Karl W Smith

Joe Biden has argued that President Donald Trump didn’t so much build a strong economy as inherit one. It’s a good line — but it ignores the successes, at least before the pandemic, of Trump’s unconventional policy. If Biden is elected president, he should continue Trump’s economic approach rather…

If President Donald Trump loses re-election in two weeks, as seems increasingly likely, one main reason will be the collapse of his support among older Whites without a college degree. Recriminations are sure to focus on that, but it will also be important not to overlook one of Trump’s surprising…

Despite some last-minute negotiations, Congress seems unlikely to pass a new round of Covid stimulus this year. The contrast between the speed with which Democrats and Republicans came together to pass the first relief package last March, and the embarrassing failure to pass a second, couldn’t be…

President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are bleak. No matter the outcome in November, however, on at least one issue his side can declare victory: The era of free trade, already on the wane, is officially over. It has been replaced by a new “America first” industrial policy, which even Trump’s…

Falling cases of the coronavirus imply that the US economy could improve over the next month or two as lockdowns ease and Americans resume their normal lives. There is, however, an unexpected short-term risk: that a vaccine will be ready by November. To be absolutely clear, over the medium and…

When it comes to trade with China, it often seems that President Donald Trump is his own worst enemy. Unilaterally raising tariffs, as Trump is threatening, is akin to punishing US consumers for China’s misbehavior. Most economists view lower tariffs as a win for the US economy, even if China…

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has made headway in his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination with an appeal to heal the divisions within the US. He’s proposed mandatory national service as a means of forging a renewed sense of national unity from the American…