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.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is starting her second term in office facing economic and political problems that feed into each other. These problems can be attributed to a large extent to mistakes her administration made during her first term. Rousseff’s macroeconomic policy proved to be inconsistent, and the choices she made in some key economic sectors, especially energy, were demonstrably disastrous. Rousseff now faces
the enormous challenge of reconciling the leftwing populism that led her to victory with the inescapable need
to regain the trust of the most dynamic sectors of Brazilian society, including the private sector.
We explain a great change in the distribution of income by increased automation, which has directly replaced human labor in tasks that can be reduced to algorithms.
In 1972, a National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, comprising establishment figures chosen mostly by President Richard Nixon himself, issued a report that declared that “neither the marihuana user nor the drug itself can be said to constitute a danger to public safety” and recommended that Congress and state legislatures decriminalize the use and casual distribution of marijuana and seek means other than prohibition to discourage use.
President Nixon ignored the report and Congress declined to consider its recommendations, but during the 40-plus years since its publication, at least 37 states have acted to refashion a crazy-quilt collection of prohibitions, nearly always in the direction favored by the commission. The specifics vary by state, but most reform legislation has followed one of three formulas: decriminalization of marijuana possession, legalization of marijuana for medical use, or legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use. In this issue brief, authors Katharine Neill and William Martin examine the facts and fears surrounding each of these options.
Katharine Neill Harris, William MartinFebruary 4, 2015
The decade 2003-2013 was an exceptional one for Latin America in social terms, but less clearly so in economic terms. Growth slowed down significantly after the exceptional factors that fed the 2003-2007 boom came to an end. The possible unwinding of the super-cycle in commodity prices and, to a lesser extent, of the expansionary monetary policy of the United States, has added new challenges. But the major issue is the need to overcome the
poor long-term economic performance that has characterized the region in the post-market reforms period, particularly by adopting active production sector development strategies.
Public finance fellow John Diamond recently testified before the Texas House Ways and Means Committee on dynamic scoring and analysis use in tax policy.
Public finance fellow John Diamond analyzed the proposed Tax Reform Act of 2014 in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures on July 30, 2014.
This issue brief identifies the four main reforms that the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government must undertake to revive the manufacturing industry in India.
The violent struggle between rival Mexican drug cartels and other criminal groups has left tens of thousands dead and towns across Mexico paralyzed with fear. With overwhelmed police forces relatively powerless to control drug-related murders and kidnappings, a growing number of vigilante organizations, or self-defense
groups, aim to restore order — but now even they are fighting, and killing, among themselves.
Kenneth B. Medlock III, James A. Baker, III, and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics, testified about crude oil production and energy trade policy before the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives.