November 6, 2025
The Global Population Crisis that Never Was
Thomas Malthus was a fan of pandemics. Writing in 1798 in his famous treatise on population growth, Malthus encouraged the spread of fatal diseases: “Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits.” He criticized “benevolent, but much mistaken men” who were seeking to eliminate fatal diseases, rather than see them as a way…
October 31, 2025
‘Adaptation’ Is Another Climate Boondoggle
Alex Flint and Kalee Kreider admit that ordinary central planning won’t reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet despite “the incredible ingenuity of people and markets,” they suggest a different form of central planning is needed: namely, adaptation in the form of “changing where and how we grow crops, and where people can safely live,” among other government-driven dislocations (“We Can’t…
October 23, 2025
Bridging Perspectives in COVID’s Wake: Science, Policy, and Public Trust in Crisis Response
Thursday, November 6, 2025 | 2:00 PM to 5:45 PM ET Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health615 N Wolfe St.Baltimore, MD 21205 Contact Information: Rachel Colligan | Rachel.Colligan@aei.org Please click here to RSVP to the event. Event Description As we move beyond the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to thoughtfully examine the…
October 21, 2025
We Already Have a Social Contract for Universities
The bad news for U.S. universities keeps on coming. Last week, Pew Research released the results of a September 2025 poll showing that increasingly large majorities of Republicans and Democrats believe that the country’s higher education system is moving in the wrong direction. In this broader context of public dissatisfaction with universities, the Trump Administration has offered…
September 25, 2025
Can Small Tech Survive the Digital Markets Act?
On paper, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union aims to promote more competition. However, in practice, the DMA design aimed at large tech companies actually disadvantages small tech companies by threatening their marketplace management. To discuss this, Shane Tews is joined by Graham Dufault, general counsel of the App Association. His experience…
September 24, 2025
More Problems with Australia’s National Climate Risk Assessment
When Australia’s National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) was released last week, headlines such as the above announced that “climate change could cost Australians $40 billion per year by 2050.” It turns out that claim is demonstrably false. Let’s take a close look. The NCRA asserts the $40 billion cost on p. 102: The Colvin Review (2024) projected disaster costs…
September 18, 2025
Beijing’s “Robot Army” Isn’t Science Fiction. It’s Already Here.
Why Robotics Matters to US National Security Robotics is not merely about improving manufacturing efficiency or making another billion off of consumer gadgets. It stands to reshape the future architecture of economic and military power. Banks and market research groups project the market for the machines and related services will surge to $7 trillion by 2050,…
September 18, 2025
Trump’s TikTok Deal Is Lose-Lose Diplomacy
The Trump White House is about to claim a major win on TikTok. Don’t be fooled. The deal on the table is not a victory for U.S. national security – it is a face-saving compromise that leaves the most egregious threat unresolved. Since TikTok entered U.S. app stores in 2017, U.S. national security officials have…
September 15, 2025
How Tech Has Become the Economy’s Central Nervous System
When Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC)—the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer—reports a 34 percent increase in August revenue, it’s more than just corporate success; it’s evidence of a fundamental economic shift, signaling that technology has become the centerpiece of modern commerce. The technology industry’s new economic reality is due to a shift from silicon to infrastructure…
September 8, 2025
What to Do About Fentanyl
Three hundred thousand kilograms of methamphetamine precursor chemicals sit in a Houston warehouse, their blue barrels arranged in an oddly orderly display of chaos. The chemicals — enough to produce a million kilos of meth — were bound for Sinaloa from China when U.S. authorities intercepted them last week. Officials celebrated it as the largest seizure in American history,…