Abortion is a Cause of Crime, Not a Cure
By John D. Mueller
Posted: Wednesday, March 15, 2000
The claim that legal abortions in the 1970s explain part of the fall in the crime rate during the 1990s is based on what appears at first blush to be a scientific study. Yet a closer look at the data on both abortion and crime contradicts those conclusions. In fact, legal abortion has exacerbated, not ameliorated, a bad socioeconomic environment.  [Read More]

The Answer to Three Puzzles
Welfare Reform Lowered Unemployment
By John D. Mueller
Posted: Friday, July 23, 1999
Liberal Democrats, Congressional Republicans, and Alan Greenspan often disagree with one another. But they have one thing in common; all have been puzzled by the behavior of the U.S. labor market.   Liberals who had predicted the failure of welfare reform were surprised by its success. Republicans who watched the economy behave worse than they expected under President Bush, found it better than they expected under President Clinton. Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has been surprised that unemployment could fall further than he used to say was possible without an upturn in "core" inflation.   There is an obvious connection, but no one has yet drawn ii: an expansion of welfare under President Bush raised the so-called "natural" rate of unemployment and lowered national output; but welfare reform agreed to by Congressional Republicans and President Clinton in 1996 has lowered unemployment and raised national output. I stated this thesis in 1993 and 1994, before welfare reform was enacted. Now the evidence is available to prove it.     [Read More]

Articulating a Policy Framework for Long-Term Federal Entitlement Reform
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Tuesday, August 1, 2006
President Bush's top first-term objectives were waging and winning the global war on terror, significantly enhancing our homeland security systems, and strengthening economic growth. With sluggish economic growth following the 2001 recession persisting in 2002 and 2003 the President placed a high premium on tax relief proposals aimed at accelerating the pace of short and long-term economic growth. In this context, it is not at all surprising that large federal budget deficits emerged. In the aftermath of the 2004 U.S. elections, however, reducing the federal budget deficit in the coming years has become a major issue for the President and Congress.  [Read More]

The Asian Bubble Trouble
By John D. Mueller
Posted: Monday, January 26, 1998
For an understanding of Asia’s predicament and its disturbing implications for the United States, the first step is to grasp the Through-the-Looking-Glass nature of our international monetary system.  [Read More]