Owatonna, MN Correspondent — Rising interest costs reduce fiscal space for investment, defence, and future emergencies. Net interest passed a trillion dollars this year and exceeds defence spending. That's not a projection anymore. Sustained growth is still possible. The trajectory makes it harder and raises the odds of an eventual adjustment that itself slows growth. … Continue reading Is the current trajectory of federal debt and interest costs compatible with sustained economic growth and long-term geopolitical leadership?
Author: thinkingoutsidetheboxe
Will the continued advance of artificial intelligence force a fundamental rethinking of education, workforce development, and the design of the social safety net?
Dayton, OH Correspondent — AI is changing the return to certain cognitive skills and the speed at which tasks can be automated. Systems built around fixed credentials and slow curriculum cycles will lag. The safety net was designed for cyclical unemployment and industrial transition. It will face more frequent skill obsolescence in white-collar work. Fundamental … Continue reading Will the continued advance of artificial intelligence force a fundamental rethinking of education, workforce development, and the design of the social safety net?
How should the United States balance stricter border enforcement with the practical need for legal pathways that match labor-market demand?
Clermont, FL Correspondent — Strict enforcement without workable channels produces repeated waves. Channels without enforcement produce the same inflows under different paperwork. The enforcement half is now demonstrated rather than theoretical. Crossings are at levels not seen in decades and interior removals ran to several hundred thousand this year. So the question has narrowed usefully. … Continue reading How should the United States balance stricter border enforcement with the practical need for legal pathways that match labor-market demand?
After a full year, did the administration demonstrate that significant policy change is possible within the existing administrative structure, or that institutional inertia remains dominant?
Dayton, Ohio Correspondent — A year in, the answer has more evidence behind it than it did in March. Direction changed fast where the law already left room — enforcement choices, permitting emphasis, regulatory pauses. That's changing the process sheet and it matters. The machinery is a different story. What the year actually demonstrated is … Continue reading After a full year, did the administration demonstrate that significant policy change is possible within the existing administrative structure, or that institutional inertia remains dominant?
The reconciliation bill signed today adds substantially to the deficit path. Does that undercut the efficiency effort, or are the two separate files?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — They're separate files and they're being scored on the same page, which is the problem. Waste and fraud are real and worth attacking on their own terms. Nothing in that argument depends on the deficit, and the case for going after a hundred-billion-dollar fraud loss stands whether the budget is … Continue reading The reconciliation bill signed today adds substantially to the deficit path. Does that undercut the efficiency effort, or are the two separate files?
With its most visible figure departed and the aid agency formally closed this week, is the government efficiency effort institutionalizing or dissipating — and what should count as a saving?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — The mission is right and the vehicle looks fragile, and those are separate sentences. Right, because the government's own auditors have been reporting improper payments around a hundred and sixty billion a year and something near two point eight trillion cumulatively since they started counting. That's the accountability office telling Congress … Continue reading With its most visible figure departed and the aid agency formally closed this week, is the government efficiency effort institutionalizing or dissipating — and what should count as a saving?
Has the first half of 2025 produced a working majority that can pass appropriations on time, or only a governing style that still lives on findings and continuing resolutions?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — A working majority leaves a markup and a signature on a bill that funds the government before the lights flicker. A style leaves a finding, a continuing resolution, and a speech about the flicker. The record so far is the style. The current fiscal year was closed out on a … Continue reading Has the first half of 2025 produced a working majority that can pass appropriations on time, or only a governing style that still lives on findings and continuing resolutions?
Should allied semiconductor and critical-mineral projects be judged this year by wafers and kilograms delivered, or are ribbon counts still the real metric?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — Wafers and kilograms. If you can't count them, you had a parade. Mid-2025 is late enough that some dirt should have become a unit, and in one or two cases it has. Arizona is producing at commercial volume, which is a real answer to a question people were asking three years … Continue reading Should allied semiconductor and critical-mineral projects be judged this year by wafers and kilograms delivered, or are ribbon counts still the real metric?
The reconciliation bill was enacted today. Does it change the deficit path this decade, or only move favorite constituencies?
Myrtle Beach, SC Correspondent — We have the score now and the answer is neither ambiguous nor surprising. The published estimate has this adding something over three trillion to deficits across the decade, and the debt ceiling went up five trillion in the same instrument. So it did not change the path. It steepened it, … Continue reading The reconciliation bill was enacted today. Does it change the deficit path this decade, or only move favorite constituencies?
Twelve days after American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and a ceasefire that is holding, what should the posture be now — and does the strike settle the nuclear clock or only reset it?
Gastonia, NC Correspondent — The argument we were all having about whether to impose a cost is over. A cost was imposed on the twenty-second and the fuse got moved. Moved is not removed, and that's the whole file now. What I want is an honest answer to a narrow question: where is the enriched … Continue reading Twelve days after American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and a ceasefire that is holding, what should the posture be now — and does the strike settle the nuclear clock or only reset it?
