Owatonna, Minnesota Correspondent — The post-2008 reforms improved capital and liquidity standards at large banks and brought more of the system under supervision. That was real. They didn't eliminate leverage, maturity mismatch, or the tendency of risk to migrate toward whichever entity is regulated differently. The next serious recession will test whether the remaining gaps … Continue reading Will the next recession reveal that many post-2008 financial reforms were insufficient to prevent systemic risk?

Clermont, Florida Correspondent — When a product is heavily marketed and later shown to have contributed to widespread harm, ordinary liability should apply with real force. Shielding companies after the fact weakens deterrence for everybody watching. Pricing constraints are a separate and more complicated tool. Blunt controls can reduce future development and create shortages. Stronger … Continue reading Should pharmaceutical companies face stronger liability or pricing constraints when their products contribute to public-health crises?

Prescott Valley, Arizona Correspondent — Executive orders and emergency powers have always existed. Their frequency and scope have expanded as congressional capacity to legislate has declined, and the second half of that sentence is the cause rather than the consequence. When major policy is routinely made by executive action, the legislative branch is sidelined and … Continue reading Is the growing use of executive orders and emergency declarations eroding the constitutional balance between the branches of government?

Dayton, Ohio Correspondent — Most critical infrastructure is owned privately or by states and localities, which is the fact that determines what the federal role can actually be. Clear performance standards, better threat information sharing, targeted support for upgrades. Cyber requirements can go into existing sector regulators and procurement rules rather than into a new … Continue reading How can the federal government improve the reliability of critical infrastructure against both physical and cyber threats without creating new bureaucratic layers?

Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — It already has. The question is written as though we're waiting on something. High-value jobs, capital gains, and cultural influence concentrated in a small number of metros, and large parts of the interior concluding they're permanently outside it. That shows up in voting, in trust, and in tone. Treating it … Continue reading Will the increasing concentration of wealth and economic opportunity in a few coastal metropolitan areas eventually produce a lasting political backlash?

Clermont, Florida Correspondent — High-skill immigration, properly selected, raises productivity and fills genuine gaps. Expanding those pathways serves long-term growth better than restricting them. The political difficulty is that immigration is debated as a single package, so the category with the strongest economic case gets held hostage to the categories with the hardest politics. Separating … Continue reading Should the United States adopt a more restrictive approach to legal immigration in high-skill categories, or expand it further?

Wheeling, West Virginia Correspondent — Easy federal lending combined with accreditation that rarely withdraws approval let costs rise while the quality signal weakened. Accreditation has functioned more as a gate to loan money than as a guardian of educational value, and the accreditors are funded by the institutions they review, which would be considered a … Continue reading Is the current model of higher education accreditation and federal student lending still serving the public interest?

Dayton, Ohio Correspondent — The first response is to stop being surprised. Interdependence can be weaponized and some states are willing to do it. That's not a revelation anymore and we keep treating each instance as one. Better mapping of critical dependencies, diversified sourcing for those items, coordinated responses when coercion is used. Collective resilience … Continue reading How should Western democracies respond to the increasing use of economic coercion and supply-chain leverage by authoritarian states?

Owatonna, Minnesota Correspondent — Debt that outpaces growth eventually forces an adjustment. The available tools are higher revenue, slower spending growth, or inflation that erodes the real value of what's owed. Political systems prefer to defer the choice, and deferral is itself a choice with a price. The longer it runs, the more likely inflation … Continue reading Will the continued rise in corporate and government debt eventually force a choice between higher taxes, reduced benefits, or inflation?

Clermont, Florida Correspondent — Utility treatment brings heavier obligations on neutrality and access. It also brings heavier regulation and slower movement, and these firms aren't a clean parallel to a railroad because they're carriers and editors at once. A lighter approach — clearer rules on transparency, data portability, consistent enforcement of their own published standards … Continue reading Should large technology platforms be treated as common carriers or public utilities for purposes of content and data regulation?