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 and tell your friends.
Lots of new content on PolicySphere these past few days: our analysis of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which recently passed the House on a bipartisan basis, and is accused by some on the right of threatening speech (our answer: potentially yes); our interview with Jeremy Carl on his important new book The Unprotected Class; and most recently, our exclusive interview with Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, one of the most substantive interviews you’ll see on this crucial policy issue, as well as our interview with American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, on the budget, drug pricing, and more..
Now on to your policy links…
#Welfare – Holy UBI, Batman? The Biden Administration has announced a new rule that would make households receiving SNAP eligible for SSI benefits starting in September. To qualify, beneficiaries must earn less than $1,971 from work, and may in turn receive $943 per individual per month or $1,415 per individual and spouse. What a poverty trap. More details here.
#Trade #Chyna – Important op-ed by Senator Marco Rubio in The American Conservative endorsing tariffs on China.
#AI – Sam Hammond is one of the sharpest policy thinkers out there, always worth paying attention to, and he has written “95 Theses on AI,” among which “oversight of AGI labs is prudent” but “most proposed ‘AI regulations’ are ill-conceived or premature” and “open source is mostly a red-herring.”
#AI – Speaking of: “Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd says the future of dating is having your AI date other people’s AI and recommend the best matches for you to meet” (Link) Apparently arranged marriage is back, as long as you say “AI”.
#Immigration – UBI is one thing, but UBI and unlimited immigration, it should not be hard to see, is a recipe for disaster. In a research note, legendary Goldman Sachs Economist Jan Hatzius looks at the impact of post-pandemic immigration into the US on wages and inflation, and his estimate is that “the immigration turnaround has reduced wage growth by 0.3pp in aggregate and by at least twice as much in the low-paying leisure and hospitality sector.” More evidence of immigration holding down wages, and Wall Street likes it because it also means lower inflation.
#LaborMarket #Economy #Immigration – The number of employed prime working-age men in the United States is declining. In the early 1950s, about 96% of American men between the ages of 25 and 54 were employed. Today, that figure is closer to 86%, which is below the OECD average of other developed countries (as of 2022). Via Morning Brew.
#Immigration – Report from The Free Press: “Nonprofits Are Making Billions off the Border Crisis” More: “While the border crisis has become a major liability for President Biden, threatening his reelection chances, it’s become a huge boon to a group of nonprofits getting rich off government contracts. Although the federally funded Unaccompanied Children Program is responsible for resettling unaccompanied migrant minors who enter the U.S., it delegates much of the task to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that run shelters in the border states of Texas, Arizona, and California.” The Left’s ability to accompany every program or policy with a sui-generis blob of NGOs that then become self-interested actors who fight to protect and expand the program is quite something.
#Trans – Important: Heritage’s Daily Signal reviews the book Detrans, featuring stories from victims of the gender cult.
#PublicHealth – Brownstone Institute’s coverage of public health issues has been stellar, and they have an update on the latest draft of WHO’s proposed pandemic treaty.
#Healthcare – New report from RAND: private health plans paid hospitals 254% of what Medicare would pay.
Chart of the Day
Estimated and projected population of East Asia and the United States, 1950-2100. From this important article by demographer Nicholas Eberstadt on East Asia’s Coming Population Collapse.
Meme of the Day
