Research Library

Houston Mayor John Whitmire just marked 100 days in office. Our latest episode of Baker Briefing features a conversation between Whitmire and fellow Edward M. Emmett on the city’s past and future, hosted in front of a live audience at Baker Hall on April 3, 2024.

Earlier this year, proposed regulations on video games tanked Chinese gaming stocks. It's a sign that tough governance is ahead — for both digital content industries and governments around the world, writes researcher Brandon Zheng.

The House recently passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (TRAFWA) of 2024, which aims to provide tax relief to businesses and families with children in a fiscally responsible manner. But, as fellow John W. Diamond’s new commentary explains, if the bill succeeds, it would instead deliver more reckless tax giveaways while further delaying a real effort to deal with the consequences of poor fiscal policy.

Fellows Joyce Beebe and Edward M. Emmett discuss the child care shortage in the U.S. and evaluate a variety of policy solutions.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative recently stepped back from ongoing negotiations on digital trade at the World Trade Organization, citing unsettled domestic policy, and suspended support for digital trade rules in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework too. But if the U.S. wants to be a part of the conversation, it should reengage and help craft rules flexible enough to meet its future domestic policy needs, writes nonresident fellow Simon Lester.

Legislative action on the ballooning federal deficit is long overdue. Fellow John W. Diamond proposes a new nonpartisan fiscal commission to bypass congressional inaction on reform.

The city of Houston’s budget is at a tipping point. For five consecutive years, the city outspent its revenues by $100–$200 million each year. With stop-gap options drying up, city officials must plot out a more sustainable plan for the longer term. How did Houston find itself in this budgetary bind, and where must city officials go from here? 

Hama's Oct. 7 attack on Israel threatens to undermine a key pillar of Saudi Arabia’s foreign and domestic agenda: the “de-risking” of the region, writes fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen.

Convening war rooms, planning speedy bailouts and raising "house-on-fire" alarm bells: Those are a few of the ways the biggest banks and financial regulators are preparing for a potential default on U.S. debt.