Immigration Wait Times from Quotas Have Doubled: Green Card Backlogs Are Long, Growing, and Inequitable

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that although he would build a border wall, it would have a door open to those willing to come to America legally. A new study from Cato scholar David Bier shows how badly America needs that new door by providing the first calculation of how outdated quotas have increased the average wait times for immigrants. Congress should reform the antiquated quotas, enact a limit on wait times, and keep these pathways viable for legal immigrants in the 21st century.

Is This Time Different? Schumpeter, the Tech Giants, and Monopoly Fatalism

Growing numbers of legislators and policy experts charge that tech firms such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft are “monopolies” with the potential power to harm consumers. A new study from Cato scholar Ryan Bourne suggests that we should be extremely skeptical about predictions of entrenched monopoly power. Over the past century, large businesses operating in industries similar to today’s tech firms were regularly labeled as unassailable monopolies, but all saw their market shares disintegrate in the face of innovative new products and companies.

Trump’s First Trade Deal: The Slightly Revised Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement

While the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement has received far more attention, a lesser-known U.S. trade deal has also been reworked. The renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) provides a useful example of Trump’s trade dealmaking in practice. In a new paper, Simon Lester, Inu Manak, and Kyounghwa Kim demonstrate how the renegotiation made only minor changes to the agreement and could be taken to mean that the reality of Trump’s trade policy may not always match the rhetoric.

Why Do College Diversity Efforts Draw Criticism?

The issue of diversity on college campuses raises a number of difficult and provocative issues. In a ruling expected later this year, a federal district court will determine whether the selection criteria Harvard employs to boost admissions of some demographic groups pass legal muster. In the new issue of Regulation, Dennis L. Weisman contends that defining discrimination exclusively in terms of a departure from merit-based admissions may be too narrow because it fails to account for the value conferred on the university by other types of admissions. Also in this issue, Richard B. McKenzie discusses the economics undergirding the Climate-Change Doomsday Trap, and Chris Elmendorf looks at bolstering pro-housing factions in local government.

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Over-The-Counter Birth Control? Bring It On

Jeffrey A. Singer in New York Daily News
The confluence of views among women of child-bearing age, medical experts, and now legislators from both ends of the political spectrum provides a great opportunity to liberate women from the paternalistic policy that makes them pay a toll - a doctor’s office visit - to obtain contraception.

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The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America's Poor

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor energetically challenges the conventional wisdom of both the right and the left that underlies much of the contemporary debate over poverty and welfare policy. Author and national public policy expert Michael Tanner takes to task conservative critiques of a “culture of poverty” for their failure to account for the structural circumstances in which the poor live. In addition, he criticizes liberal calls for fighting poverty primarily through greater redistribution of wealth and new government programs.

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Sphere Summit: Teaching Civic Culture Together

For more than four decades, the Cato Institute has introduced people, including millions of young people, to the ideas of freedom. Many Cato books are already taught in high school curricula across the country. To advance the ideas of liberal democracy and the rule of law, Cato has developed the Sphere Summit for educators. The opening Summit seminar, “Teaching Civic Culture Together,” will be held at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC, on July 14–18, 2019.