Political Economy with Jim Pethokoukis

Stories are the way we communicate our values, explore complex ideas, and learn to empathize with those who fundamentally differ from ourselves. Christopher Scalia’s most recent book, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), delves into the particular benefit conservatives may find in literature they likely hadn’t considered. Today on Political Economy, I talk with Chris about the unique role of novels in the development of strong morals, leadership, and sense of self. Chris is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department here at AEI. He previously served as director of AEI’s Academic Programs department. Chris is a former professor of 18th- and early 19th-century British literature at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. He is the coeditor of On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer, and Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived.

Today on Political Economy, I’m talking with Edward Glaeser about the problem with American housing supply and the many hurdles to building affordable homes. Ed and I look at the past century of urban and suburban construction and the attitudes and policies that have held back the US housing market. Ed is the chair of the economics department at Harvard University, where he has been a professor since 1992. He is also a visiting senior fellow here at AEI where his research focuses on urban economic policy. His most recent co-authored paper, “America’s Housing Supply Problem: The Closing of the Suburban Frontier?” is published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

You remember your fourth grade history textbook: The British Empire unfairly taxed the American colonies. Tea was dumped in the Boston Harbor. Colonists refused taxation without representation. Therefore, the American Revolution was driven by economics, right? Well, maybe not. Today on Political Economy, I’m talking with Deirdre McCloskey about the core ideas that drove the Revolution. We explore American capitalism and the idea of equal opportunity as America grows closer to its 250th birthday. Deirdre is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. She is also a distinguished professor emerita of economics and history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as a professor emerita of English and communication. She is the author of some two dozen books, including the Bourgeois trilogy, and has a wonderful article, “Economic Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution,” published in AEI’s recent book, Capitalism and the American Revolution, part of our America at 250 series.

Today on Political Economy, I’m talking with Andrew Biggs on why policymakers, the media, and most Americans are convinced of a retirement crisis that Biggs argues . . . doesn’t exist. Andrew and I discuss why this misperception continues to persist, and where the real flaws are in the American retirement system. Andrew is a senior fellow here at AEI where he researches Social Security reform, public and private sector compensation, and state and local government pensions. Prior to AEI, Biggs was principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. In 2005, he served as the associate director of the White House National Economic Council. He is also the author of the new book, The Real Retirement Crisis: Why (Almost) Everything You Know About the US Retirement System Is Wrong.

Today on Political Economy, I talk with Derek Scissors about what the Trump Administration’s newly-declared tariffs mean for US-China relations and what to make of today’s economic uncertainty. Derek is a senior fellow here at AEI, where he focuses on US-Asia economic relations. He is the chief economist of the China Beige Book and previously served as a commissioner on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He is also the author of the China Global Investment Tracker.

Today on Political Economy, I talk with Mark Warshawsky about the state of the Social Security system as we size up some of the reforms currently on the table.

The arc of human history is a story of economics. Social values, human behavior, and the defining events of history are all woven into this field that seeks to explain how and why societies prosper — and why they often don’t. Today on Political Economy, I talk with Andrew Leigh about the economic lessons we miss in history class and what we gain from a basic understanding of how our economy works. Leigh is a member of the Australian House of Representatives and serves as the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, and Treasury. His 2024 book, HowEconomics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity, is the latest of his 11 books on economics, leadership, and public policy.

Today on Political Economy, Michael Strain and I discuss the key challenges currently facing the American economy; namely, the growing debt burden, lingering inflation, the market response to tariffs, and general uncertainty. Strain is the director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy here at AEI. He has published dozens of articles in leading academic and policy journals in addition to his 2020 book, The American Dream is Not Dead. He is a professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor.

Energy, transportation, housing — pro-growth advocates from Washington to Silicon Valley are calling for a revival of American infrastructure. They say, “It’s time to build.” One massive problem, however: decades of environmental regulation, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, have slowed these efforts to a snail’s pace, if not halted them altogether. Today on Political Economy, I talk with James Coleman about the kinds of policy reforms need before we can build. Coleman is a nonresident senior fellow here at AEI. Concurrently, he is also a scholar of energy law at the University of Minnesota, where he specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He previously taught law at Southern Methodist University, the University of Calgary, and Harvard Law School.

The US government has acted as major contributor to science research since the mid-20th century, both in terms of broad basic research and targeted projects. As industrial policy has gained traction, especially during the Biden Administration, the distinction between industrial and science policy has become increasingly obscure. Hybrid policies like the CHIPS and Science Act have spurred continued debate surrounding role and value of federal funding for science research. Today on Political Economy, I talk to Tony Mills about American science policy past, present, and future. Mills is a senior fellow here at AEI and director of the Center for Technology, Science, and Energy. He is also a senior fellow at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy and a scholar associate of the Society of Catholic Scientists. His new paper, “Recovering Science Policy,” explores the blurred lines between US industrial and science policy in today’s political landscape.

Computer chips are the driving force behind everything from smartphones and cars to military defense systems and artificial intelligence. Not only are they the essential element of modern digital infrastructure, they are a critical element in the global balance of power. Taiwan is home to the most advanced and productive chip plants in the world, precariously placing the technology between Communist China and the democratic West. In today’s geopolitical landscape, control over semiconductor supply chains is more than just an economic issue; it’s a matter of national security. Today on Political Economy, I’m talking with Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. Miller is a nonresident senior fellow here at AEI, where his research focuses on Russian foreign policy, politics, economics, as well as Eurasian geopolitics and the geopolitics of technology. He is an assistant professor of international history and co-director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also the director of the Eurasia program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Growth is good for everyone in an economy, but it is also inherently disruptive. Today on Political Economy, I talk to Glenn Hubbard about why fear of change can trap us in an economic zero-sum game, and how embracing the growing pains of innovation can free us from that scenario, making things better for everybody. Hubbard is a nonresident senior fellow here at AEI, where he writes about a wide range of economic topics, from poverty to international finance. He is the former dean of Columbia Business School, and currently serves as the director of the Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business.

The Biden administration has set ambitious goals to decrease US carbon emissions. Starting in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act granted clean energy tax credits to businesses in hopes of encouraging a greener economy. Kyle and Shuting Pomerleau see a carbon tax as a superior approach. To offset any regressive effects, they propose a revenue swap, using the income from the tax to directly finance an expanded child tax credit. Today on Political Economy, I talk to the Pomerleaus about their innovative policy proposal, and why a carbon tax might be a powerful, multifaceted solution. Shuting Pomerleau is the deputy director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center. She has previously worked at the Cato Institute and the American Council on Renewable Energy. Kyle Pomerleau is a senior fellow at AEI, where he studies federal tax policy. He was previously chief economist and vice president of economic analysis at the Tax Foundation.

American families are getting smaller, even as parents spend more time parenting; and while quality of life has ostensibly gone up, our willingness to bring children into our abundant world has seemingly gone down. Economists try to pinpoint market explanations and propose policy solutions to the falling birthrate, but Tim Carney has a more basic explanation for our shrinking, stressed-out families. Today I talk with Carney about his recent book, Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be. Carney is a senior fellow here at AEI, as well as a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner. In addition to Family Unfriendly, he is the author of Alienated America and The Big Ripoff.

The US dollar is the dominant global currency, but is it possible that the dollar could one day lose its top-tier status? And, if so, would that necessarily be a bad thing? To find out the answers to those and other questions, I asked AEI’s Steven Kamin. Kamin’s research at AEI centers on international macroeconomics and finance. Prior to AEI, Kamin worked at the Federal Reserve as director of the Division of International Finance.

When it comes to deploying a new technology, there are no guarantees. While developers and policymakers do their best to minimize risk, innovation always requires a leap of faith. The policy debate around artificial intelligence seems to be a guessing game on all sides. Today, I talk with Bronwyn Howell about how we should be thinking about regulating AI, based on what we know from recent history, and acknowledging AI’s great unpredictability. Howell is a nonresident senior fellow here at AEI. She is also a faculty member of the Wellington School of Business and Government at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and a senior research fellow at the Public Utilities Research Center at the University of Florida. Her research centers on regulation, development, and implementation of new technologies, as well as technology use in the health sector.

The Child Tax Credit is a tax benefit available to many American families for the purpose of reducing their federal income tax liability. It’s specifically designed to help offset the cost of raising children. The CTC of today, however, differs starkly from its pre-pandemic structure. Many economists, including Kevin Corinth, think that the post-pandemic changes were a step in the wrong direction. Corinth is a senior fellow and the deputy director of the Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility here at AEI. His research interests include poverty, safety net programs, homelessness, social capital, and economic mobility. Previously, Corinth served as the staff director of the congressional Joint Economic Committee, and he was also chief economist in the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Generation after generation seem to pine for “the good old days,” an elusive time when many of us think morals, institutions, and the quality of life, in general, were higher. Americans are no exception to this rule, but there’s something unique about American nostalgia. While we reminisce about the past, we also owe much of our success as a nation to our forward-thinking culture that embraces the possibility of the American Dream. Today on Political Economy, I talk with Karlyn Bowman about the way Americans view their nation, and the tensions between their love of their past and their strong hope for the future. Bowman is a distinguished senior fellow emeritus here at AEI, where she specializes on American public opinion. In 1982, she founded “Election Watch,” the longest-running political analysis program in Washington. She has also been a Forbes columnist since 2008.

Medicare is a trillion-dollar federal health insurance program designed to meet the medical needs of senior citizens and Americans with disabilities. Yet, despite its staggering amount of funding, Medicare is far from a perfect system. Here on Political Economy, I sit down with Joe Antos to discuss the current state of Medicare and its systemic challenges. Antos is a senior fellow here at AEI where he studies the economics of health policy. He is currently Vice Chair and serving a third term as commissioner at the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. He is also a professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University.

Milton Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, right alongside John Maynard Keynes. His work pushed economic thought toward free markets in the 1970s and 1980s. His passionate defense of capitalism and economic freedom had global appeal right through the present day. As such, the closing decades of the 20th century have been termed "The Age of Friedman," yet commentators have sought to hold him responsible for both the rising prosperity and rising inequality of recent times. Jennifer Burns is a professor at Stanford University, where she teaches 20th century American history. Her research focuses on how capitalism and the power of the market have influenced the American Political Economy. Burns' new book is Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.