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The Trump Apocalypse

In popular parlance an ā€œapocalypseā€ means an epic disaster. As a simple transliteration of Greek (apocalypsis) the literal meaning is more pedestrian: ā€œuncovering,ā€ or to use a fancier word, ā€œrevelation.ā€ But one understands the popular sense, for it is often unsettling (or worse) when the true nature of things is revealed. This is the case in last book of the New Testament, which bears the name Apocalypse.

“It’s My %$!#ing Money” and the Hollow Populism of Stimulus Checks

“Checks” risks becoming the rallying cry for a hollow form of populism, one that seeks to merely extract value for the masses rather than buildĀ something new and permanent.

Complacency and Wasteful Spending Blight US Higher Education

American Compass’s Oren Cass makes the case against forgiving billions of dollars of student debt and for rethinking our approach to higher education.

Potato Chips, Computer Chips: Yes, There Is a Difference

After a half century of neoclassical economics dominance, it has become a truism among most economists and policy makers that a nationā€™s sectoral composition doesnā€™t matter.

Media After Trump

There can be no doubt that Trump gave the press the back of his hand. His refusal to kowtow to upscale media brands offended the vanity of high-level reporters, editors, Read more…

Antitrust or Countervailing Power?

A strange development of recent years has been the revival on parts of the left and the right of the long-dormant ideology of antimonopolism, once associated with agrarian populists like William Jennings Bryan and progressives like Louis Brandeis.

Worker Power or Loose Borders: You Can Only Pick One

American Compass’s Oren Cass discusses the tension between worker power and loose immigration policy.

Is There a Case for Principled Populism From the GOP?

ā€œPopulismā€ is a term that since the modern era has been generally trotted out to mean a political attitude that reflects widespread anger and resentment against powerful elites, while among stenographers for the power class, populism has been reflexively trotted out to warn against the passions and wants of the mob.

Family Trauma and the Skills Gap

In a recent conversation hosted by American Compass, ā€œWhat Next: A Multi-Ethnic, Working-Class Conservatism,ā€ Ohio Congressman Anthony Gonzalez discussed the skills gap. ā€œ[T]he number one issue that I hear from employers is, I have jobs, I could hire 10 people tomorrow, but either the folks donā€™t want to do the work that we have, or I just canā€™t find the right people.ā€

Postliberalism’s Pornography Problem

Postliberalism and pornography are independently controversial subjectsā€”so perhaps I should have thought twice before conjoining them in a semi-snarky, slightly ambiguous tweet, which sparked a number of strong reactions:

Worker Power, Loose Borders: Pick One

A funny thing happened in the days after we published ā€œWhat Happened: The Trump Presidency in Review.ā€ The collectionā€™s emphasis on the success of economic policies that pushed the labor market toward full employment attracted substantial interest from proponents of looser fiscal and monetary policy. But that ā€œstrange new respectā€ came with the mandatory caveat that we were still wrong to suggest increased immigration enforcement and a slower inflow of new workers might be part of the same package.

Growth vs. Redistribution: The New Fault Line in U.S. Politics of Economic Policy

A few years ago, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF, the tech policy think tank I lead) surveyed several hundred DC policy folks to find out, among other things, what they thought ITIFā€™s political orientation was. About 40 percent said we were moderate, a third said we were conservative, and a quarter said we were liberal. Assuming the latter two groups werenā€™t clueless, it reinforced to me that on economic policy, the old conservative-liberal lines are anachronistic.

Salary Bands and the Truth about Wages

How are wages set in the United States?

Families Deserve Dedicated Relief. Senator Hawley to the Rescue?

The pandemic has placed an enormous burden on the lives of parents and children in particular.

How to Fix America: Stop Pushing College

In a Dealbook feature collecting ideas from a wide variety of leaders on how to improve the country, American Compass’s Oren Cass argues for shifting our focus away from college and toward providing strong, non-college career pathways.

Is There a Way of Doing Bipartisan National Industrial Policy?

The likely configuration of the new Senate represents a potential obstacle toward some of the grander Democratic Party policy visions outlined in President-elect Biden’s program.Ā 

The Pandemic’s Postliberal Pull

Within 48 hours of Thanksgiving, two documents were released that addressed this yearā€™s seasonal theme: how to balance private liberty and salus populi.Ā 

The Revolutionā„¢

On June 1, early in the BLM uproar, I went to Union Square to view a protest march. The empty concrete canyons echoed with chants as two or three thousand people walked past. Clench-jawed Deputy Commissioner Terrance Monahan brought up the rear, flanked by ranks of police officers

Paid Family Leave Can Help Combat the Coming COVID Baby Bust

International evidence shows Paid Family Leave programs can boost fertility rates.

America May Be Back, but Letā€™s Not Bring Back the Old Normal

As President-elect Joe Biden has been announcing members of his new team, he has been equally prone to pass on the message to the rest of the world that ā€œAmerica is backā€.Ā 

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