American Enterprise Institute
Resident Scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and teacher of International Trade at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs; former trade-policy advisor to John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign; former senior economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisers (2003-2005) and member of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department
Is China Becoming the World's New Civil Engineer? During his White House news conference today, President Obama insisted again that infrastructure, especially high-speed rail, will be essential to getting the US economy back on track. One of many competitors in this regard is China, which has ballyhooed this week's opening of a high-speed train between Beijing and Shanghai as its latest demonstration of technological expertise. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is being rebuilt partly in China, by Chinese workers using advanced technology. What about the President's call for infrastructure construction to bolster America's economy? Photo: Aerial view of the Bay Bridge retrofit project, © California Department of Transportation
Is China Becoming the World's New Civil Engineer? Once again today, President Obama insisted that infrastructure, especially high-speed rail, will be essential to getting the US economy back on track. But an essential part of America's transportation infrastructure, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge , is already being rebuilt by Chinese workers using Chinese technology. In a Shanghai manufacturing complex, workers are assembling two dozen giant steel modules, each with a roadbed segment half the size of a football field. Giant ships then take them 6500 miles to California, where American workers fit them into the eastern span of the new bridge. Can the US compete on US soil and in the rest of the world?
Federal Bailouts and Double Standards Two hundred workers are staging a sit-in at a Chicago factory after the Bank of America cut off the company's credit. The bank got $25 billion in taxpayer funds, but the workers only got three days notice of termination. Now they're symbolic of the double standard for federal bailouts of Wall Street compared to other sectors of the economy. The factory is in the former state senate district of President-elect Barack Obama .
Bailouts, Perferences and Industrial Policy The White House says if Democrats can get their act together it's "very likely" the Big Three automakers will get massive federal assistance. But auto workers are on a caravan from the Midwest to Washington, complaining they have to make more concessions than Wall Street financiers. The Bank of America, which got $25 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, cut off credit to their employer; the auto workers got three days notice of termination, when federal law requires 60 days. They've become a symbol of the complaint that the bailout process favors the white-collar financial sector at the expense of blue-collar workers. Is Wall Street more important than other sectors of the economy? Does the US need a policy for manufacturing, too, like Barack Obama's jobs-creating stimulus plan ?
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.