Research

President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this week urged reluctant members of the United Nations Security Council to quickly pass sanctions against Iran. But that is highly unlikely, as Obama himself acknowledged: “Do we have unanimity in the international community? Not yet. And that’s something we have to work on.” In the absence [...] (more)

In March, employers added 162,000 jobs while the unemployment rate remained constant at 9.7 percent. The report contains some good news for the labor market, as hiring kept pace with an increase in the overall labor force. Hours of work were also up, indicating that the labor market has bottomed out and is beginning to [...] (more)

The welfare reforms of 1996 replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as the primary safety for the poor. But the Great Recession has exposed the failure of TANF as a safety net to catch American families as they experience hardship. As the Great Recession has pulled [...] (more)

The National Broadband Plan was released this past Tuesday with a vision for broadband in America. The Plan proposes two goals for broadband access: a “universalization target of 4 Mbps [megabits per second] download and 1 Mbps upload,” as well as a goal that “100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds [...] (more)

One of the little-noticed actions in the recently concluded session of the Chinese National People’s Congress was the enactment of a National Defense Mobilization Law. In an age when conventional conflicts are planned to conclude in a matter of days or weeks, it is striking that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should choose to [...] (more)

Virginia Beach Police Chief Jake Jacocks Jr. recently asked Gov. Bob McDonnell to veto the “concealed handguns in bars” bills that have passed both houses of the General Assembly. (more)

Recently there has been a great deal of media discussion concerning the independence of the Federal Reserve in its role as the designer and implementer of monetary policy. In this outpouring of words there has, however, been little if any explicit discussion of the rationale for central bank independence (more)

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program provides scholarships for more than 1,700 District children to attend schools of their choice. But the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are phasing it out (more)

The Obama Administration’s engagement policy toward Iran has failed to defuse the nuclear standoff (more)

The Chinese currency issue has roared back to life with a vengeance and once again threatens U.S.-China relations and the global trading system. Official dialogue has descended into an exchange of finger-pointing and tongue-lashings. And Washington is abuzz with sanctions talk, as lawmakers from both major parties throw their support behind legislation intended to compel China to revalue the Renminbi (RMB). (more)

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) admits that rather than actually examining the performance of the post-stimulus economy, it essentially re-released its old forecast that the stimulus would likely create jobs (more)

Commentary on the individual state health care lawsuits, the current economic climate and the media coverage of the tea party protests (more)

After months of emphasizing the need to coordinate a global regulatory response to the global financial crisis, the Administration has done an about-face. Instead of working in concert with international partners, the Administration now wants to enact reform unilaterally so as to “set the global agenda” (more)

Was Dick Cheney right about deficits? In 2002, a month before he gave George W. Bush’s first treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, the news that he was fired, then-Vice President Dick Cheney is supposed to have told O’Neill, “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter. We won the midterms” (more)

Americans have heard all about greedy bankers, huge bonuses, shady accounting practices, and outright greed. But the reason for this rhetoric is nothing less than an attempt to seize control of the financial services industry and to micromanage it (more)

When it comes to our economy, where are we going, and why are we in this hand-basket? That’s a question worth answering before Congress reauthorizes legislation to boost government investment in science and technology and, in turn, manufacturing (more)

Australians are increasingly uneasy about both China and the United States, although for very different reasons. That dual uneasiness is creating an incentive for Canberra to hedge its bets and become, ever so quietly, more independent regarding security issues and capabilities. That is a development Washington should encourage rather than discourage. (more)

America stands on the precipice of sweeping liberal health care reform that will radically reshape one-sixth of the U.S. economy, and a 153-page House bill is all that stands between us and a fundamentally changed America. What will that change look like? Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “we have to pass the bill so that [...] (more)

The key evidence against YouTube is that they knew that only 20% of their content was legal and one executive even resorted to uploading stolen content. In fact, the fundamental business model of YouTube was to build up as much traffic as possible through any “tactics, however evil” according to YouTube founder Steve Chen (more)