Infant Industry: The Past and Future of the American System
Seminar at the Lehrman American Studies Center, Princeton University, 17 June 2008
By John D. Mueller
Posted: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A single coherent tradition links all economically and politically successful American economic policy from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Tracing its origins and development helps us understand why the success of the American experiment at first critically depended -- and depends now in a more literal sense-on promoting the nation's ‘infant industry.'  [Read More]

Wrong Big Picture, Dangerous Fine Print
But otherwise Obamacare is swell
By James C. Capretta, Tevi Tory
Posted: Friday, July 31, 2009
Public alarm is likely to intensify in the weeks ahead as the details of the health-care bills being rushed through Congress become more widely known.  Among other things, these bills would force all Americans into health insurance plans which pay for abortions.  [Read More]

100 Days Later
More audacity than we had hoped?
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2009
In the first 100 days of the Obama administration, the president and his allies have shown they can expand government without Republican support. But can they impose discipline on their own too?  [Read More]

Medicare and the Reform of U.S. Health Care
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Monday, April 6, 2009
So far, the health-care debate has focused on how to cover the uninsured.  But the rapid rise in costs is the heart of the problem, and slowing the pace of cost escalation will require grappling with the difficult subject of Medicare reform.  [Read More]

Great Society II
With a budget proposal, Obama's governing philosophy comes fully into view
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Thursday, March 19, 2009
Despite the rhetoric, the vast majority of the Administration's requested spending will have no bearing whatsoever on the prospects for reversing the current downturn.  [Read More]

Final Money
The downside to the fact that the U.S. dollar is the world's official reserve currency.
By Jeffrey Bell
Posted: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The dollar's status as the world economy's official reserve currency can explain many of the problems we've seen lately in the world of American investment.  [Read More]

Placing Health-Care Options in the Hands of Private Companies
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Some of the nation's largest employers, like Wal-Mart and Toyota, have developed new and better ways to deliver convenient, high-quality health care to their workers.  This kind of private sector innovation would be lost with a full government takeover.  [Read More]

Where Is the Responsibility?
The president's latest proposal is audacity indeed.
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Having succeeded in getting through Congress the largest unfinanced expansion of government since the 1960s over the near-universal objection of Republicans, President Obama says it's time for the two parties to sit down together and get serious about "fiscal responsibility." Audacity indeed.  [Read More]

Medicare in the USA
Present and Future
By James C. Capretta
Posted: Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Medicare is really two programs. It is community-rated insurance; everyone age 65 and older gets covered for the same premium regardless of their health status. That's an important reason the program is highly valued. But Medicare is also a large tax-and-transfer program, with workers subsidizing retirees. It is this feature of the program that is out of balance and requires correction soon.  [Read More]

Removing Impediments to Long Careers
By James C. Capretta, Gary Andres
Posted: Friday, January 23, 2009
The average length of retirement is up nearly 50 percent since 1965. The United States needs to move toward a more flexible entitlement and labor policy to encourage longer careers without undermining income security in old age or imposing hardship on those unable to work.  [Read More]