AMERICAN.COM: A Magazine of Ideas, Online

Why Expanding Social Security Is a Bad Idea

A New America Foundation proposal would cost 3.7 percent of GDP and crowd out the private saving that drives our economy.

A ‘Genius’ Way to Avoid Taxes

Nobel Prize laureates are avoiding heavy taxes on their prize money via a loophole that benefits charities. President Obama and former vice president Al Gore both gave away their prize money — at the expense of the IRS.

The Penalties of Our Tax Code

Our tax system’s unnecessary complexity creates unfairness and uncertainty. With a few reforms, it could be more growth-friendly, simple, and fair.

Regulating Risk

An illustration of the impact of financial regulation on capital allocation is the extent to which the world's savings have been attracted to long-term instruments with low yields.

Confusing Cause and Effect in the Fiscal Policy Debate

Our debate should not be about income redistribution or debt reduction but rather about how to achieve broadly shared growth — because when we achieve that, history shows that the deficit and the middle class will benefit.

Lessons from a Feminist Paradise on Equal Pay Day

Sweden seems to be an egalitarian, feminist utopia. So why are American women ahead of their Swedish counterparts in breaking through the glass ceiling?

North Korea's Bluffing Blowhard

Should we still be worried even if North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is only bluffing? The best policy may be to humor him.

Financial Innovation — Illusory and Real

Some ‘innovations’ are merely new names for ways of lowering credit standards, running up leverage, and increasing risk. How do we know what’s real and what’s not?

Grow the Economy through Small Businesses

The majority of private sector job growth is from small businesses, and reforming licensing requirements is a promising route to increased business formation.

Cuba Sees an Opening

The State Department is reportedly considering dropping Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. Doing so would hand Havana a major – and unmerited – diplomatic victory.

The Next Real Estate Bubble: Farmland

Farmers have been taking on mounting debt, creating an unsustainable increase in land prices and risking a crash that would ripple through our economy.

Latins Rally to Restore Human Rights Panel

Latin American countries have finally rallied and rejected a bid by leftist regimes to silence the region’s human rights watchdog. Now regional democracies must restore the organization’s credibility after years of yielding to Chavistas.

Cyprus’s Imminent Collapse

Any calm bought by the IMF-EU bailout package for Cyprus will be short-lived. Cyprus is all but certain to experience an economic collapse over the next two years, and the country will again question whether it should remain in the euro.

The Shrinking Health Gap

When considering trends in equality, income is important, but health is arguably a prerequisite for all other measures of well-being.

Expecting the Unexpecting

Jonathan Last’s recent book gives an incisive analysis of the plummeting U.S. birth rate's key economic effects.