Plus, why housing is the real problem for the U.S. economy, immigration trends, and how national confidence impacts U.S.-China relations.
Biden fights back In his State of the Union address on Thursday night, President Joe Biden directly criticized Donald Trump over a dozen times and drew lines that he hopes will define the 2024 presidential election. "He was an unabashed liberal on social policy, a populist nationalist on economic policy, and a traditional postwar internationalist on foreign policy," William A. Galston writes. In a reaction piece, Galston discusses Biden's forceful delivery, how effective he was at conveying policy priorities, and what the speech signals for the president's reelection campaign strategy. | More research and commentary Immigration and the pace of employment. Interpreting the current U.S. labor market requires understanding recent immigration. Wendy Edelberg and Tara Watson examine the effects of immigration on population growth, the labor force, and consumer spending. How does national confidence inform U.S.-China relations? The United States and China presently find themselves in a simultaneous cycle of insecurity and dissatisfaction with their national conditions. This has serious implications for the relationship between the two countries, says Ryan Hass. Housing is the real problem for the U.S. economy. "Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee have made it clear that they will do whatever it takes to fight inflation. That's an admirable and responsible position. But Congress has yet to help by addressing our national housing shortfall. If it had, pandemic-era inflation might already be behind us," writes Ben Harris in the Los Angeles Times. | The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. | |