Bonjour! Here’s your PolicySphere morning briefing! If you were forwarded this, here’s more about who we are and what we’re doing and, of course, don’t forget to sign up.
ICYMI: On Monday we published an exclusive interview with Edmund Burke Foundation Executive Director Saurabh Sharma going over the events of the NatCon Brussels conference last week, which the far left Brussels Mayor tried to shut down using political threats and police.
We are enjoying this interview series. As always, let us know what you think.
Here are some of our previous interviews: Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Anti-Monopoly activist and researcher Matt Stoller, and Tom Shakeley of Americans United For Life.
Meanwhile…
#TaxPolicy – ATR: Biden Calls for 44.6% Capital Gains Tax Rate, Highest Capital Gains Tax Since Its Creation in 1922. We try to be measured here at PolicySphere, but to call this insane is an understatement. Every country on the planet–including capitalism-red-in-tooth-and-claw places like Sweden and France–understands that a lower capital gains tax rate is necessary for business investment. Some, like Sweden, found out the hard way. This is not controversial. Some might say that the Biden White House knows this won’t become law, this is just a bit of election-year messaging. True enough. But still: it shows how far Democrats, including would-be “moderate” Democrats have gone or are willing to go in embracing straightforward “tax the rich” politics, which they had foresworn in the 1990s. Everyone is a “populist” now.
#GenZ #GenderPolitics – This is one of our interests: AEI President Robert Doar speaks to Dan Cox, Director of the Survey Center for American Life at AEI, about the politics of Gen Z and in particular the much-commented-upon gender split among Gen Z. Link.
#AI #K12 – Fascinating RAND report on the use of AI tools by K12 teachers.
#AI #Biotech – We have been appreciating RAND’s coverage on AI. Here is an interview with RAND Corporation CEO Jason Matheny on how AI might make it easier to build dangerous bioagents, and other potential national security risks of Ai.
#Regulation – The Spring issue of the Cato Institute magazine Regulation is out. Self-recommending.
#FinReg – Speaking of, a new Supreme Court decision restricted the ability of shareholders to bring class action lawsuits against companies. As the excellent legal expert Dan McLaughlin writes, “The bulk of such suits are class actions brought after a big drop in a stock’s price, on behalf of buyers of the stock who claim that they were misled by what the company told the markets” but many of those lawsuits are frivolous fishing expeditions. Post-Enron, American disclosure laws–and especially the punishments for violating disclosure obligations–have been expanded dramatically, and then further expanded by judge-made law.
#Healthcare – Important post from the Brownstone Institute on the overprescription of antidepressants.
#Immigration – CIS’s Andrew R. Arthur with an interesting, revealing catch: “The ‘Abolish ICE’ movement that gained momentum in the summer of 2018 has gained new life, thanks to an unlikely source: Patrick J. Lechleitner, ICE’s acting director, who is ‘rebranding’ the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) bureau by stripping it of any association with ICE to better enable HSI agents ‘to work without the undue toxicity that in some places comes with the ICE moniker’. Left unsaid is the fact that Lechleitner’s actions play into that toxicity.” There is nothing intrinsically wrong with enforcing immigration laws, and for an immigration law enforcer to suggest otherwise is troubling. Here’s more.
#Chyna – From the “signs of the times” files: for the first time, the EU has raided the offices of a Chinese company, under its new anti-foreign subsidy rules. “The target was Nuctech, a SOE once run by the son of Hu Jintao & whose products have been banned by some western countries on national security grounds” FT article.
#Economics – From AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis, with a self-explanatory title: “Mythbusting Is Hard: The Continuing Confusion About the Supposed Gap Between Pay and Productivity“
Chart of the Day
From the above post about pay and productivity:
Meme of the Day
