by jpitney | Mar 2, 2025 | Debt, Economic Policy
Bruce Mehlman: The U.S. government spent more paying interest on our national debt than on defense spending for the first time ever in 2024, and will again every year for the foreseeable future. Surely no big deal, right? In fact America’s net interest payments on our...
by jpitney | Feb 12, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Jeff Luse at Reason: The U.S. is the second-largest steel importer in the world, according to the International Trade Administration. In 2023, the U.S. imported 25.6 million metric tons of steel and exported a little more than 8.2 million metric tons. About half of...
by jpitney | Feb 3, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Lindsay Wise at WSJ: The precise impact will depend on how long the tariffs stay in place and if other countries retaliate. The Tax Policy Center, a think tank, estimates the average household’s after-tax income will fall 1%, or $930, in 2026 because of the...
by jpitney | Feb 2, 2025 | Economic Policy, Trade
Wall Street Journal: The U.S. doesn’t produce enough lumber to meet domestic demand and thus imports about a third of the softwood used in home construction, mostly from Canada. Environmental policies restrict logging on public land in the American Northwest. Timber...
by jpitney | Feb 1, 2025 | Bipartisanship, Economic Policy, Photojournalism, Trade, Uncategorized
Phil Gramm and Larry Summers: In an extraordinary act of unity, 1,028 American professional economists in the spring of 1930 signed a letter urging Congress to reject and President Herbert Hoover to veto the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Yet that June, Congress passed it...
by jpitney | Dec 20, 2024 | Budget, Congress, Debt, Economic Policy
Don Wolfensberger at The Hill: Since 1976 there have been 21 government shutdowns, the longest lasting 34 days, from Dec. 22, 2018 to Jan. 25, 2019. The second longest was 21 days in December 1995 (“the Gingrich that stole Christmas”). And the third longest was 16...
