When Donald Trump takes the debate stage on Tuesday, he will doubtless again try to disavow Project 2025, the radically conservative blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican administration. We shouldn’t let him. Seventy-eight percent of the contributors to the effort were members of his last administration and many of them are […]
For more than 90 minutes last week, Donald Trump gave a rambling speech accepting the Republican nomination for president for a third time. He used the opportunity, as well as his June debate with President Biden, to repeat favorite false claims and exaggerations. That Mr. Trump has a proclivity for saying untrue things is well known. But […]
The tide of globalization is receding, at least from American shores. Two successive presidents have come down firmly on the side of tariffs rather than trade agreements as the preferred mechanism for managing international commerce. History shows that we should proceed with caution. While there are political and security reasons for tariffs, America’s new protectionist […]
Originally published in The New York Times. Much to fear about another Donald Trump presidency: The existential threat to U.S. democracy. The potential abandonment of traditional allies in Europe and elsewhere. The cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin. And the danger he poses to our strong economy. Our economy? Yes, while Trumponomics 1.0 had major […]
The immigration problem Congress faces is large and complex. Let’s break it down. Between October 2022 and September 2023, there were 3.1 million attempted crossings along the U.S. southern border. Of that, an estimated 600,000 migrants were able to cross the border undetected, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. government had 2.5 […]
Some years are defined by a single event or person — a pandemic, a recession, an insurrection — while others are buffeted by a series of disparate forces. Such was 2023. The economy and inflation remained front of mind until the war in Gaza grabbed headlines and the world’s attention — all while Donald Trump’s […]
As a part-time commentator on things economic, I’m often asked a seemingly straightforward question: If the economy is so good, why are Americans so grumpy? By many measures — unemployment, inflation, the stock market — the economy is strong. Yet only 23 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, a […]
Originally published in The New York Times. The United Auto Workers has taken to the picket lines in a particularly acrimonious strike, targeting, for the first time, all three of the big Detroit automakers simultaneously. Popular opinion appears to lie firmly on the union side. And I’m all for the auto workers getting paid more […]
Originally published in the New York Times. The workers were furious. Believing that new mechanical looms threatened their jobs, they broke into factories, seized machinery, brought it into the street and set it afire, all with widespread public support, even tacitly from the authorities. That was in 1675. And those English textile workers were neither first […]
Originally published in the New York Times. On my first trip to China in more than three years, I awoke to an uncharacteristically brilliant blue Beijing sky. The forsythia and cherry trees were in full bloom, and the city was sparkling. That, for me, proved to be a metaphor for at least part of my […]
