New reports from the Congressional Research Service on topics of economic policy include the following (all pdf).
“Boosting U.S. Exports: Selected Issues for Congress,” July 21, 2011
“Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy,” July 18, 2011
“Inflation: Causes, Costs, and Current Status,” July 26, 2011
“Treasury Securities and the U.S. Sovereign Credit Default Swap Market,” July 25, 2011
“The Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF): State Insolvency and Federal Loans to States,” July 8, 2011
“Can Contractionary Fiscal Policy Be Expansionary?,” June 6, 2011
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.