Popular opinion demonizes the U.S. for importing more goods than it exports, or running a “trade deficit.” This view maintains that the trade deficit is costing jobs and slowing economic growth. “The $600 billion annual deficit is the most significant barrier to achieving a robust economic recovery and creating jobs,” …
Since the beginning of the recession, academics, authoritative international institutions, and most government officials pushed for massive stimulus spending. Sweden bucked the trend, focusing instead on slashing marginal tax rates and peeling government back. How did it fare? The Spectator reports: While most countries in Europeborrowed massively, Borg did not. …
In a special Heritage podcast, Peter Vessenes, president of American Citizens for Economic Freedom, discusses how we can put the country on a better path toward economic freedom. Click here to listen. What is capitalism? What’s the most important thing our elected leaders can do to fix our economic mess? …
Noted essayist and scholar Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson, a prominent advocate for religious freedom, today was awarded The Heritage Foundation’s 2012 Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship. In 1994, Hasson established the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute that protects the free expression of all …
Is it slavery for union workers to work alongside nonunion workers? The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) filed a lawsuit claiming that Indiana’s right-to-work law violates the 13th Amendment, which states that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States.” The union claims that: The Defendants have …
Should we raise the minimum wage? The editors at Bloomberg think so. They maintain that low-wage jobs are expanding and that a minimum wage hike would boost the economy. Despite these notions, hiking the minimum wage remains a bad idea. Bloomberg first laments that low-wage jobs are becoming the norm: …
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently steamed about the lack of equal opportunity in America. In his view, “government falls down on the job of creating equal opportunity.” He’s also huffed that: When you hear conservatives talk about how our goal should be equality of opportunity, not equality of …
New research suggests that legislators should cut spending and enact growth-inducing policies. The reasoning? According to the study, spending cuts can positively affect economic growth and are the only historically reliable way to lower deficits and debt. The authors of the study, Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, write that “spending-based …
