In the latest issue of the journal Democracy, Michael Wahid Hanna identifies Seven Pillars of the Arab Future. First on his list: economic growth and equality. Among the troubling Middle East economic indicators highlighted by Hanna are low economic growth, inequality, and high unemployment, especially for youth. He identifies five …
A new report published in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review provides strong evidence that the Administration’s obsessive focus on boosting exports as a way to help U.S. manufacturers is just plain wrong. The study debunks the idea that changes in either imports or exports affect growth in …
A new study by the international watchdog group Publish What You Fund finds U.S. foreign aid programs lagging seriously in transparency. According to the organization, transparency is critical for ensuring genuine accountability for results. Of the various U.S. aid organizations, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is the most transparent, with a …
In his October 1 speech to the 45th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim made his pitch to (re)assure private business leaders that he is serious about private-sector-driven economic growth and development. In a rather confessional tone, …
Former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D–MI) confessed Wednesday to an “obsession” with creating manufacturing jobs in the United States. That is a brave admission, given that the dictionary defines obsession as “a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea.” Following up on President Obama’s call in Charlotte for creation of …
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde has been talking up the need for greatly expanded resources to bail out ailing European economies. European nations have offered to channel about $200 billion of their own funds to themselves through the IMF (a kind of gentleman’s money-laundering to avoid restrictions in their own …
The Obama Administration’s decision to waive provisions of the Jones Act last month when releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is typical of this Administration’s disregard for the principle of equal protection under the law when it becomes too inconvenient. For example, we’ve seen well over 1,000 waivers of …
