Publications

Designed to recover welfare costs from parents who abandon their children, child support has expanded to include middle-class divorced families for which it was never intended. Through this abuse of power, taxpayers subsidize both fatherlessness and state government operations.

Natural disasters exposed serious flaws in the way we manage risk, including bread-and-butter items like homeowner's insurance. Regulatory power split between the states and Washington poses a challenge to reforming insurance regulation for the benefit of consumers and the US as global competitor.

Increasing competition among regulators is a promising idea, and one approach is an optional federal charter that would let insurers register with Washington rather than the state capitol. Another approach being tried out is for forward-looking states to contract with each other and regulate for economic efficiency and consumer welfare, not political grandstanding. These two ideas could also interact in a very productive way, and will get careful scrutiny in the months ahead.

The U.S. currently dominates the globe, but many Americans are uneasy about future competition from China. Much depends on getting U.S.-China policy "right." But Washington is operating from a position of strength and should engage China without fear. America should peacefully confront Beijing over economic and security issues. Moreover, the U.S. should push free trade throughout Asia, cooperate on China policy with friendly states, and put the American economy in order.