The Trump-Russia Scandal Is a Huge Media Fail
About a year ago, I met a man named Christopher David Steele. It was unusual for him to be speaking with a journalist. He had spent most of his adult life in the shadows, as a counterintelligence officer for MI6, the British foreign intelligence service. His specialty was Russia. More recently, he had been…
House Democrats Demand Answers From the Trump Campaign’s Data Firms
Shawn Thew/ZUMA The top Democrats on the House judiciary and oversight committees have sent a letter to several data analytics companies, including Cambridge Analytica, seeking answers about their involvement in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Cambridge Analytica, which White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has credited with helping secure Trump’s White House victory, has come under increasing scrutiny…
Corporate Tax Rates Don’t Have Much To Do With Economic Growth
Over at The Corner, Veronique de Rugy complains that Republicans are making a hash of tax reform. No argument there. In particular, she’s unhappy about increasing the child tax credit even though she admits it’s politically popular: But is it more important than simplifying the tax code and getting rid of special handouts to preferred…
The AI Revolution Is Coming—And It Will Take Your Job Sooner Than You Think
Oh look: my piece about robots and mass unemployment is up. I wanted to make it crystal clear what it was about, so the headline is “You Will Lose Your Job to a Robot—and Sooner Than You Think.” Needless to say, not everyone agrees. And I address some of the most common criticisms in the…
US Will Likely Admit Far Fewer Refugees Than Allowed Under Trump’s Record-Low Limit
Women and a child migrant from Syria walk towards a refugee camp in Cyprus last month. On Tuesday, the Trump administration effectively banned most Syrian refugees for an additional 90 days. Petros Karadjias/AP Last month, President Donald Trump cut the annual cap on the number of refugees the United States will admit to the lowest…
Republicans Fast-Track Tax Cut for the Wealthy That Increases Deficit by $1.5 Trillion
House Speaker Paul Ryan leads a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday. Tom Williams/AP After years of railing against deficit spending, House Republicans voted on Thursday for a budget resolution that allows for $1.5 trillion of deficit spending to finance tax cuts. Nearly 80 percent of the cuts would go to the wealthiest 1 percent…