Bruce Bartlett

In a recent column, I argued that the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy is in relatively good shape, despite the sharp decline in manufacturing employment. I clearly touched a nerve with this column. Not only did I receive a great many emails, but my fellow...

For years, manufacturers have been outsourcing operations to foreign countries to obtain lower wage costs and escape from high taxes, burdensome government regulations and intransigent unions here at home. Now, it appears that the service sector is joining the trend....

Everybody seems to be worried about manufacturing these days. All the Democratic presidential candidates condemn the practice of "outsourcing" -- laying off manufacturing workers and buying their output more cheaply from China. This is not surprising, given that...

For the last year or two, it has been fashionable to ridicule the idea of a "New Economy," which underlay the stock market boom of the late 1990s. However, last week's productivity report shows that the New Economy is alive and kicking. The original notion of a New...

In recent weeks, George W. Bush has started to come in for the first meaningful criticism from mainstream conservatives during his presidency. While nascent, it could become the only real barrier to his re-election next year unless dealt with quickly. To be sure,...

Largely unbeknownst to the general public, the bond market has been collapsing in recent weeks. For some odd reason, the liberal media have failed to trumpet this news as proof that President Bush's economics policies have failed. It may be because the reason is...

Recently, I discussed new IRS data showing that the share of total income going to the richest 400 individuals has increased. However, income is an imprecise measure of well-being. That is better measured by wealth. A new study by the Federal Reserve sheds important...

In the old days, miners brought canaries down into the tunnels to detect methane. The birds were more sensitive to the deadly gas and worked as an early warning system. When they died, it was time to get out. For conservatives, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts...

With federal budget deficits rising, pressure is on once again to enact a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. On June 25, a discharge petition was initiated to force a vote in the House on H.J. Res. 22, the latest in a long line of legislative efforts to...

On June 26, readers of The New York Times saw this headline at the top of page one: "Very Richest's Share of Income Grew Even Bigger, Data Show." One would have thought that important news was being broken. But in fact, the reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay...

The International Monetary Fund made an important appointment last week, naming Raghuram G. Rajan of the University of Chicago as its new chief economist. In this position, he will oversee all of the IMF's economic research and have a great deal to say about its...

One of the hottest documents circulating around Washington today is a highly technical, statistics-laden, 131-page paper by Hoover Institution economist Michael Boskin. First reported by Jim McTague in Barron's on June 16, it estimates that the taxation of pension...

On June 24, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meets to set monetary policy. The conventional wisdom -- which is almost always accurate in this area -- is that the FOMC will cut the federal funds interest rate by at least 25 basis points (0.25...