Topic
21 analyses
Economics
Six European peers guarantee paid vacation and parental leave by law and cover nearly everyone for health care, funded by higher taxes. The U.S. routes more through employers and the tax code; counted that way, its 2021 net social spending led the seven, driven by health care.
AI
AI is becoming infrastructure. Here’s what it can actually do today, the benefits worth pursuing, the risks we can’t ignore, and the rules that keep progress from turning into damage.
Business
UBI is moving from theory to live policy debate. Here is what drives the interest, what pilot evidence suggests, and why cost and design choices determine feasibility.
AI
AI is making phishing, voice scams, and recon cheaper and more convincing. The first wave is already here, and it favors attackers.
Economics
Consolidation can look like efficiency, but it can create single points of failure. Here is how conglomerates become de facto infrastructure, why resilience matters, and what policy can do.
Governance
As local newsrooms collapse, corruption rises, disaster response weakens, disinformation spreads, and local elections lose scrutiny. Local journalism is democratic infrastructure.
Economics
GDP and unemployment can look fine while affordability collapses. Here is what is driving the squeeze, what tariffs change, and who is actually doing well.
AI
“Algorithmic transparency” is not one demand. It can mean documentation, explanations for individual decisions, or independent audits. Publishing source code is rarely the point. Better standards make automated power legible, contestable, and accountable.
Economics
Churches provide public value, but $100B in tax advantages should come with auditable benefit, tiered reporting, and clear rules on politics and commerce.
Governance Opinion
When Congress blocks presidential initiatives, investigates administration actions, or refuses to confirm nominees, it gets framed as “necessary oversight” or “destructive gridlock” depending on partisan preference. But the distinction is real: oversight holds power accountable.
Business
Capitalism is a tool, not a religion. Here’s a grounded definition, how the U.S. variant drifted toward corporatism, and what reforms restore competition and broad prosperity.
Federal Budget
The U.S. runs one of the world’s most expensive incarceration systems with weak outcomes. The evidence points to reforms that reduce recidivism and improve public safety.
Social Issues
Ranked-choice voting changes incentives. Candidates need second-choice support, so scorched-earth tactics and fringe-only strategies become less effective.
Social Issues
Independent commissions can reduce partisan gerrymandering, increase competition, and keep communities intact. They do not erase geography or polarization.
Economics
Childcare is a classic market failure: families can’t afford it, providers can’t sustainably supply it, and workers are underpaid. Evidence, tradeoffs, and reforms.
Economics
Student debt became a national balance-sheet problem. Here’s how we got here, who is hurting most, and what reforms actually fix the system.
Business
Americans spend more per person on prescription drugs than other developed nations and consume most of the world's opioids. Over-prescription of opioid pain relievers drives addiction, the author argues, and more of the money spent on the war on drugs should go to treatment.
Alternative Energy
A boon to industry is a potential burden to society. Here the gains in output, cost and safety that automation brings are weighed against job losses and wider income inequality for workers.
Business
Immigration and the U.S. economy are delicately intertwined. After looking at unauthorized workers in the labor force, the taxes they pay and the benefits they use, the author concludes that immigration appears to be good for the economy.
Social Issues
Voting is a fundamental right of citizens of the United States and required to maintain a working democracy.
Business
Argues that religious institutions should pay taxes, describing religion as a multi-billion dollar industry subsidized by American taxpayers and pointing to the wealth of some church leaders.