Browse by Media Hit and Economic Growth

"Even if one agrees that U.S.-made steel must be protected, the problem is that imposing large tariffs gives a green light to every other company or industry hoping to use government power to protect it from competition," IPI resident scholar Merrill Matthews said. "They will now descend on Washington, checkbook in hand. That's the swamp, or what's known as 'crony capitalism.'"

Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act stands as the most sweeping and comprehensive tax reform in the past 30 years. Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a public policy research organization, writes, “President Trump has already done more to grow the U.S. economy than the last four presidents and 28 years combined.” 

One savings vehicle that just didn't get the job done was the government-sponsored myRA account. Existing alternatives to the myRA were superior because they allowed workers to invest in a variety of securities, while the myRA restricted investments to U.S. Treasuries," noted IPI in a commentary. "Treasuries are lousy retirement investments." 

The information about Californians moving to Texas confirms what some people already know. "We've been identifying that situation for some time," says Merrill Matthews, PhD, a resident scholar for the Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation.

This weekend the Trib has devoted a generous amount of ink and paper to differing views on President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord. Those opinions range widely, from Washington Post journalist Ben Adler’s concern for both environment and economy, increasingly dependent on renewable energy and green initiatives, to conservative Texas scholar Merrill Matthews’ fears that the accord made too many demands of developed nations for environmental change, which he suggests (and with strong evidence) is already being positively affected by free-market forces. 

"The U.S. has a trade deficit because consumers have money to spend — and they spend it," said Merrill Matthews, IPI resident scholar, in a recent post. "Moreover, when U.S. consumers buy foreign goods and services (the current account), that money returns in the form of investment (the capital account). In other words, the accounts balance."

A tax compromise that Trump could claim credit for isn’t hard to imagine. Business would be pleased. “A quarter of a loaf is better than none,” says Tom Giovanetti, president of the center-right Institute for Policy Innovation in Irving, Texas.

As Institute for Policy Innovation scholar Merrill Matthews recently noted in these pages, a number of states have tried to impose single-payer health plans on their citizens and failed.

While Obama promised America “hope and change” from a progressive left-of-center dogma, it was more of the “same ol’, same ‘ol” from an economic standpoint.

Giovanetti cautioned that putting more money in people’s pockets so they can spend it is not the purpose of tax reform. “No, cash isn’t enough,” he said. “It has to be invested productively in order to grow the economy. When businesses expand, they hire new workers and create new wealth. And that’s what we want.”