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Washington Should Quit Its Budget Gimmicks

Sometimes true costs are hidden by backloading them. Originally published in the New York Times. Americans of a certain age may remember J. Wellington Wimpy, a droll character from Popeye cartoons. “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,” Wimpy would periodically implore passers-by. That pretty much summarizes the opaque budget math behind the two huge […]

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The Housing Market Is on Fire. It Doesn’t Need More Fuel.

It’s not time yet to be raising interest rates. But let’s at least stop pouring $120 billion a month into the financial markets. Originally published in the New York Times. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve tiptoed ever so slightly toward reducing its efforts to pump liquidity into the financial system. It did so through brief references that […]

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Don’t Overdo Amtrak, Joe

The president wants to pour billions more into a service that only makes sense in a few areas. Originally published in the New York Times. Ah, the romantic suspense of train travel: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint canoodling in “North by Northwest.” Farley Granger and Robert Walker conspiring in “Strangers on a Train.” While […]

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The New York Times: Biden’s Get-Tough-on-China Tariffs May Backfire

The tide of globalization is receding, at least from American shores. Two successive presidents have...

The New York Times: What Trump Would Do To Our Economy

Originally published in The New York Times. Much to fear about another Donald Trump presidency: ...

The New York Times: America’s Broken Immigration System, In One Chart

The immigration problem Congress faces is large and complex. Let’s break it down. Between Octob...

More than Words: 10 Charts That Defined 2023

Some years are defined by a single event or person — a pandemic, a recession, an insurrection — ...

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