Scott Harrington

With the new Republican majority in the House committed to repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, four noted health policy analysts will present their distinct and detailed proposals at this inaugural Beyond "Repeal and Replace" AEI event. AEI adjunct scholar Scott Harrington (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) will address key elements of the new federal regulatory regime for health insurance that misdiagnose and exacerbate the causes of current problems. James Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Thomas P. Miller of AEI will then examine rapidly rising health care costs and soaring budget deficits. Finally, AEI adjunct scholar Stephen T. Parente (University of Minnesota) will critique the administration and Congress's health policy strategy. [READ MORE]

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The National Research Initiative (NRI) offers a variety of resources to support both established and emerging scholars.

NRI offers grants to support research, writing, and publication. NRI also offers fellowships. For more information, contact NRI's project manager.

AEI visiting scholar Allan H. Meltzer (Carnegie Mellon University) will participate in a discussion of his book, A History of the Federal Reserve, 1913-1986 (University of Chicago Press, 2010), with Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. AEI economist and former Federal Reserve official Vincent R. Reinhart will moderate. [READ MORE]

At this Bradley Lecture, Sidney M. Milkis, the White Burkett Miller Professor of Politics and assistant director for academic programs at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, ewill xplain the origins of the Progressive Party, its beliefs, and its importance for American democracy. He will examine how the Progressive Party, led by Theodore Roosevelt, made the 1912 campaign a passionate contest for the constitutional soul of the American people and left us the legacy of a "living" Constitution. [READ MORE]

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Volatile Times and Persistent Conceptual Errors: U.S. Monetary Policy 1914-1951
By Charles W. Calomiris
November 2010

In this paper, AEI visiting scholar Charles W. Calomiris (Columbia Business School) describes the motives that gave rise to the creation of the Federal Reserve System, summarizes the history of Fed monetary policy from its origins in 1914 through the Treasury-Fed Accord of 1951, and reviews several of the principal controversies that surround that history. He then examines the persistence of conceptual errors in Fed monetary policy, particularly adherence to the "real bills doctrine." [READ MORE]

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AEI adjunct scholar June O'Neill (Baruch College) asserts that the Paycheck Fairness Act would be a harmful addition to the many federal laws that already protect women and men from labor-market discrimination. While some firms undoubtedly discriminate against women, their number is small and the existing antidiscrimination apparatus is adequate. As such, this new legislation would simply provide a feast for lawyers--and, by increasing the cost of employing women, would likely harm its intended beneficiaries. [READ MORE]

AEI adjunct scholar Richard Vedder (Ohio University) and Wall Street Journal writer Stephen Moore argue that, contrary to the rhetoric in Washington, raising taxes will not decrease the deficit. In fact, history has shown that Congress tends to increase spending by more than a dollar for every dollar of new taxes that it raises. The recommendations of the president's commission on deficit reduction, which call for higher gas taxes and other revenue raisers, would thus not achieve their intended effect of reducing the deficit. [READ MORE]

How to Cut the Deficit without Raising Taxes
By Martin Feldstein
Washington Post, November 29, 2010

Harvard University's Martin Feldstein, a member of AEI’s Council of Academic Advisers, proposes cutting the deficit by introducing a cap on tax expenditures. Tax expenditures are tax deductions, exemptions, or credits granted to specific categories of taxpayers. Feldstein argues that this step could reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars a year without raising tax rates, and thus without reducing the incentive to work, save, or expand businesses. [READ MORE]

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AEI Press October 2010

In Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity (AEI Press, October 2010), Alex J. Pollock argues that while economic downturns can be frightening and difficult, people living in free market economies enjoy greater health, better access to basic necessities, better education, less arduous jobs, and more choices and wider horizons than people at any other point in history. This wonderful reality, however, would not exist in the absence of financial cycles. [READ MORE]

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