Research Library

This working paper is one of a series submitted for the Oct. 1, 2015, Baker Institute event "Currency Policy Then and Now: 30th Anniversary of the Plaza Accord."

In a country steeped in political corruption, the Sept. 3 resignation of Guatemala's President Otto Pérez Molina is the first step toward the country's redemption, writes Latin America Initiative program director Erika de la Garza.

A new White House initiative to address rising U.S. heroin use will increase funds to pinpoint the sources of heroin as well as hot spots for drug overdoses. Baker Institute Blog: http://bit.ly/1h0W7r2

Neal Lane, senior fellow for science and technology policy, remembers his friend and former White House colleague Jack Gibbons, who died in July at age 86.

How do dynamic analysis and dynamic scoring affect fiscal policymaking? Fellow John Diamond presents his views at a U.S. Joint Economic Committee hearing.

While the recent fiscal troubles in Greece have received much attention, the U.S. fiscal position is hardly comparable to that of Greece. However, the United States is experiencing, and will continue to experience, one of the fundamental economic costs of relatively large and persistent deficits.

Mexico Center director Tony Payan testifies before a House subcommittee on the major threats to the implementation of Mexico's energy reforms.

Although the hemisphere is keen to insulate itself from Venezuela’s political and economic problems, the country constantly challenges regional capabilities in crisis management. The latest victim of the turmoil in Venezuela is the Brazilian government.

The core strategies of the U.S. War on Drugs are eradication, interdiction and incarceration. After a 40-year and trillion-dollar effort, illicit drugs remain available to meet a remarkably stable demand. Drawing on decades of government-gathered and publicly available data, William Martin, director of the Drug Policy Program, and contributing expert Jerry Epstein contend that U.S. drug policy is premised on incorrect assumptions, aims at the wrong targets and can never succeed. But because these data run counter to a century of anti-drug propaganda, they play only a small role in public policy, mass-media presentation and popular perception. In this policy report, Martin and Epstein call for a reexamination of the data and sweeping revision of existing strategies. They urge formation of a politically independent national scientific commission, its members chosen by the National Academy of Sciences, in consultation with the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services, to facilitate open examination and honest consideration of alternatives to current failed or flawed policies.

The relationship between Mexico and Texas is in dire need of reassessment, given the chasm between the reality of the countries’ economic and cultural relationship and the political rhetoric that surrounds it.