As the 2024 presidential campaign heats up, Biden and Trump are making their cases for how to run the economy of the richest country in the world for their next term. Their ideas are different, but there are more similarities than you might expect in our current polarized age.

For weeks, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has wanted to get a bill on the floor to give aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. However, while Johnson wants the bill, members of his far right flank are against it, and they have the power to vote on a motion to vacate the Speaker whenever they want. Thus, Johnson has to trust the fate of the foreign aid bills, and his job as Speaker, to Democrats in the House.

Iran shot over three hundred missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for its airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria. 99% of the projectiles were shot down before reaching Israel, and no Israelis were killed. However, the magnitude of the attack still escalated the situation, and we now anxiously await what follows. Does Israel want war?

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded to ease financial pressure for families. The legislative action led to a historic drop in child poverty. In this session of Congress, a bipartisan coalition sought to reinstate the expanded credit permanently, as child poverty rose again in 2023 after the credit expired. However, Senate Republicans, led by Mike Crapo of Idaho, killed the bill. We discuss what Republicans would have preferred, and why this didn't work for them.

One of the long-running themes of Joe Biden's first term has been his crusade against student debt. He started with a plan to cancel either $10,000 or $20,000 of debt for certain students that was shot down by the Supreme Court. Now, he has another plan that is more targeted to certain segments of the population, including those who have high interest payments and the poor. Getting rid of debt for young people sounds great, but it's not that simple.

The Japanese company Nippon Steel made a deal months ago to buy U.S. Steel. Since then, numerous American politicians have come out as being against the deal, including both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. In this episode, we examine the merits of these politicians' critiques, both as pure policy and as political maneuvers.

American markets have been soaring in Q1 of 2024 on the expectation that the Federal Reserve would be cutting interest rates three times this year, freeing up more money to be borrowed and spent in the economy. However, inflation has remained stubbornly elevated above the Fed's desired 2% rate, and the March CPI report failed to encourage observers that inflation is coming down. We dove into the specific prices that are keeping inflation high and what the report means politically and economically.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a total abortion ban dating back to 1864, before Arizona was even a state, would be reinstated because of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Now, we approach the 2024 November presidential election with Arizona as a swing state, a ballot referendum on abortion, and Donald Trump being tied directly to the overturn of Roe due to his choice of Supreme Court Justices. Will abortion again sway the election away from Republicans in Arizona? And what about in other states where abortion is going on the ballot as a referendum?

This week's current events:

Our deep dive this week is on permitting, specifically for energy projects. We examine permitting requirements at the local, state, interstate, and the federal level. Permitting is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the transition to a green economy, adding years to any major clean energy or transmission project. We hope to understand how it works so that it might reveal ideas for helpful reform.