Council on Foreign Relations

Amity Shlaes discusses the history of strong unions in the American public sector.

Amity Shlaes says that the United States must lower taxes and reaffirm the right to intellectual property in order to preserve its leadership in innovation.

Jagdish Bhagwati says that in a new climate change protocol rich countries must accept a tort liability for past emissions. All countries should accept liability for current emissions, although grace periods could be granted to developing countries.

Amity Shlaes criticizes the various versions of jobs legislation for not addressing the role of the entrepreneur.

Matthew Slaughter argues that tax increases on the foreign operations of U.S. based multinationals would not create American jobs, but destroy them. For many global firms there is an inherent complementarity between foreign and U.S. operations.

Edward Alden says that Canada's turnaround in the 1990s from running more than two decades of budget deficits offers lessons for the United States today.

Amity Shlaes warns that without new legislation tax increases will reduce the relative competitiveness of the United States.

Amity Shlaes compares President Obama's battle with the financial sector to FDRs war on business in the 1930s. She argues that Presidents can choose between retribution and recovery; they cannot have both.

Amity Shlaes says that the economic policies the president will outline in his State of the Union address are closer to those of traditional Japan than those of traditional America.

Sebastian Mallaby argues that Obama's proposal to shut down proprietary trading desks at "too big to fail" banks goes too far. A tax on size would be better.

Amity Shlaes says that politicians have the power over the mighty health-care industry because doctors have not been fighting back.

Benn Steil's January column in Dow Jones' Financial News argues that the monetary forces behind the crashes of 1929 and 2008 were very similar.  In the 1920s, as in the mid-2000s, Fed officials mistakenly thought that they had found, in the practice of trying to stabilize a price index, the holy grail of monetary policy. In consequence, central bankers are once again grasping for a new orthodoxy.

Amity Shlaes writes that big new government programs may not be bad, but they are rarely optimal. It is private-sector entrepreneurs who will come up with and implement new ideas that yield big productivity gains.

Amity Shlaes argues that U.S. policymakers are underestimating the threat from inflation.

Matthew Slaughter discusses the rise of foreign direct investment from developing into developed countries via M&A transactions. He says that leaders in advanced countries must remember the benefits of inward FDI and resist protectionist pressures.

Benn Steil argues that the U.S. is relying dangerously on massive government spending and lending to paper over its real problem—distorted incentives in the debt-encumbered banking system.

"The right kind of infrastructure splurge might not be such a bad idea," writes Amity Shlaes, looking back to past infrastructure projects and their effect on the economy.

Edward Alden discusses the Obama administration's quiet overhaul of immigration policies.

Michael Levi declares that "The UN process can no longer be the central focus of global efforts to confront climate change."

Amity Shlaes compares President Obama's approach to the banks with Roosevelt's in the mid-1930s.