This week's current events:

This week's deep dive is about the capital gains tax. We look at the history of this tax, the difference between long term and short term rates, and how we think the rates should compare to labor income tax rates.

This week's current events:

In our deep dive, we go into some important Senate primaries in Michigan, California, and Ohio. What differentiates these candidates? What will the winner mean for their party? For their chance in the general election? We cover all of this.

This week's current events:

In our deep dive, we examine how political coalitions have morphed over the past 160 years since the end of the Civil War. We look back through history to understand how we've arrived at the point we're at today: another inflection point where the definitions of the parties are changing. Donald Trump's emphasis on anti-immigrant policy and isolationism has completely changed the identity of the Republican party. It has brought in more working class white voters while alienating the college-educated base that used to always vote Republican.

This week's current events:

This week's current events:

In this week's deep dive, we look at the history of tariffs in America from before the Revolution. We discuss the economic and political effects that tariffs have. Specifically, history shows tariffs as the tool of special interests. Finally, we connect that deep dive back to the modern day, as reports have recently come out that Donald Trump plans on imposing a general tariff against China of at least 60%. We analyze this policy idea based on what we've learned.

This week's current events:

In this week's deep dive, we use the Biden administration's recent announcement of a pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports as an opportunity to analyze not only that policy, but the effects that restricting fossil fuel production generally could have on climate change. Will restricting LNG exports make a difference, or will countries simply get natural gas elsewhere? Will they turn to coal, which emits even more carbon when burned? Will they be incentivized to build out more clean energy infrastructure? Should the Biden administration consider similar policy relating to oil and coal? We discuss all of those questions here.

This week's current events:

In this week's deep dive, we went back over 500 years in the history of Yemen to explore how we got to its current state, with the Houthis making trouble in the Red Sea. We uncover cycles of corruption and rebellion repeating over and over again, and find that we're just at another point in one now - except this is having implications for the wider world. Then, we discuss what the U.S. can do about the Houthi problem they're now dealing with ... if anything at all.

This week's current events:

In this week's deep dive, we looked into two teams of economists that have differing views regarding how much income inequality has grown in the U.S. in recent decades. It's a fundamental aspect of progressives' story of the state of the country so it seems pretty important to get it right. We then transition from there to have a broader discussion about what economic metrics matter and why.

This week’s current events:

This week's current events:

In this week's deep dive, we look at the policy widely known as Housing First. Housing First seeks to end homelessness by giving homeless people stable, permanent housing, as opposed to "Treatment First" models which consider some people not ready to be housed and requires progression through treatment steps to get them there. We discuss the research on Housing First, what it achieves and what it does not, and some examples of local and state-level programs run in the U.S.