Testing the “China Shock”: Was Normalizing Trade with China a Mistake?
It is increasingly common for politicians and pundits in Washington to look upon China’s numerous recent offenses and point fingers not at Beijing but inward at a specific U.S. policy from 20 years ago: granting China “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) and the country’s subsequent entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a new paper, Cato scholar Scott Lincicome explains that the trendy caricature of a naïve U.S. government fueling the destruction of the American worker in the futile hope of Chinese democratization suffers from several flaws that collectively prove fatal for the anti‐engagement, anti‐PNTR thesis.
- “Testing the “China Shock”: Was Normalizing Trade with China a Mistake?,” by Scott Lincicome
- “Was Engagement with China a ‘Mistake’ that Demands a Radical Policy Rethink Today?,” by Scott Lincicome
Kicking the Habit: The Opioid Crisis and America’s Addiction to Prohibition
There is no single cause of America’s opioid crisis, but overprescription of opioids has undoubtedly contributed. The federal government has responded predictably, criminally prosecuting doctors who prescribe opioids to the drug dependent. The approach may seem sensible, but it is as wrongheaded as our century‐old drug war. In a new paper, Josh Bowers and Daniel Abrahamson examine the roots of the modern American drug war and offer their own public health prescription: a set of pragmatic harm‐reduction responses to prohibition and its counterproductive and often deadly effects.
- “Kicking the Habit: The Opioid Crisis and America’s Addiction to Prohibition,” by Josh Bowers and Daniel Abrahamson
The Trump Economy: Three Years of Volatile Continuity
During the first three years of Donald Trump’s presidency, the economy expanded, unemployment and poverty fell, wages increased, taxes were cut, the stock market moved upward, and some reforms of federal regulation were introduced. Yet we need to be careful before offering kudos to the president. Like any other president, Trump is only partly responsible for what has gone well and gone wrong during his years in office and in the years to come. In the new issue of Regulation, Pierre Lemieux looks at the administration’s economic performance.
Fed Policy: A Shadow Review
In 2019, the Fed undertook “a broad review of the strategy, tools, and communication practices it uses to pursue the monetary policy goals established by the Congress: maximum employment and price stability.” With that in mind, Cato’s 37th Annual Monetary Conference in November was devoted to a “shadow review” of Fed policy by experts who can bring new ideas to the table. In a new, special issue of Cato Journal, authors from the conference review how the Fed formulates, conducts, and communicates monetary policy.