by jpitney | Aug 18, 2025 | Trade
Steven Greenhouse at The Guardian: The president and his aides insist that higher tariffs on more than 100 countries – making goods imported from overseas more expensive – will spur domestic manufacturing. “The ‘Made in USA’ label is set to resume its global dominance...
by jpitney | Aug 17, 2025 | Canada, Foreign Policy, Mexico, Reagan, Russia, Trade
Ronald Reagan’s Announcement of Candidacy, November 13, 1979: On the foreign front, the decade of the 1980s will place severe pressures upon the United States and its allies. We can expect to be tested in ways calculated to try our patience, to confound...
by jpitney | Aug 16, 2025 | Judiciary
Federalist 78: This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among...
by jpitney | Aug 15, 2025 | Uncategorized
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: The Supreme Court’s decision in McGrain v. Daugherty in 1927 held that Congress has an inherent right to compel testimony and conduct oversight as part of its constitutional lawmaking functions. The case was an offshoot of the Teapot...
by jpitney | Aug 14, 2025 | California Politics, Energy
Dan Walters at CalMatters: If and when Gavin Newsom launches a campaign for president, economic and social conditions in the California he’s governed for two terms will be in the spotlight. While Newsom brags incessantly about the state and its achievements, its...
by jpitney | Aug 13, 2025 | Budget
Like previous efforts to reduce the deficit by cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” DOGE was a failure. Jessie Blaeser at Politico: The Trump administration’s claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is...
by jpitney | Aug 12, 2025 | Budget
Elizabeth Elkind at Fox: House GOP fiscal hawks have requested tens of millions of federal dollars for projects in their home districts for fiscal year 2026, an analysis by Fox News Digital has found. It’s common practice for congressional lawmakers to request...
by jpitney | Aug 11, 2025 | Business, Economic Policy, Trade
Patricia Cohen at NYT: Smaller firms, for instance, not only have fewer resources to weather unexpected costs, they also lack the bargaining power of megastores like Walmart to pressure suppliers to lower prices. They may also lack access to lines of credit available...
by jpitney | Aug 10, 2025 | Economic Policy, Statistics
At WP, Former CEA chairs N. Gregory Mankiw and Cecilia Rouse explain the need for nonpartisan, trustworthy economic data: The collection and analysis of federal statistics is complex. Often, the first numbers produced are revised as more information is gathered. And...
by jpitney | Aug 9, 2025 | Congress, House of Representatives, Senate
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: For nearly three decades I labored in the congressional vineyards of rules, procedures, norms and reforms. And, in all that time, until last week, I had never heard of a law creating the Senate rule of five or the House rule of seven....
