A Public Policy Blog from AEI

Most Recent

Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Would Jeff Bezos have started Amazon even if he could have only become as rich as Bernie Sanders?

by James Pethokoukis

Bernie Sanders wants to take half of American billionaires’ wealth over the next 15 years. But Jeff Bezos’ success in building Amazon shows that Sanders’s perspective misses a whole lot, especially when it comes to America’s ability to generate high-impact startups that become big, important, productive companies.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsIntellectual PropertyPethokoukisPolitical EconomyTechnology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Entrepreneurship from the ground up: The Lafayette College event

by Gerard Robinson

On February 25, 2020, I participated in a criminal justice reform themed panel discussion at Lafayette College on the role of entrepreneurship in identifying barriers and solutions to criminal justice reform. Here are some of my key takeaways.

CitizenshipCriminal JusticePolitics and Public OpinionSociety and Culture
Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization sides with western greens over East African farmers

by Roger Bate

Locusts are destroying vital food supplies in several African nations, yet the most important method of control, insecticide spraying, is being shunned by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.

Health Care
Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Observations on Chinese GDP growth and Covid-19

by Derek Scissors

How will Covid-19 affect Chinese GDP? It depends: True Chinese GDP growth will be sharply negative for the first quarter, Beijing’s protests aside. However, current GDP is not very important.

AsiaForeign and Defense Policy
Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

A lesson from telecom surveillance for internet surveillance

by Jim Harper

A federal mandate that telecommunications products be designed to allow wiretapping has given Chinese telecom giant Huawei a door into US communications. The government should not repeat this mistake in the realm of cybersecurity.

Technology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

A cautionary tale for predicting drug prices

by Benedic N. Ippolito

There is bipartisan agreement that Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit for seniors, should be reformed. But how will these efforts affect drug prices? History offers a sobering reminder that forecasting the Part D market has a less-than-stellar track record.

Health CareHealth EconomicsHealth Policy
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

How will technological change affect the economy? My long-read Q&A with Erik Brynjolfsson

by James Pethokoukis

Will upcoming technological changes finally drive up productivity growth? Will robots take over the labor market after all? How worried should we all be? In this long-read Q&A, Erik Brynjolfsson offers some answers to all these pressing questions, and much more.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and InnovationUS Economy
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

Fake news and COVID–19

by Roger Bate

So far the UK has managed to avoid major problems with coronavirus. But it is succumbing to fake news about the virus and its alleged links to 5G or vaccines.

Health CareHealth Policy
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

3 years later, privacy rules specifically for internet service providers remain bad policy

by Daniel Lyons

The idea of ISP-specific privacy rules has reemerged as a cause célèbre in various state legislatures, but 3 years after a failed effort on the federal level, it remains a bad idea to create an unlevel playing field for privacy regulation.

Technology and InnovationTelecommunications
Blog Post
February 26, 2020
AEIdeas

5 questions for Paul Vigna on the future of blockchain

by James Pethokoukis

The potential uses of blockchain technology — being an immutable, decentralized record of transactions and contracts — extend far beyond just money. So what are they, exactly, and how should we prepare for their entrance into our daily lives?

Digital TradeEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and Innovation
1 2 3 … 1,808

Economics

Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Would Jeff Bezos have started Amazon even if he could have only become as rich as Bernie Sanders?

by James Pethokoukis

Bernie Sanders wants to take half of American billionaires’ wealth over the next 15 years. But Jeff Bezos’s success in building Amazon shows that Sanders’s perspective misses a whole lot, especially when it comes to America’s ability to generate high-impact startups that become big, important, productive companies.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsIntellectual PropertyPethokoukisPolitical EconomyTechnology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

How will technological change affect the economy? My long-read Q&A with Erik Brynjolfsson

by James Pethokoukis

Will upcoming technological changes finally drive up productivity growth? Will robots take over the labor market after all? How worried should we all be? In this long-read Q&A, Erik Brynjolfsson offers some answers to all these pressing questions, and much more.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and InnovationUS Economy
Blog Post
February 26, 2020
AEIdeas

5 questions for Paul Vigna on the future of blockchain

by James Pethokoukis

The potential uses of blockchain technology — being an immutable, decentralized record of transactions and contracts — extend far beyond just money. So what are they, exactly, and how should we prepare for their entrance into our daily lives?

Digital TradeEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 25, 2020
AEIdeas

Special briefing on walkability

by Edward J. Pinto | Tobias Peter | Shinai He

The American Enterprise Institute’s Housing Center released its monthly update to the AEI Housing Market Indicators. According to the report, walkability adds intrinsic value to properties and these homes are more resilient in market booms and busts.

EconomicsHousing CenterHousing Finance
Blog Post
February 25, 2020
AEIdeas

Why Democrats have trouble attacking the democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders

by James Pethokoukis

At the South Carolina debate tonight, Democratic presidential contenders may finally slam Bernie Sanders on his ambitious policy agenda and lifelong support of “democratic socialism.” But they’ll have difficulty doing so, because the Democratic party today doesn’t tell a story of modern America that is fundamentally any different than the one he tells.

EconomicsPethokoukisPolitical EconomyUS Economy
Blog Post
February 25, 2020
AEIdeas

‘The American
Dream Is Not Dead,’ by Michael
R. Strain, my review

by Stan Veuger

Stan Veuger’s poetic assessment of Michael Strain’s new book, The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsUS EconomyUS Labor Market
1 2 3 … 806

Foreign and Defense Policy

Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Observations on Chinese GDP growth and Covid-19

by Derek Scissors

How will Covid-19 affect Chinese GDP? It depends: True Chinese GDP growth will be sharply negative for the first quarter, Beijing’s protests aside. However, current GDP is not very important.

AsiaForeign and Defense Policy
Blog Post
February 25, 2020
AEIdeas

Mubarak is dead. But his ilk lives on.

by Danielle Pletka

For almost three decades, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak epitomized everything that was wrong with US Middle East policy and much that was wrong with the Arab world. He died today in Cairo, aged 91.

Foreign and Defense PolicyMiddle EastTerrorism
Blog Post
February 19, 2020
AEIdeas

Transparent Trump: The president doesn’t care about national security

by Derek Scissors

The president proclaimed in a series of tweets that “THE UNITED STATES IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS”, in defiance of a law Congress passed in mid-2018. But the root problem isn’t the Department of Commerce flouting Congressional authority. The root problem is the president has made clear that he thinks more about the balance of trade than national security.

AsiaForeign and Defense Policy
Blog Post
February 18, 2020
AEIdeas

Russian WWII revisionism finds a global audience

by Lance Kokonos

Putin is obsessed with vindicating his predecessors’ Nazi ties, but his narrative about the USSR’s role in World War II is misleading.

Europe and EurasiaForeign and Defense Policy
Blog Post
February 12, 2020
AEIdeas

Solve the Kosovo dispute to counter Chinese and Russian influence in Europe

by Ivana Stradner | Max Frost

To roll back hostile influence in Europe, the West needs to bring the Kosovo dispute to a close.

Europe and EurasiaForeign and Defense Policy
Blog Post
February 11, 2020
AEIdeas

Commander in Chief might want to check with his military before taking a victory lap

by Mackenzie Eaglen

President Trump’s fourth defense budget request reverses the three-year “Trump Bump,” leaving the military without the investments it needs to rebuild its operational fleets and inventories. This has resulted in painful trade-offs.

DefenseForeign and Defense Policy
1 2 3 … 195

Tech Policy

Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

Would Jeff Bezos have started Amazon even if he could have only become as rich as Bernie Sanders?

by James Pethokoukis

Bernie Sanders wants to take half of American billionaires’ wealth over the next 15 years. But Jeff Bezos’s success in building Amazon shows that Sanders’s perspective misses a whole lot, especially when it comes to America’s ability to generate high-impact startups that become big, important, productive companies.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsIntellectual PropertyPethokoukisPolitical EconomyTechnology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 28, 2020
AEIdeas

A lesson from telecom surveillance for internet surveillance

by Jim Harper

A federal mandate that telecommunications products be designed to allow wiretapping has given Chinese telecom giant Huawei a door into US communications. The government should not repeat this mistake in the realm of cybersecurity.

Technology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

How will technological change affect the economy? My long-read Q&A with Erik Brynjolfsson

by James Pethokoukis

Will upcoming technological changes finally drive up productivity growth? Will robots take over the labor market after all? How worried should we all be? In this long-read Q&A, Erik Brynjolfsson offers some answers to all these pressing questions, and much more.

Economic Fluctuations and GrowthEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and InnovationUS Economy
Blog Post
February 27, 2020
AEIdeas

3 years later, privacy rules specifically for internet service providers remain bad policy

by Daniel Lyons

The idea of ISP-specific privacy rules has reemerged as a cause célèbre in various state legislatures, but 3 years after a failed effort on the federal level, it remains a bad idea to create an unlevel playing field for privacy regulation.

Technology and InnovationTelecommunications
Blog Post
February 26, 2020
AEIdeas

5 questions for Paul Vigna on the future of blockchain

by James Pethokoukis

The potential uses of blockchain technology — being an immutable, decentralized record of transactions and contracts — extend far beyond just money. So what are they, exactly, and how should we prepare for their entrance into our daily lives?

Digital TradeEconomicsInnovationPethokoukisTechnology and Innovation
Blog Post
February 25, 2020
AEIdeas

Europe’s digital empire is doomed to fail

by Mark Jamison

If Europe wants a strong tech industry of its own, it shouldn’t double down on hampering American companies with regulation — it should let competitive market forces work.

Technology and Innovation
1 2 3 … 188