Executive Summary Electricity is a necessary commodity for nearly every person in the United States, and while the delivery process has not changed, deregulation has altered who supplies it. Historically, electrical markets were vertically integrated and regarded as a natural monopoly, but recent market-oriented reforms have aimed to deregulate and introduce competition to lower both … Continue reading
Executive Summary The second Trump Administration has used more executive power than most previous administrations when creating trade law. President Biden also used historically strong executive authority when making trade law, including his Section 232 tariffs, emergency export restrictions, and CFIUS capital outflow clamps. The resulting new bipartisan consensus on using executive authority to make … Continue reading
Executive Summary President Trump signed an executive order (EO) on his first day back in office entitled “Unleashing American Energy,” which removes Biden-era barriers to federal land leasing for energy production as a method of expanding U.S. energy production. A significant change imposed by the order includes the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandated reassessment of a … Continue reading
Executive Summary The relationship between fiscal deficits and trade balance in the United States is complex, and the twin deficit hypothesis (TDH) and Ricardian equivalence hypothesis (REH) suggests two differing opinions on the relationship. The TDH postulates a positive connection between fiscal deficits and trade balance (net exports) while the REH argues there is no … Continue reading
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On January 7, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule to amend Regulation V, which implements the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The new regulation intends to prevent creditors, rating agencies, and health care providers from accessing medical debt information. Hiding medical debt will increase credit risk, and force health care … Continue reading
Executive Summary Insurance of last resort is a program meant to cover individuals living in high-risk areas prone to natural disasters. These programs are meant to supplement the private market, but overregulation of the private insurance market has prompted them to grow at an unsustainable rate. Many insurers of last resort are bleeding money at … Continue reading
Executive Summary Tomorrow, the United States will impose blanket 25% tariffs on Mexico, which has promised retaliation. Mexico has much stronger incentives to follow through with retaliation than they did during their first trade dispute with President Trump in 2018. They also have a large arsenal of economic tools at their disposal to put pressure … Continue reading
Executive Overview – There is a recurring practice of firms failing to disclose upfront mandatory charges in the advertised price of their goods or services, leading to an unexpected higher final cost for consumers (e.g. “resort fees” in hotel bookings and “processing fees” in ticket purchases). – Misleading pricing threatens competition in the market, as … Continue reading
Executive Summary Recent CPI-U and CPI-E (age 62+) data suggests the elderly have experienced higher CPI growth over the same period, and the heightened rate is likely from a greater weight in the shelter component of CPI which accounts for the housing costs of those who both own and rent their properties. Homebuying trends have … Continue reading
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On December 08, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Casgevy and Lyfgenia, the first CRISPR-based treatment for sickle cell disease. Gene editing marks a major milestone in the potential to cure genetic disorders but, the process has raised many ethical concerns. As gene editing is a relatively recent advancement, there … Continue reading
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