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.
NEW: EPPC, the venerable Washington think tank, recently published its 2023 report. EPPC has recently undergone some changes under its new president Ryan T. Anderson and we were glad to interview him about his year and his experiences running a DC think tank.
#Boomers – The Economist asks a question with important repercussions for macroeconomics and policy: baby-boomers have very good assets and income, and yet spend comparatively little; why? AEI’s Andrew Biggs has a smart X dot com thread with further thoughts.
#Reg – CEI Leads Coalition Letter Supporting CRA Resolution of Disapproval on EPA Power Plant Rule. In our exclusive interview with AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis, one of the things he made clear is how much energy regulation is holding back technological progress in America.
#TaxPolicy – It’s a perennial proposal but it’s a good one: Tax Foundation has a new report out on universal savings accounts.
#Immigration – According to Maine police, the Maine department of motor vehicles is issuing driver’s licenses to people with bogus Social Security numbers, including numbers like 999-99-9999… Surely none of these people will then use those driver’s licenses to then register to vote!
#Immigration – Speaking of illegal aliens and voting, a new group called Only Citizens Vote Coalition has a good resource page showing that this concern is not at all unfounded.
#Chyna – The Chinese Communist Party operates “the largest state-sponsored labor program in the world,” which certainly moderates any thought that their labor costs being lower than those in the US has anything to do with any “free market.” Anyway, Hudson has a new proposal out to strengthen the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
#FreeSpeech – The indispensable Dan McLaughlin has an article out on a new Supreme Court decision “on the vexing free-speech question of how hard government can lean on private businesses either to suppress speech the government dislikes, or to prevent private business from suppressing speech the businesses dislike.” In this case, the issue was the New York state’s efforts to “debank” the NRA and other gun-rights groups.
#LGBT – Important op-ed from Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Andrea Hitt: “Transgender patients deserve compassionate care — surgery doesn’t cut it”
Friday Essays
As with every Friday, here’s our selection of the best essays of the week to provide you with some reading material for the weekend…
At National Affairs, whose Spring issue is out, Senator Marco Rubio gives us his thoughts on industrial policy.
In the same issue of the same great journal, John C. Grove offers an interesting critique of the national conservative movement as too centralizing.
At The New Atlantis, Meghan Houser offers a withering critique of AI’s generative large language models, calling them “a house of mirrors.”
At First Things, the great conservative film critic Titus Techera has an inspiring meditation on faith and patriotism in the movie Hacksaw Ridge.
At Modern Age, Christopher Sandford points out that Franz Kafka’s executor had strict instructions to burn all his works after his death. Instead, he published them. Without him, we would not have some of Kafka’s masterpieces. On one hand, he prevented works of literary genius from being destroyed; on the other, he violated his oath and a man’s last wishes. What are we to think about this?
At Law & Liberty, John O. McGinnis reflects on the fact that neither party seems willing or able to rein in the massive fiscal transfers that are driving America to the edge of bankruptcy. “The state is the fiction by which everyone lives at the expense of everyone else,” Bastiat famously once wrote. He was exaggerating. But he also had a point…
Are you a Straussian? Do you care about these specific philosophical debates? There is no wrong answer to this question. But if you are not, skip this one. If you are, you may be interested to see Donald J. Devine ask the following question at Modern Age: “Are Straussians Fusionists?“
At The Public Discourse, Nathaniel Peters interviews Bronwen McShea on her new book on women and Church history.
Chart of the Day
Europe is being dragged further behind the US. This may not be in the West’s overall interest, though…
Meme of the Day
