The theory of “public choice” tells us that the public cannot make intelligent choices about government. But deregulation is as much a choice as activism.
Economic Policy
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Private Use of Public Life
Last December, a public interest group called the Center for Public Integrity published a unique analysis of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), titled “America’s Frontline Trade Officials.”* The center used a wide variety of government documents, newsletters, press clips, directories, and other sources to piece together the career paths of mid-level and […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Why Save the Banks? The Ambivalent Liberal’s Guide to Reform
Liberals may find it difficult to muster sympathy for bankers, but there are compelling reasons to strengthen banking. Reforms should help restore the banks’ profitability, while coupling new powers with stronger supervision to curb abuses.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Can Business Beat Bureaucracy?
Attacks on bureaucracy have typically come from outside the corporate world; now they are coming from inside it. Are the business critics and reformers serious? Is American business really undergoing an internal transformation?
Posted inAmerica and the World
Rejoinder: Who Do We Think They Are?
Ever since I argued in the Harvard Business Review last year that we should pay less attention to corporate nationality and more attention to whether our nation’s work force was gaining the skills and competences it needed to compete, I’ve had the curious sense of being shoved — quite against my will — to the […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
They Are Not Us: Why American Ownership Still Matters
You don’t have to be a Japan-basher to want American-based firms to thrive. As long as separate nation-states do business by different rules, it isn’t One World yet.
Posted inAmerica and the World
The New Industrial Culture: Journeys Toward Collaboration
The competitiveness of the U.S. economy depends on changes inside firms, particularly their willingness to take risks in reshaping four key relationships. Competitiveness, it turns out, depends on new kinds of collaboration.
Posted inLaw and Justice
The Great Immigration Debate
Congress is once again rewriting the immigration laws. How wide, and to whom, should we open that Golden Door? What goals should our national immigration policy serve?
Posted inAmerica and the World
Dubious Crusade: The Push for Agricultural Laissez Faire
The Bush administration is pushing an international agreement to do away with agricultural subsidies. But we have never practiced—for good reason—the policies we are preaching to others.
Posted inBooks
The Growth Puzzle
Here are two books with drastically different stories about growth and productivity in the American economy. The more persuasive of the two hasn’t got the attention it deserves.