Headlines
Stop the Trial Lawyer Tax
Trial lawyers have been the bane of U.S. employers for many decades, sucking blood out of the economy like a swarm of mosquitos. The most famous case was back in the 1990s when the courts awarded a $500,000 judgment to a…
The Quiet Ban on Physician-Owned Hospitals
In most sectors of the American economy, we celebrate the moment when insiders break away to build something better. Engineers start their own firms. Chefs open their own restaurants. Innovators leave incumbents and test…
Did The Shutdown Cause A Recession? What Trump’s Second Term Approval And Consumer Confidence Show.
By Robert Romano On Oct. 1, Senate Democrats refused to approve a continuing resolution to keep the government open and then set the record for the longest government shutdown in history of 43 days when it ended on Nov. 12.…
Business Conditions Monthly September 2025: Data Blackout
The longest federal shutdown in US history has created deep gaps in the flow of economic data, preventing calculation of the Business Conditions Monthly indices. Most BCM components depend on federal statistical agencies,…
Regulating Yesterday’s Market: When Innovation Moves Faster Than the Law
Can regulation work when a market changes faster than a case can be litigated?The Justice Department filed its antitrust case against Google in 2020. By the time Judge Amit Mehta issued his ruling in 2024, AI large-language…
AIER’s Thanksgiving Index Near All-Time High: Costs Rise Again As Inflation Persists
The 2025 Thanksgiving season arrives with an unwelcome development: after last year’s brief and much-needed period of easing in several Thanksgiving staples, prices have begun to tick back up. As of September 2025, the AIER…
The Gold Standard, Explained
This explainer will outline what the gold standard was, how it operated, the benefits and criticisms surrounding it, and how its rise and eventual collapse shaped the global monetary system.
America’s Next Industrial Geography: Wherever the Power Is Cheap
On Capitol Hill this week, five Democratic senators accused the Trump administration of “sweetheart deals with Big Tech” that have “driven up power bills for ordinary Americans.” Their letter, addressed to the White House,…
The Fed Doesn’t Determine the Price of Credit. Markets Do
Recent movements in short-term loan markets are a timely reminder of a forgotten truth: the Federal Reserve is not the master of credit conditions. It can influence interest rates, but it cannot dictate them. Interest rates…
A nuclear resurgence, but major obstacles remain
The first commercial nuclear plant started operation at Calder Hall in England in 1956. By 1970, reactors were in construction around the world. Many predicted that atomic energy would generate most of the world’s power by…
