Recent Policy Studies

• Welfare
  

  Making Welfare Work: Reforming Arizona’s Welfare System to Help Families and Save Money

  By Katherine K. Bradley, Goldwater Institute
  
  Policy Brief, 03/04/2010
  

  Like many states, Arizona is grappling with a historic budget shortfall and faces complex decisions about what programs and services to reduce or eliminate. In response to the 2010 budget, the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) made a series of cuts, including $13.5 million in the Cash Assistance welfare program. The state was wise not to cut welfare-to-work programs that are designed to move recipients off the welfare rolls and into self-sufficiency. Arizona should consider additional no-cost policies that would further save the state money and increase the number of people leaving welfare for gainful employment.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Will the Fed Nix Inflation in Time?

  By J. D. Foster, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 03/03/2010
  

  A mountain of excess bank reserves, now totaling more than $1 trillion, presents a real risk of rapid inflation if it is released too quickly into credit markets. The Federal Reserve appears to have the necessary tools to control the outflow of excess reserves, thereby restraining inflation. However, whether the Fed will use those tools wisely is an entirely separate issue. A related concern is the Fed’s timing and aggressiveness in withdrawing its traditional monetary support for the economy by raising the Fed funds rate. Frequent comments by Fed officials and others regarding the downward pressure on inflation from persistent excess capacity in the economy suggest the Fed may be significantly tardy in withdrawing monetary support. If so, the Fed is risking the return of stagflation—high unemployment and high inflation. The danger can be clearly demonstrated through the classic Taylor Rule and in contrast to a modified Taylor Rule in which the effects of excess capacity dissipate over time.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Taxation and Red Tape: The Cost to British Business of Complying with the UK Tax System

  By Francis Chittenden, Hilary Foster, Brian Sloan, Institute of Economic Affairs
  
  Booklet, 03/03/2010
  

  Successive governments have promised to reduce business red tape, whilst doing nothing about it. In fact, with regard to the tax system, ever-greater numbers of taxes and ever-greater complexity have increased burdens on businesses by turning firms into unpaid tax collectors. Research into the costs of regulation is notoriously difficult. However, this study brings together the best work on the burden of tax compliance and administration and adds important new insights. In particular, this monograph shows the severely regressive nature of the costs of complying with the UK tax system–small firms suffer far more than large firms from the imposition of government bureaucracy related to tax collection. The costs of complying with the tax system are higher in the UK than in many other countries. The authors show that this should not be the case, and propose ways of reducing the burden of tax bureaucracy. These include radical reforms, not just to the administration of the tax system, but also to the nature of the system itself.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  The State of the Union

  By Andrew J. Rettenmaier, Thomas R. Saving, Private Enterprise Research Center
  
  PERCspectives on Policy, 03/03/2010
  

  The economy is definitely in better shape than it was at this time last year. The stock market is up 23 percent, housing values are rebounding, and the leading economic indicators have posted gains for the past 8 months. While the ending date of the recession has yet to be determined, many economists believe that it was over in the second or third quarter of 2009 making it the longest recession since the Great Depression. The economic state of the union is better than it was a year ago, but the forecast would be much more optimistic if there were fewer government clouds on the horizon.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The Copenhagen Climate Conference: Beginning of the End for Global Warming Politics?

  By William Yeatman, Capital Research Center
  
  Foundation Watch, 03/03/2010
  

  Green activists are appalled that last December’s UN climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, did not produce a binding treaty obliging the world’s industrial powers to limit their carbon emissions. Worse, they are aghast that U.N. officials kept them out of the negotiating process, reversing trends of the past two decades that promoted increasing participation by nongovernmental organizations claiming to represent “civil society” apart from U.N. member states. What’s the next step for the greens? Our author predicts an increase in extremist activism.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  The Irresponsible Center for Responsible Lending

  By Sean Higgins, Capital Research Center
  
  Organization Trends, 03/03/2010
  

  The Center for Responsible Lending presents itself as a tireless advocate of poor and downtrodden borrowers facing a credit industry of greedy banks, payday lenders and other financial predators. Yet a review of The Center for Responsible Lending advocacy paints a different picture of the organization. It is intimately tied to some of the worst actors in the lending business and its advocacy has too often hurt, not helped, the very people it claims to defend.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Stopping Juvenile Detention

  By Joseph Lawler, Capital Research Center
  
  Foundation Watch, 03/03/2010
  

  The Annie E. Casey and W.K. Kellogg foundations fund programs that endanger the public by keeping dangerous young offenders on the streets. Their reckless theory holds that detaining youths before trial turns them into criminals. The anti-incarceration movement wants to keep young people out of detention even when they should not be left out on the streets. Davonte Lightfoot may have been a child, but he was also a high risk to public safety. Unfortunately, the Casey Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and the anti-detention activists they fund are increasing the risk to the public and to young offenders.

  
  
  
• Philanthropy
  

  The Generosity of America

  By Adam Meyerson, Hillsdale College
  
  Imprimis, 03/03/2010
  

  To begin with, charitable giving in America has never been the exclusive province of wealthy people. Throughout our history, Americans from all walks of life have given generously for charitable causes. Indeed, the most generous Americans today—the group that gives the most to charity as a proportion of their income—are the working poor. Meyerson offers up three reasons for “The Generosity of America:” America stands as the most religious people of any leading modern economy, a respect exists of the freedom and the ability of individuals, and associations of individuals, to make a difference; and that philanthropy is such an important part of our nation’s business culture.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  What Utah Teachers Think About “No Child Left Behind”: An Independent Survey

  By Matthew C. Piccolo, Sutherland Institute
  
  Policy Study, 03/03/2010
  

  In 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law. Since then, Utahns have engaged in vigorous debate about whether or not the program is effective and appropriate for Utah schools and students. In 2004, for example, state legislators nearly opted out of NCLB but, instead, chose to pass a bill that gives state education policy preference over federal policy. A survey of 1,020 Utah public school teachers reveals that 14 percent of teachers view NCLB favorably, whereas 81 percent view it unfavorably. Most teachers believe that though NCLB was written with good intentions, it is unrealistic and burdensome and overemphasizes testing.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Better Education for All Children: The Annual Fiscal Analysis of a Virginia Educational Improvement Tax Credit

  By Christian N. Braunlich, Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy
  
  Policy Study, 03/03/2010
  

  In the debate over parental choice in Virginia, many questions remain unanswered. But, during budgetary hard times, the largest of these is simple: What would be the fiscal impact of a parental choice package, both at the state and local level? The answer is simple: Properly constructed, a program offering a corporate tax credit of 90 percent for donations to organizations providing scholarships for students who had previously attended public school (or who were entering kindergarten for the first time) would have no effect on state funding of education. And, as well, it would have a generally positive impact on available funds at the local level. In January 2005, the Thomas Jefferson Institute first analyzed the data that drew these conclusions. This paper updates that study with the most recently available data.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Why Maryland Doesn’t Need Universal Preschool

  By Dan Lips, Maryland Public Policy Institute
  
  Policy Report, 03/03/2010
  

  Policymakers in Maryland may soon consider whether to enact legislation that moves toward the goal of universal preschool for all children, outlined in these various plans. Before this happens, policymakers and the public should carefully examine the basic premise of those championing the universal preschool initiative. Put simply, should the Old Line State provide subsidized preschool for all children (including those from middle- and upper-income families)?

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Developing a Statewide Clinical Trial Registry for Georgia Residents

  By Charles Romano, Ross Mason, Georgia Public Policy Foundation
  
  Issue Analysis, 03/03/2010
  

  Biotechnology research is emerging in Georgia through a financially buoyant and talented pool of professionals who bring great science, technology and jobs to the state. This industry is typically cost-effective for medical innovation while exploring novel products that can save millions of lives. Increasing the access of patients to clinical trials in Georgia is an immediate way to improve the standing of Georgia research professionals in clinical trials, improve options for patients that want to explore clinical trials and take advantage of industry-paid health care. This approach also improves the exposure of Georgia physicians and health care teams to novel products years in advance of market exposure, simply because they are able to recruit studies more rapidly.

  
  
  
• Information Technology
  

  Network Neutrality: Far from Neutral

  By Ryan Brannan, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 03/03/2010
  

  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced its intention to adopt regulations to govern the Internet in the name of network neutrality. It has proposed to codify four general Internet policy principles adopted informally in 2005 plus two new principles. The Texas Public Policy Foundation recently filed the following comments with the FCC opposing the adoption in rule of the proposed principles. The principles are unneeded and, worse, will hinder the achievement of the very goals they are intended to promote. In fact, the current marketplace has fostered investment and innovation, protected users’ interests, and promoted competition, so there is no need for the FCC to step in and create burdensome regulation.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Budget Driver: Federal Funds

  By Talmadge Heflin, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 03/03/2010
  

  As such a large source of funding, several questions arise. Have federal funds always played such a prominent role in the state’s budget? Where are these funds being spent? And what are the consequences, if any, of relying so heavily on federal aid? To answer these questions and better understand the impact of federal funds on Texas, this research examines the current state of federal funding and the role it plays within the state budget.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Property Taxes in and Around Texas

  By Talmadge Heflin, James Quintero, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 03/03/2010
  

  Homeowners in Texas shoulder a heavy property tax burden; oft en times, much greater than that of the average U.S. homeowner. The extent of this burden roughly correlates with population density. Depending on the population of the county, the amount of property taxes homeowners pay can vary considerably. Homeowners in larger counties tend to have higher property taxes, while the opposite is true for smaller counties. Whether or not the inequity caused by the disparate impact of property taxes makes good tax policy is definitely something the Legislature should examine.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Time to Rethink What’s a Crime: So-Called Crimes Are Here, There, and Everywhere

  By Marc Levin, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Perspective, 03/03/2010
  

  Texas lawmakers have created over 1,700 criminal offenses, including 11 felonies alone relating to harvesting and handling oysters. This excludes criminal offenses created through state agency rulemaking and city ordinances. The traditional offenses like murder, rape, and theft are found in the Penal Code, but the proliferation of crimes now extends to nearly every other body of state law. Indeed, just 254 of these offenses are those traditional crimes found in the Penal Code such as homicide, rape, and assault. Most of the other offenses interspersed throughout other codes concern business activities that would be better addressed through incentives created by competitive markets or civil penalties. Texas can’t arrest its way out of a recession, but many policymakers act as if we could.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  More Government Preschool: An Expensive and Unnecessary Middle-Class Subsidy

  By Lindsey M. Burke, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 03/02/2010
  

  Federal spending on early childhood education and care exceeds $25 billion annually. President Obama and other proponents of taxpayer-funded universal preschool want to add $10 billion as an incentive for the states to expand their early childhood education and care programs—with the goal of giving all children access to state-subsidized preschool. Why is this a bad idea? Because the majority of America’s young children already attend preschool—and a new federal program that provides financial incentives for states to expand preschool would become an expensive and unnecessary taxpayer subsidy for middle-class and upper-income children. “Free” preschools would also crowd out private preschool programs, limiting choice and options for parents.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Iran, Democracy, and Trade Keys to Successful Clinton Visit to Latin America

  By Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 03/02/2010
  

  Secretary Clinton's Latin America trip is an opportunity to talk with Brazil about the Iranian nuclear threat.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research on Health and Health Care Spending

  By Anirban Basu, Tomas J. Philipson, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Working Paper, 03/02/2010
  

  Public subsidization of technology assessments in general, and Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) in particular, has received considerable attention as a tool to simultaneously improve patient health and lower the cost of health care. However, little conceptual and empirical understanding exists concerning the quantitative impact of public technology assessments such as CER. This paper analyses the impact of CER on health and medical care spending interpreting CER to shift the demand for some treatments at the expense of others. Using conservative estimates, we find that if Medicaid would have eliminated coverage for the least cost-effective treatments of the CATIE trial then under homogeneous effects, it would save about 90% of the $1.3B Medicaid class sales annually in non-elderly adult patient with schizophrenia. However, taking into account the observed heterogeneity in treatment effects, it would incur a loss of health valued annually at about 98% of class spending and thus a net loss of about 8% of annual class spending.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  False Fronts? Behind Higher Education’s Voluntary Accountability Systems

  By Andrew P. Kelly, Chad Aldeman, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Policy Report, 03/02/2010
  

  In the throes of the recent economic downturn, the nation’s leaders have repeatedly pointed to America’s higher education system as one of the key engines that will drive the country’s recovery in the years to come. In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama lamented America’s failure to keep pace with other industrialized nations and challenged the country to regain its mantle as the worldwide leader in postsecondary attainment. While previous reform efforts have focused on increasing access to higher education, increasing postsecondary attainment will require higher levels of college retention and completion. Put simply, colleges and universities will have to do a better job of serving the students that they enroll.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  What Role for Geoengineering?

  By Samuel Thernstrom, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 03/02/2010
  

  Geoengineering, in all its forms, challenges us to take the climate seriously enough to seek to understand all of its components, how they interact with each other, and all the ways in which we can influence their interactions. As climate scientist Tim Lenton has remarked, “The climate is complicated. Why should we try to control it using just one knob?” More broadly, geoengineering provides a range of important, unique insights into the working of the climate system. This is more comprehensive, science-based perspective on the climate challenge, rather than a purely regulatory pathway, one that is more likely to produce the right results in the end.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  Due North: Canada’s Marvelous Mortgage and Banking System

  By Mark J. Perry, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 03/02/2010
  

  There were some significant differences between Canada and the United States during the recent financial crisis. In general, Canada’s banking system proved more prudent, more resilient, and much less prone to excesses. Taking a closer look at these differences might tell us how the United States got into the mess it is in, and illuminate some ideas for future reforms.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  A Green Future for Just Pennies a Day?

  By Kenneth P. Green, Aparna Mathur, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 03/02/2010
  

  Supporters of greenhouse gas controls often portray them as cheap and easy, using economic models that rely on dubious assumptions of future rates of technology development and market penetration. But more straightforward input-output models suggest greenhouse gas controls will be anything but cheap, and they certainly won’t be easy.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  How the Recession Has Changed American Migration

  By Michael Barone, American Enterprise Institute
  
  The American, 03/02/2010
  

  Demography is destiny, or at least a significant part of it, and America’s changing demography has had enormous consequences in every realm of life. Americans historically have been a mobile people. But the old saying that Americans have been moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt fails to capture what has been happening from 1990 to the onset of the current recession in 2007. And there are entirely new realities due to the recession that are remaking states and regions in important ways.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  An Options Pricing Method for Calculating the Market Price of Public Sector Pension Liabilities

  By Andrew G. Biggs, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Working Paper, 03/02/2010
  

  State and local public sector employee pensions are widely known to be underfunded, but pension financial reports do not reveal the true extent of funding shortfalls. Pension accounting methods assume that plan investments can earn high returns without taking any account of the market risk involved. This gives a false sense of the financial strength of public sector pensions and understates risks to taxpayers. Accurate measures of public pension liabilities are important for policymakers, taxpayers, investors considering the economic environment in which to start or locate a business, and bond purchasers considering the risk premia appropriate to municipal government bonds that are in practice subordinate to public pension liabilities.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  State Employee Contracts, Unfunded Liabilities Unsustainable

  By Bob Williams, Freedom Foundation
  
  Policy Highligter, 03/02/2010
  

  Already put-upon taxpayers face a future fiscal tidal wave thanks to generous state employee contracts and unfunded healthcare and pension liabilities. Even as Governor Gregoire repeatedly talks about the dire condition of the state’s economy —”the worst recession since the Great Depression” —she refuses to declare a fiscal emergency and require union contracts to be renegotiated. Meanwhile, majority party lawmakers, rather than getting spending under control, are busy considering a myriad of tax increases.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Proposed House Budget Cuts K-6 Online Learning: Displace 7,000 Students With Little Savings

  By Diana Cieslak, Freedom Foundation
  
  Policy Highligter, 03/02/2010
  

  Across the country, states are harnessing the power and potential of technology to offer cost-effective, student-focused, results-based learning options. Global groups like the International Council on Online Learning and local coalitions are advocating policies that promote and protect public online schooling options. Online programs offer unprecedented flexibility, choice and outcome-oriented public options. Over the past few years, Washington State has joined the movement and adopted policies that favor online learning options. Yet the proposed House budget would eliminate online learning for grades K-6, displacing more than 7,000 students. This would neither save the state money nor serve the interests of Washington’s students.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Pennsylvania Governor Proposes Spending Boost, Broader Sales Tax, Heavier Business Taxes

  By Joseph Henchman, Tax Foundation
  
  Fiscal Facts, 03/02/2010
  

  Pennsylvania is one of the states that last year used one-time stimulus money to backfill their budgets, postponing meaningful steps to prioritize public expenditures. Consequently, the state now faces a built-in multi-billion dollar annual budget gap from those disappearing federal revenues. Rendell proposes using tax increases to bridge that gap, but even those aren’t enough to completely close it or address future budgets. Some of Rendell’s proposals—broadening the sales tax while lowering the rate, uncapping losses that businesses can deduct, lowering the corporate income tax rate—are moves in the right direction. But the budget also boosts spending significantly, relying on one-time money, out-of-state businesses, and the federal government to do so. Without reprioritizing expenditures, slowing the rate of state spending, and meaningfully addressing the state’s structural deficit, Governor Rendell may have difficulty selling his proposal to legislators and the people of Pennsylvania.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  State of the State

  By Matt Mayer, Mary McCleary, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions
  
  Special Report, 03/02/2010
  

  The economic condition of Ohio is driven by three key variables: the health of the job market, the overall tax burden on Ohioans, and the cost of government. Politicians and so called experts might quibble with such a simple view, but fundamentally an Ohio without enough jobs for its citizens who carry both a heavy tax burden and a growing government bureaucracy is an Ohio headed in the wrong direction. As this report details, the Ohio job market is anemic and has been weak for two decades when compared to other states.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  A Kansas Primer on Education Funding: Volume III

  By Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute
  
  Education Report, 03/01/2010
  

  A Kansas Primer on Education Funding: Volume III identifies how court-mandated funding increases were spent by Kansas school districts and compares per-pupil spending across districts in search of minimum spending levels that, at least under current curriculum standards, produce adequate results. It also offers specific alternatives to “just spend more” that provide reasonable funding to schools without raising taxes or eliminating other necessary government services.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Climate Change: Developing Countries Control the Thermostat

  By H. Sterling Burnett, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 03/01/2010
  

  By itself, even an 80 percent cut in U.S. CO2 emissions would probably not have a measurable effect on future warming. The best climate policy would be to help emerging economies conserve energy and move rapidly toward less carbon-intensive energy sources, while developing the U.S. capacity to adapt to future climate change. Most importantly, politicians and the public need to recognize that make-the-West-bear-the-burden emissions reduction proposals are meaningless and likely counterproductive.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The FY 2011 Homeland Security Budget: Spending Doesn’t Match the Missions

  By Jena Baker McNeill, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 03/01/2010
  

  President Obama has released his fiscal year 2011 budget request. While the budget increases funding for the Department of Homeland Security by 2 percent, and while the Obama Administration continues to make cyber security, aviation security, and E-Verify top fiscal priorities—the budget fails to adequately align spending to the department’s stated missions. The Coast Guard, WMD surveillance, and border security are just some essential aspects of a national security strategy that remain under-funded, while other programs—proven unsuccessful—have received fattened budgets.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Iran, Democracy, and Trade Keys to Successful Clinton Visit to Latin America

  By Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 03/01/2010
  

  Secretary Clinton’s Latin America trip is an opportunity to talk with Brazil about the Iranian nuclear threat.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Food Safety in the 21st Century

  By Richard Williams, Robert Scharff, David Bieler, Mercatus Center
  
  Mercatus on Policy, 03/01/2010
  

  In a March 2009 address, President Obama declared, “There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat . . . are safe and don’t cause us harm.” Though this idea that only the government can control food safety risk may have been true at the turn of the 20th century, since then three important changes have occurred: (1) Food production and distribution have become more complex, (2) Many more facilities produce and handle food, and (3) Outbreaks and illnesses can more readily be tied to the facilities responsible. As food production has evolved, government must reconsider its antiquated regulation and–inspection strategy if it wants to play an effective role in ensuring food safety.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Regulating the Regulators: Seven Reforms for Sensible Regulatory Policy in North Carolina

  By Daren Bakst, John Locke Foundation
  
  Policy Report, 03/01/2010
  

  The people of North Carolina need protections put in place to provide oversight over government agencies so that their rule-making decisions represent the will of the legislature and not the whims of the agencies. Most state governments and even the federal government have far better controls over the regulatory power of government agencies than does North Carolina. The excessive regulatory power allowed by North Carolina imposes great costs on its citizens and businesses. This report identifies seven reforms that North Carolina should adopt to improve the regulatory environment in the state.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Tomorrow’s Wars

  By Victor Davis Hanson, Manhattan Institute
  
  City Journal, 03/01/2010
  

  Can big battles, then, haunt us once more? In short, if the conducive political, economic, and cultural requisites for set battles realign, as they have periodically over the centuries, we will see our own modern version of a Cannae or Shiloh. And these collisions will be frightening as never before.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  New Health Care Taxes to Slam Tri-state Area

  By Josh Barro, Manhattan Institute
  
  Issue Brief, 03/01/2010
  

  President Obama’s latest health reform proposal, released early this week, alters the tax implications of legislation previously passed in the House and the Senate. The “Cadillac Tax” on high-priced insurance plans will be significantly reduced. Originally slated to raise over $200 billion over ten years, the Cadillac Tax will now be delayed until 2018 and will raise only 15 to 30 percent of the original figure, depending on how it is implemented.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  A Better Prescription: AEI Scholars on Realistic Health Reform

  By Joseph Antos, Thomas P. Miller, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Special Report, 03/01/2010
  

  After a year of political wrangling and two thousand-page bills that promise more than they can deliver, it is time for a more prudent approach to health care reform. Americans made it clear that they will not tolerate a top-down health reform that further centralizes power and decision making in Washington. They distrust the promises of lower cost and more secure coverage, and they fear losing what they have now. A new approach to reform is needed, one that levels with the American people about what is possible and what is necessary.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  The Year to Date

  By John H. Makin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Economic Outlook, 03/01/2010
  

  The array of postbubble stresses and uncertainties identified in the January 2010 Economic Outlook “The Year Ahead,” promised that the new year would see plenty of volatility in markets. That is exactly what is playing out as we move through the first quarter. As risks accumulate, it may be that 2010 is shaping up as a mirror image of 2009, reversing last year’s down-then-up pattern with an up-then-down pattern this year.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  Lessons for a Long War: How America Can Win on New Battlefields

  By Thomas Donnell, et al., American Enterprise Institute
  
  Book, 03/01/2010
  

  Thomas Donnelly, Frederick W. Kagan, and their coauthors offer several core lessons for success in the Long War. They argue that decentralizing command is the key to efficient operations on an ever-changing battlefield; that airpower is the unsung hero of counterinsurgency warfare; that public opinion can influence crucial military decisions; and that the military should minimize its role in domestic affairs. Finally, although the battlefields have changed over the last fifty years, the authors contend that America’s long-held counterinsurgency strategy—to foster political support at home, employ diplomacy overseas, and extend military assistance to allies—remains effective.

  
  
  
• Welfare
  

  How President Obama’s Budget Will Demolish Welfare Reform

  By Katherine Bradley, Robert Rector, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/26/2010
  

  The Obama budget is sending a clear message to members of high-risk communities: “Stay on welfare and don’t get married.”

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The U.S. Should Set Rigorous Standards for U.N. Aid to North Korea

  By Brett D. Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 02/26/2010
  

  The U.S. and other countries are justified in demanding assurances that their charity toward the North Korean people is not being misused.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Meeting Taiwan’s Self-Defense Needs

  By Dean Cheng, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 02/26/2010
  

  The United States is the provider of both tangible security and political stability to the Taiwan Strait. Given China’s ongoing military buildup, particularly toward Taiwan, it is essential that the United States provide Taiwan with the physical and political means to resist the capacity of the Chinese military to alter the political status quo. This should include continued U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and maintaining a robust U.S. military capability in the region.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  American Gothic

  By Doug Stout, Public Interest Institute
  
  Policy Study, 02/26/2010
  

  American Gothic is a survey of current issues and challenges facing Iowa farmers as they enter a new decade. It seems as though they are often underappreciated and that their role in Midwest life has been taken for granted. Iowa is still a farm state and although economic diversification is a positive development, we can not overlook the continued role that agriculture plays in our economic and social environment. This essay strives to paint a more balanced view of the practices and realities facing the farmer today. Like the market price of their products and the weather conditions in any given growing season, today’s producers face many criticisms and challenges which are beyond their control.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms

  By Stephen P. Halbrook, Independent Institute
  
  Book, 02/26/2010
  

  What did it mean to take civil rights seriously—especially the “right to bear arms”—in the years following the abolition of slavery? By quoting legislative debates, Congressional hearings on Ku Klux Klan violence, and newspapers and law books of the time, constitutional scholar Stephen Halbrook shows that both supporters and opponents of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) believed that it protected all Bill of Rights guarantees—especially the Second Amendment—from infringement by the states.