Syndicated columns

Funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies was at the epicenter of the recently resolved budget impasse. This roadblock, resulting in a record-long 75-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, was focused on how ICE was staffed and directed by the Trump administration. During his campaign in 2024, President Donald Trump promised he ...

Even as the U.S. and Iran wrestle over an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, surging gas prices have turned the government’s attention to a perennially popular fiscal scam: Ease the pressure on household budgets with a gas tax holiday. In reality, such a plan to curry favor with voters would make them, all things considered, worse off. Responsible policymakers should have nothing to do ...

Think you own that new car you just bought? Not all of it. As many Americans are learning, automakers own their data, and it’s trying to dictate who can fix the vehicle when something breaks or even when it just needs regular maintenance. It’s a way to force car and truck owners into expensive dealerships for service. Fortunately, though, a legal fix might be coming. New vehicles today rely so ...

As a progressive economist, I wrote a paper in 2021 with a generally conservative colleague, Kevin Hassett, who now directs the National Economic Council in the Trump White House. We agreed then on the basic arithmetic of the American retirement crisis. We still do. That’s why people like him and people like me can all say: Trump’s executive order establishing TrumpIRAs, signed last month, is ...

We don’t need a study to know that the internet is awash in propaganda, AI slop and outright lies. But, we are far more susceptible to falling for this kind of information fraud than we may realize. A 2024 study by professor Andrea Prat at Columbia Business School, found that roughly half the population is uncertain about what information is true. These days I frequently see social media posts ...