Category Archives: Uncategorized

The president is handing a weapon to trading partners who feel they’ve been bullied into trade deals. By Phil Gramm Aug. 21, 2025 4:22 pm ET The Trump administration is continuing the antitrust lawsuits of the Biden administration’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission against Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon. That means the economic benefits...

He agreed to cap Japanese auto imports in 1981 but hated the deal and did it only as a compromise. By Phil Gramm July 23, 2025 5:12 pm ET During a debate that I participated in at the Harvard Club of New York in December, Oren Cass, founder of the think tank...

The GOP should substitute Clinton’s welfare rules for the weak requirements in its reconciliation bill. By Phil Gramm and Michael Solon June 29, 2025 2:32 pm ET Have Republicans gone weak on work? In 1996 a Republican Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, a bipartisan bill imposing a work requirement of...

The duties will hit consumers, jobs and national security. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux June 25, 2025 1:18 pm ET When announcing the agreement allowing Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel on May 30, President Trump promised to double to 50% U.S. tariff rates on steel and aluminum. On June 3...

The debacle of 1932 is the most famous example, but Republican losses span the period 1842 through 2020. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux May 21, 2025 1:37 pm ET The Trump administration is looking for an exit strategy from the most destructive parts of its trade war. The uncertainty...

It isn’t a statistical artifact but a warning of a real slowdown. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux May 6, 2025 5:04 pm ET U.S. gross domestic product shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, according to an April 30 report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The...

Biden’s officials wanted the company cut down to size for ideological reasons. But why didn’t Trump drop the case? By Phil Gramm April 28, 2025 5:33 pm ET A federal district court last year found Google guilty of “maintaining a monopoly in two product markets in the United States—general search services...

Both models of state-directed capitalism misallocate resources and make the nation poorer. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux April 14, 2025 4:35 pm ET Not since Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff has a president chosen to disregard a larger body of informed opinion than President Trump did when he instituted his...

Its flawed income measure leads to the overpayment of welfare, including Medicaid, to recipients. By Phil Gramm and John Early April 2, 2025 12:54 pm ET The Trump administration recently promised that it “will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits.” The determination not to reform retirement benefit entitlements is politically understandable....

The 25th president used reciprocity to press for an expansion of trade. The 47th is going backward. By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux March 13, 2025 12:37 pm ET Equities markets roared in anticipation of the deregulation, tax cuts and fiscal restraint the second Trump administration promised. But the tariff...