billion compared with the earlier Obama budget estimate released… Read More
Egypt: Egyptians Want Greater Economic Freedom Before Democracy
For many ordinary Egyptians, fixing the economy is key. They are demanding a functioning economy that works under the rule of law. In fact, protesters… Read More
Morning Bell: Decision Time on Immigration
Today is a pivotal day in the immigration debate: House Republicans are meeting to hash out their path. Pressure is coming from all sides. The… Read More
Include Taiwan in the Trans-Pacific Partnership
“We do hope to [get] into TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] as early as possible,” said Mignonne Man-Jung Chan, former senior adviser to the President on Taiwan,… Read More
Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore: Internet Sales Tax Hurts Small Businesses
The misnamed Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), commonly called the Internet sales tax, recently passed the Senate and awaits action in the House. If it becomes… Read More
$150,000 in the Bank and Drawing Income from Social Security’s SSI
An individual with $150,000 in the bank received Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program intended for blind, disabled, or elderly individuals with limited financial resources,… Read More
Young Africans Need Economic Freedom, Not Lectures About Climate Change
Speaking to students during his recent trip to Africa, President Obama said that “if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has… Read More
Good News: Reporters Link Bigger Trade Deficit to Stronger Economy
The government just announced that the trade deficit for May increased by $400 million. Usually, the media report announcements of bigger trade deficits as bad… Read More
Egypt Protests: One Reason for the Unrest
Although millions have marched again in the streets of Cairo in recent days, it is still uncertain whether the revived demonstrations will deliver much-needed economic… Read More
Trade Deficit Worry Warts Ignore $26 TRILLION in Foreign Investment
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently reported that job-creating foreign investment in the United States is approaching $26 trillion. In the first quarter… Read More
Can You Opt Out of Your Union Dues?
I joined the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1245 as a high school student in New Jersey. Having to pay union dues in… Read More
Tales of the Red Tape #40: The USDA Rabbit Police
There’s no good way to deliver this disturbing bit of news except to come right out with it: Marty the Magician and others in the… Read More
EconomyNews
Sequestration? What Sequestration?
President Obama claimed that millions of Americans would suffer if Congress failed to prevent the $85 billion in automatic budget cuts known ominously as “sequestration.”… Read More
Baucus–Hatch “Blank Slate” Tax Reform a Positive Step but Too Narrowly Focused
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus (D–MT) and Ranking Member Senator Orrin Hatch (R–UT) recently proposed a “blank-slate” approach to tax reform. This… Read More
National Employee Freedom Week: Informing Workers of Their Rights
Rob Brough and John Cress are public school teachers in Pennsylvania. When they wanted to quit their teachers union because of its increasing politicization, they… Read More
Time to Upgrade the African Growth and Opportunity Act
Africa is increasingly viewed as “a hopeful continent” whose next 10 years can be even better economically than the last 10. In this evolving economic… Read More
Too Big to Fail: Some Questions for the House Financial Services Committee
Tomorrow, the House Finance Committee, chaired by Representative Jeb Hensarling (R–TX), is holding a hearing on one of the most damaging legacies of the 2008… Read More
Greece: Austerity Doesn’t Involve Public-Sector Layoffs
Slate’s Matthew Yglesias might be attacked as an “austerity denier” now that he has joined Heritage’s Salim Furth in pointing out that there is a… Read More
Cut Government Spending to Help the Economy? Majority Say Yes
A recent Rasmussen poll (subscription required) found that 65 percent of likely voters want the government to cut spending to help alleviate the country’s economic… Read More
U.S. Mortgage Market Reform: Corker–Warner Bill Misguided
Draft legislation by Senators Bob Corker (R–TN) and Mark Warner (D–VA) would wind down federally sponsored housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but… Read More
Internet Sales Tax: Online Entrepreneur Would Downsize
For Thomas Carlson of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, the Internet was key to unleashing a long-held dream of owning a business, quitting his federal job, and… Read More
