April 4, 2025
A Policy Professor Grades Trump’s Trade Policies
For this first edition of THB Subscriber Questions (THBSQ#1) I am going to address one question asked by many readers. Anders Valland asks: Professor, now you know where it starts. What are your reflections on the new tariff regime? I’ll start with a disclaimer and some throat clearing — I do not research or publish in…
April 4, 2025
Why Trump’s FTC Firings Matter—Even If They’re Legal
President Donald Trump fired two Democratic commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last Tuesday, a move that raises important questions about the independence of regulatory agencies. If challenged in court—something the commissioners say they will do—the outcome could set a major precedent regarding presidential authority over supposedly independent agencies. Legally, this issue is murky….
April 3, 2025
The Pacing Problem in Electricity
The electricity industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation characterized by smaller-scale, decentralized, and digital technologies. But transitions are rarely easy. Significant challenges arise as the rapid pace of technological innovation exceeds the slower-moving evolution of regulatory institutions, creating what is known as the “pacing problem”. California, with its aggressive renewable energy policies and ambitious decarbonization…
April 3, 2025
Eight Pathways to Overcome Vetocracy and Unlock Abundance
The recent release of Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson has brought much needed attention to the problem of sclerotic government, especially vetocracy. Vetocracy is an emergent property of institutions where excessive veto points create systemic gridlock, manifested through: While at times imperfect, here are eight practical solutions to overcome this challenge. 1. Refactor…
April 2, 2025
Free Speech Tradeoffs and Roleplaying Chatbots: Sacrificing the Rights of Many to Safeguard a Few?
First Amendment law entails tradeoffs. Consider Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a case the US Supreme Court heard in January. It involves an online age-verification statute that ostensibly is designed to prevent minors from accessing sexually explicit content that Texas deems harmful to them but that is not obscene (and thus is constitutionally protected) when…
April 1, 2025
The Supreme Court Seems Unlikely to Revive Nondelegation Doctrine in FCC Case
Earlier this month, I previewed the arguments in Federal Communications Commission v Consumers’ Research. The case asks the Supreme Court whether the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF) violates the nondelegation doctrine, which prohibits Congress from delegating the legislative power to executive branch agencies. As my previous post explains, nondelegation is a largely toothless doctrine, mostly…
April 1, 2025
Another Courtroom Loss for AI Creations, as “Automatoners” Prevail Again
Last month, a federal appeals court confirmed what most legal regimes around the world—patent offices, administrative judges, and even supreme courts—have long held: Machines cannot themselves create. Readers of this space are by now hopefully well acquainted with the fierce divisions between autonomists—those who contend that artificial intelligence (AI) is now or will soon become…
March 31, 2025
Economics and Politics of Tariffs
In recent years, when teaching my senior policy capstone course I would often pivot the course on short notice to discuss current events, updating the readings on the syllabus, and often inviting guest lectures from relevant experts. Among such pivots were Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine, the U.S. elections, October 7th, and more. Part of my motivation of…
March 31, 2025
“Drill, Baby, Drill” is Nothing Short of a Myth and Populist Rallying Cry
Who uttered the quote that is the title of this post? A prominent climate activist, perhaps? Or maybe, a progressive Democratic member of Congress? No and no. The quote comes from a representative of a Texas-based oil and gas production firm last week to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in its March Energy Survey. Here…
March 27, 2025
We Still Haven’t Reckoned with Covid’s Costs
Five years ago, a new coronavirus to which no one was yet immune was sweeping the globe, shutting down schools and sporting events. In March 2020, masks had not yet become a partisan lightning rod — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not yet even recommended them. And according to the Pew Research Center,…