U.S.

The presidential election polls were significantly off in 2020 with President Trump garnering many more votes than pollsters anticipated. Data analyst David Shor argued that the polls were wrong because Democratic voters became more politically engaged than Republicans during the lockdowns and answered more surveys. Rather than a shy Trump supporter phenomenon, there was a...

There has been much loose talk of a new Cold War between the U.S. and China. Such a conflict would be potentially disastrous for both countries. Nor is it easy to imagine, given the extensive ties between both peoples. Even with both governments at sharp odds, the nations remain connected, much more so than the...

The Trump Administration has just issued a proclamation that will restrict the issuance of many temporary economic migrant work visas. The proclamation will go into effect on June 24 at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time. The visas affected are the H-1B visa for skilled temporary migrant workers, the H-2B visa for temporary lower‐skilled non‐agricultural employment

Beijing no longer has many friends in Washington—for understandable reasons. The entire Chinese government mishandled various stages of the coronavirus outbreak, including hiding the extent of infection and transmissibility to humans, punishing doctors and citizen journalists who sought to report on the looming pandemic, and moving far too slowly on a travel ban from Wuhan...

Some people talk about trade as though it were an end in itself. It’s not. Trade is a means to an end. We trade so that we can specialize. We specialize so that we can produce more. We produce more so that we can consume and save more. That is how we create wealth...

Videos of triumphant doctors in Wuhan removing their protective equipment flooding social media this week symbolized the end of the fight against COVID-19 in the city where the outbreak began. With travel restrictions set to lift April 8 in Wuhan and wider Hubei province, and domestically transmitted cases of the virus near zero, life for China’s 1.4 billion residents is getting back to a new normal.

The Covid 19 outbreak set the field, but the direct cause of oil’s crash last week reads from an old playbook. WTI has been on a freefall losing over $16 in two days, prompting a wider stock market sell off that created another Black Monday as the Dow dove 7% in a single day. The […]

It was quite some time ago that we began to speculate about the role 3D printing might play in our modern society. As the technology really started to emerge around the middle of the last decade, we previewed the potential impact on American manufacturing and highlighted broad ideas, such as reduced costs and greater design […]

I’ve spent several weeks confined to my apartment building in Jinan, a few hours south of Beijing, where I work as an English teacher. I’ve dared to venture out only twice: to the grocery store, where a masked employee checked my temperature upon entrance, despite ominous warnings from coworkers to avoid stores as possible sites...

In his recent State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump touted the strong US economy and low unemployment rate, claiming credit for a “great American comeback” driven in significant part by his trade policies. The president was right about the general health of the US economy, but not about the role...

In 2019, the U.S. unemployment rate reached record lows while the stock market hit record highs. But not everyone has benefitted. According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, most Americans believe the economy is helping the rich, while hurting the middle class and poor. What does this mean for the future of U.S. capitalism?

A novel feature of the Trump administration’s “Phase 1” trade deal with China announced December 13, is that it would require China to increase its purchase of US goods and services by a total of $200 billion in the next two years. It’s a demand that, even if met, won’t accomplish President Donald Trump’s China-trade..

The immigration debate in the United States has obscured a host of neglected legislative issues. The anti-immigrant sentiment in the nation belabors the notion that immigration is an issue that only encompasses illegal border crossings. Rather, legal immigration impacts economic considerations as a net gain, perhaps well beyond the potential economic burdens of illegal migrant […]

When I crossed through Checkpoint Charlie from West Berlin to East Berlin nearly 30 years ago, the failures of former East Germany were immediately obvious. The grey unkempt landscape and dilapidated buildings looked as though that country hadn’t been repaired since American and Soviet tanks faced off yards apart decades earlier in one of the most tense nuclear showdowns.

Announcing his intentions to hit all remaining imports from China with tariffs, President Trump is now all-in on the trade war. This doesn’t bode well for Americans’ wallets, bilateral relations or the global economy.

One of the few hopeful, “glass-half-full” thoughts I had after Donald Trump won the election in 2016 was that the new president would prove to be the best salesman of free trade since Adam Smith. No, I wasn’t so deluded to think he’d articulate the case for free trade and commit himself to removing all […]

Recently, a decades-old video of Donald Trump on “Oprah” circulated, in which Trump offered up all the same trade policy views he holds today: Our trading partners are cheating us, bilateral trade deficits are hurting the U.S. economy, U.S. negotiators have done a bad job with trade deals, and higher tariffs would help the U.S...

I often hear people talk about their difficulties in finding a meaningful job or keeping up with increasing healthcare, housing and education costs. These concerns, along with rising income inequality and a shrinking middle class, are provoking anger. For many, trade and immigration have become convenient villains. But that narrative is wrong. Let me tel...

The policy of free trade — citizens freely buying and selling goods and services across borders without government interference — is under greater attack today than it has been in decades. Despite the fact that American public support for trade and globalization is at an all-time high, politicians, pundits, and a growing cadre of wonks […]

U.S. and Chinese negotiators may soon reach terms to ease the tariffs that have been uprooting supply chains and straining relations. That would be welcome news to beleaguered farmers, manufacturers, and consumers. But unless that deal compels Beijing to end its predatory technology practices and discriminatory commercial policies, détente will give way to intensified sanctions, […]