Mercatus Policy Download

Today we start a special miniseries on the idea of economic resiliency. Over the course of several weeks, we’ll be diving into three distinct policy areas to talk about ways policymakers can help make consumers, specific markets, and the entire economy better able to withstand shocks and crises.

To help guide us through the series, we'll be joined by a special co-host, Brian Knight. Brian is a scholar here at Mercatus, directing our work on financial regulation, and is the perfect person to both contribute policy expertise and ask some probing questions of our additional guests as we work our way through the series.

For today’s episode, we’re starting at the only place it makes sense to start a series about financial resiliency: the housing market. Often considered a primary source of the 2008 financial crisis, housing has gone from being considered the safest and most reliable markets in the US economy to one viewed with suspicion.

Luckily for us, we have two extremely well-qualified folks in the studio today to help walk us through the past, present, and, hopefully, future of housing in the United States, and over the next 30 minutes or so, we’ll hopefully land on some ideas for making housing more resilient for everyone.

First, we welcome back to the show Emily Hamilton. Emily is an economist here at Mercatus specializing in state and local policy. Emily’s research often focuses on land use regulations, looking at the local, state, and federal laws that play a significant role in shaping where and how people live.

And to round-out the group I’m very happy to welcome Kevin Erdmann. Kevin is a visiting fellow with the Mercatus Center, and just released a new book entitled Shut Out that offers a bit of a contrarian take on the housing boom and bust.

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Today's What's on Tap beer is the Partly Cloudy New England Style IPA from Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA.

Data privacy. Just saying those two words together probably conjures a whole host of emotions, ranging from suspicion and fear about the way corporations collect and use our personal information to amazement at the quantity and variety of digital products and services that our personal data buys us access to.

As any lawyer will tell you, privacy has always been a tricky issue to pin down, and the digital age has made that even more obvious, as consumers seem both more willing than ever to share private information about themselves freely online and simultaneously more concerned that such information might be used improperly.

For today’s episode, we’re going to be talking with some tech experts who deal with these issues every day.

• Mercatus scholar Jennifer Huddleston. Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law
• Shane Tews, Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where she focuses on cybersecurity and internet governance
• Brendan Bordelon, tech and cybersecurity reporter at National Journal

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Today's What's on Tap beverage is Budweiser's Copper Lager.

With the Super Bowl behind us, football fans are already looking ahead to the 2020 season, and they’re not the only ones thinking about the future of the NFL. More specifically, speculation about where and how new stadiums will be built is in full swing, particularly in the Washington, DC area.

Even back in December, the Washington Post reported that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was working with Congress to secure a deal for a new football stadium, and in response, local lawmakers have started signaling their reluctance to engage in a bidding war for the team.

Virginia Delegate Michael Webert introduced legislation proposing an “interstate compact” between Virginia, Maryland, and DC, which would essentially bar all three localities from providing incentives to host a new Redskins stadium. Maryland Delegate David Moon and DC Councilmember David Grosso have both indicated support for something similar.

So today, we’re talking about the Redskins stadium, how an interstate compact might affect it, and what all this means for other sports stadium deals.

• First, we're joined by the Washington Post’s Liz Clarke. Liz has two decades as a sportswriter for the Post under her belt, including eight seasons with the Redskins
• Next up, we welcome back Michael Farren. Michael’s been on the show before to talk stadium subsidies, and his research covers a range of issues at play here including government favoritism and economic development
• Finally, we have Matthew Mitchell on the phone. Matt is one of our research directors here at Mercatus, where he focuses on public choice economics and the economics of government favoritism

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Today's What's on Tap beverage is Long Black Veil brought to you by Port City Brewing in Alexandria, VA.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “drones?” For some, the answer might be a remotely-piloted military aircraft. For others, it might be the little quad-copter you fly around your backyard for fun. But for our guests today, drones might be the future of healthcare.

Other countries have already started experimenting with drone technology in order to deliver medication, blood, or other supplies, and the technology could one day replace or augment some ambulances or emergency helicopters, making such services more accessible, affordable, and safer.

But we aren’t there yet, and here to talk about what it might take to get us there are two healthcare policy experts who just co-authored an essay for STAT entitled “Drones Delivering Medical Supplies and More Can Help Save American Lives.”

• Dr. Darcy Nikol Bryan, an associate clinical professor at the University of California, and a practicing physician at the Riverside Medical Clinic. Also relevant to today’s discussion, she is a certified remote pilot
• Robert Graboyes, PhD economist and senior research fellow here at Mercatus. Bob is an award-winning professor of health economics, and his current research focuses on technological innovation in the healthcare space

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If you have any questions or comments for Darcy, please send her an email at [email protected]

Today's What's on Tap beer is brought to you by Alewerks' Coffehouse.

Even in the middle of a partial federal government shutdown, federal, state, and local agencies continue to play a huge role in the policy world and our everyday lives. Regulations help determine everything from the kind of toothpaste you used this morning to the music you listened to on the radio during your commute to rent prices in your neighborhood, and after an exciting year of regulatory policy in 2018, we're eager to hear more about how the regulatory landscape may change in the year ahead.

Here to help walk us through that and to make some predictions about what we might expect from policymakers, we're joined by three terrific guests:

• Cheryl Bolen, reporter on the White House for Bloomberg BNA, and is well-known as one of the top regulatory journalists in the country
• Emily Hamilton, economist here at Mercatus focusing on urban economics and land-use policy
• James Broughel, economist with Mercatus and a law professor specializing in state and federal regulatory procedures

Check out mercatus.org and The Bridge for our latest research, publications, and podcast episodes.

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Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadMReese.

Today's What's on Tap beverage is for you Dry January participants, O'Doul's Amber. 

There are a lot of ways we could wrap up the year, but probably none better than to take a step back, look at 2018, and ask ourselves what the most important economic developments were.

From trade wars to interest rate hikes, inverting yield curves to tax reform implementation, a lot happened this year. We've asked our guests today to be prepared to talk about…well, just about everything.

We actually want to start with a disclaimer that we normally wouldn’t include, and it’s that we are recording this podcast in mid-December just before the Federal Reserve’s December press conference. Since we’re probably going to get to monetary policy and interest rates and all that, we mention that in case Fed Chair Jay Powell does something shocking or surprising and throws everything we’re about to talk about out the window.

With that out of the way, we're very happy to welcome some incredible guests to the show today:

• From the Washington Post, we’re joined by economics correspondent Heather Long. Heather is a consistently reliable source for economics news and analysis, and her Twitter feed is one of the best round-ups of economic news out there
• And returning to the show, we have David Beckworth. David heads up our monetary policy research here at Mercatus, and is the host of his own wildly successful economics podcast, Macro Musings

Check out mercatus.org and The Bridge for our latest research, publications, and podcast episodes.

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Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadMReese.

Today's What's on Tap beverage is Supreme Core's Ivy City Rosé. Check them out here!

To kick off the year, MIT’s Technology Review did something they’ve done every year since 2001: they picked “10 Breakthrough Technologies” to watch in the coming years. Those breakthroughs varied from 3D metal printing to artificial embryos to ubiquitous and affordable artificial intelligence and everything in between.

We’re not going to go through the list and rank how those predictions turned out, but we are going to bring on our own technology policy experts to get their take on the biggest tech developments of 2018, why they matter, and what to watch for in 2019.

Here to wax nostalgic about 2018 and peer into the future of 2019 we have a couple of experts in tech policy:

• We’re joined on the phone by Roslyn Layton, visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute
• Jennifer Huddleston, research fellow here at Mercatus

Check out mercatus.org and The Bridge for our latest research, publications, and podcast episodes.

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Today's What's on Tap beer is brought to you by New Belgium's Accumulation, White IPA. Check them out here and pick up a 6-pack while you still can this holiday season!

***Stick around until the end of the show to hear our latest What's on Tap segment and what beer we're drinking today! Check out the Twenty Three Anniversary beer by Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder, Colorado here.***

The last time we talked about trade was back in April, right about the time China had started to threaten new taxes on imported American products. That, of course, was a response to our own new taxes imposed on imported steel and aluminum.

A lot has happened since April, including a planned replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement, and a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives may change the trajectory of trade policy even further.

Here to help us unpack the current state of trade policy in the US and abroad, and maybe even make some predictions about where it could be headed in the future, we're pleased to welcome our two experts: 

• Dan Griswold is the co-director of the Mercatus Center's trade and immigration portfolio, author of the book Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization, and, most importantly, a repeat guest here on the Download
• Pierre Lemieux is a senior affiliated scholar here at Mercatus. He’s a frequent university lecturer in Canada, and recently published the book What’s Wrong with Protectionism, a response to common objections to free trade

Interested in learning more about Dan and Pierre's work on trade? Give them a follow on Twitter! @DanielGriswold @pierre_lemieux

Check out mercatus.org and The Bridge for our latest research, publications, and podcast episodes.

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The policy world loves to talk about infrastructure. Support for infrastructure policy is often bipartisan, and it’s almost assumed now that candidates running for office will use the phrase “crumbling roads and bridges” at some point during their campaigns.

But there’s another side to infrastructure that might be more interesting than those roads, bridges, and airports, and that’s the infrastructure innovation that often happens at the state and local level. Given promising new technologies like dockless scooters or bicycles and driverless cars, it’s easy to forget that ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft are still relatively new parts of how people get around.

So today, we have three experts to talk about this new world of infrastructure needs, sometimes called “Transportation 3.0.” Specifically, we’re going to be talking about how state and local policy interacts with these new issues:

• Alex Baca, Engagement Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, where she works to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities in the Washington, DC area
• Emily Hamilton, research fellow here at Mercatus where she focuses on urban economics and land-use policy
• Jennifer Huddleston, research fellow at Mercatus, whose work covers the interactions between technology and the administrative state

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Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadMReese.

Need beverage ideas to serve with Thanksgiving dinner? Check out today's What's on Tap beer from Bell's Brewery, Best Brown Ale.

Today we have a special, behind the scenes episode for you. Earlier in September, the Atlas Network announced the finalists for the 2018 Templeton Freedom Award, and the Mercatus Center was fortunate enough to be on that list.

Specifically, Atlas identified the RegData project and the way states have used the project to reform regulations.

Since there’s a lot to unpack in that one sentence, Chad's joined by some Mercatus colleagues who have been instrumental in the project from day one to help explain what, exactly, RegData is, why it’s important, and how state governments can take advantage of the research we’ve done to make meaningful policy changes:

• Patrick McLaughlin, director of the Program for Economic Research on Regulation, and the creator of RegData
• James Broughel, state and local policy research fellow here at Mercatus, and an adjunct law professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School
• Kate De Lanoy, What’s on Tap co-host and director of our media relations team

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Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadMReese.

Today's What's on Tap beverage is the Pumking Imperial Ale from Southern Tier Brewing Co. Check them out here!