Sowing the Seeds of a Crisis With Fertilizer Tariffs
Why European policymakers are making a mistake

The EU is poised to shoot itself in the foot yet again. To punish Russian misdeeds and reward domestic producers, import tariffs on Russian fertilizer are to be increased dramatically. Cost-benefit analysis reveals that the pain will be limited because fertilizer export revenue is a minuscule share of Russian GDP. However, rising fertilizer prices in Europe will drive food prices up, fueling societal unrest. Rather than using subsidies and tariffs to worsen market distortions, hurting all stakeholders, EU policymakers should tackle the root cause of the problem, namely the lack of inexpensive Russian gas, in turn caused by poor political decisions.

What USAID Offers for Reducing the Deficit

The Biden-Harris administration left the fiscal situation of the U.S. government in a world of hurt. In January 2025, the Congressional Budget Office projected federal budget deficits will range between 5.5 and 6.5% of GDP during the next 10 years under current law.

Smoke, Fire and Bureaucracy
What California can learn from itself

The smoke could be seen from more than 50 miles away, and the massive blaze blocked traffic, burned out power lines and showered ash for miles around. That may sound like recent fires in Los Angeles, but it occurred on March 15, 2007, in Sacramento. 

Righting Wrongs with the Stroke of a Presidential Pen
The USAID haystack

The pens of U.S. Presidents have extraordinary power. How much power they have can be seen in the short history of a small agency within the office of the U.S. President. That history began in 2013 when the U.S. government launched the most visible website ever: Healthcare.gov. Spawned by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the site had been in development for three years. It was critical for President Obama’s plan to establish a monopoly digital marketplace as the only place Americans could access subsidized health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

To Reduce Homelessness, Donald Trump Must End Housing First

Homelessness in the United States has grown by nearly 19 percent since its low point in 2016. In 2023, the unhoused population reached its highest levels since we began tracking homelessness, but with the new year and new administration come opportunities to reverse this troubling trend. To do so, President-elect Donald Trump must reverse Obama’s Housing First mandate that has guided homelessness policy for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2013.

Trump Should Increase High-Skilled Immigration

Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for increasing high-skilled immigration visas has stirred up a political storm within conservative circles. Although Trump has supported Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s comments, his words conflict with his first-term immigration policies. If his change in rhetoric is matched by a change in policy, it would help make America great.

Is America Poised to Overreact to DeepSeek?

The last several days have been dubbed a “Sputnik moment” for Americans, who are discovering that foreign software engineers are much further ahead than previously thought. On January 20th, the Chinese company DeepSeek announced the release of their newest large language model (LLM) “DeepSeek R1.” Reportedly trained for just $6 million, DeepSeek R1 achieves capabilities that more than rival the output of American AI giants like Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Google, whose models have required billions in investment. 

The Resurgence of Tariffs

President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports and a further 10% tariff on Chinese imports, to take effect on Feb. 1. In doing so, Trump built on tariffs he put into effect during his first term—tariffs that President Joe Biden largely kept in place or added to. This resurgence of tariffs provides a good reason for revisiting economic history and what the science of economics tells us about international trade.

Of Budgets and Biases

Austrian economist Gene Callahan likes to remind us that fantasy is not an adult policy option.

We are often reminded of his words in national debates and handwringing over potential budget cuts, whether by the Republican-led Congress, or President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—or attempts to address the $36 trillion debt elephant in the room.

Congress Must Stop Trading Stocks
Legislators are sent to represent the people, not profit off them

Legislators—Congressmen and Senators—routinely receive material non-public information that is crucial to crafting legislation for the US government to operate efficiently and meet the needs of the American people. Unfortunately, many legislators use this information to enrich themselves at the expense of the very people they are elected to represent. Using privileged information for personal gain is a tremendous abuse of power and tantamount to graft. Service in the Congress is an honor. Legislators, senior officials in the executive and judicial branches, and their families should be prohibited from trading in individual securities. Those officials who have profited from this abuse of power have revealed their lack of moral fiber and should no longer serve in government. 

  • Catalyst
  • Beyond Homeless
  • MyGovCost.org
  • FDAReview.org
  • OnPower.org
  • elindependent.org