Watch Policies, Not Performance
It is easier for government and policy leaders to implement pro-productivity policies in boom times.With the first month of 2018 now in the books, the world economy is turning in...
How to Select the World’s Most Important Economic Policy Maker
Economists Slaughter and Rees opine that for the next chairperson of the Federal Reserve Board, the president must nominate the candidate who exhibits the greatest capacity to learn.Sometime this...
The Ambivalent Median Household
The state of the median household in 2016, both in terms of income and net worth, was a glass half full and half empty: full relative to the recent past, empty...
The Only Thing That Could Salvage the Trump Presidency
"In the strongest organizations, employees trust each other: their motivations, their strengths and weaknesses, and their intentions," say two former White House employees.
We two Matts have both worked in...
Who Is the Most Powerful of All?
While the U.S. is still perceived as the number one economic power in the world, the Pew Research Center finds that other nations, namely China, are gaining ground.Economic...
There Are Not Plenty More Fish in the Sea
With many of the planet’s fish populations at or approaching “biologically unsustainable levels” an intergovernmental mechanism that induces fishermen to internalize the harm they do by overfishing is needed now m...
India’s Tryst with Revolutionary Tax Reform
On July 1, India’s famously labyrinthine tax code was scrapped for a much simpler one that may unleash enormous potential.
Among the seminal moments in India’s economic history, t...
The Global Economy and Domestic Jobs
"Leaders in Washington should base their policy ideas on data and research, not anecdotes and assertions," say Slaughter & Rees.Since his earliest days, President Trump has voiced a widely shared...
The Paradox of Dynamism
Economic dynamism has historically brought an upward spiral of growth in productivity, opportunity, and thus incomes, but in the U.S., dynamism is fading. We live in an era of...
What So Many Miss about China
Entrepreneurs represent a vibrant and powerful force with great potential to reshape the Chinese economy.Say the phrase, “Chinese economy,” and in our home country of the United...
Don’t Download This Song
New technologies invariably produce winners and losers, but the music industry in particular has been pummeled.Taylor Swift is one of the most popular music performers in the world today...
The Tide Recedes or the Tsunami Builds?
Sunday April 23, 2017 may be the date that future historians identify as the starting point for a receding tide of global populism in the 21st century.
Calling a turn in global...
Can Public-Sector Innovation Drive Private-Sector Growth?
Government and business are fundamentally different, but a focus on technology and data infrastructure innovation within the federal government could drive significant job creation.It’s one of the...
Mar-a-Lago Cheat Sheet
Economists Slaughter & Rees of the Tuck School debunk Trump's claims about the U.S. trade deficit and its impact on jobs. Later this week Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel...
What So Many Governments Lack—Trust
While skepticism about government is embedded in America’s DNA, outright distrust is a more recent phenomenon.This is a tough time for government. Long-standing policies and practices are under s...
The Globalization Paradox
Globalization boosts—not lowers—productivity and average incomes, say Matthew Slaughter and Matthew Rees.This past weekend in Baden-Baden, Germany, the finance ministers of the G-20 nations received a bracing int...
Think Self-Care, Not Just Health Care
Reversing the obesity trend and reducing health-care spending depends on something often overlooked: changes in individual behavior.Amid talk in Washington of presidential wiretapping and the dismissal of U.S....
The Crisis in America’s Classrooms
"Many jobs of the future exist today, with many of them simply going unfilled because too few Americans have the skills needed to fill them," say Slaughter & Rees as they...