An energy renaissance is underway in the United States. According to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), America’s decades-long dependence on foreign oil may soon be over. By the mid-2020s, the United States is set to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer. Even more …
Although Japan is now best remembered for two decades of economic stagnancy, its post-war development plan can still serve as a model for emerging countries and economies recovering from crisis. This notion was on display in October, when, for the first time since 1964, Tokyo hosted the annual meetings of …
Congress has a chance to deliver Americans a belated Christmas present shortly after Christmas if it can work to avoid running the country off the “fiscal cliff.” The term “fiscal cliff” refers to a combination of massive tax increases—including the expiration of the Bush tax cuts—and deep spending cuts that …
In a new video parodying Dr. Seuss’s whimsical style, the American Enterprise Institute puts the problem of growing entitlement program spending in a form elementary school kids can understand. It’s a good thing, too, because their generation will be burdened with paying for this skyrocketing spending if Congress and the …
The October jobs report essentially agrees with the rest of the current data on the economy—the economy is growing slowly, too slowly to bring down unemployment rapidly. In fact, the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent in October and the economy created about 171,000 jobs, roughly equal to the usual …
After three years of hyper-regulation, the Obama Administration has noticeably slowed its rulemaking in recent months. A variety of major rules have been parked in prolonged “review” by the White House, while the regulatory agenda required by statute has failed to materialize—twice. This flouting of the law is disturbing enough, …
In an unprecedented fall, the U.S. dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in the 2012 Legatum Prosperity Index that was published today. The index benchmarks countries in eight categories: economy, education, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, health, personal freedom, safety and security, and social capital. Legatum’s latest …
According to Friday’s Washington Post, the Administration is considering a new, short-term tax cut. Should conservatives cheer? As a matter of principle, there are at least two reasons to dislike taxes and to applaud tax cuts. First, taxes take money away from those who made the money in the first …
President Obama’s recycled economic plan sorely lacks the much-needed reforms to make Social Security work better for women. The program needs to do a better job dealing with the circumstances women face in retirement. More women than men rely on Social Security as their sole source of income, and yet …