AEI

"Sustainability" is a popular buzzword in defense of subsidies for renewable energy, yet its definition remains highly elusive. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discussion describes the idea as humans and nature existing in "productive harmony," which only clarifies that the EPA has no clue what sustainability means as an analytic concept.

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Conventional wisdom among the political cognoscenti during most of the primary season was that Donald Trump could not win the general election. Polling this month suggests they were all wrong.

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Know what’s worse than middle-class incomes not rising in sync with productivity growth? No productivity growth at all. Without innovation-driven growth, there’s no wealth to redistribute. To quote Paul Krugman, “Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything."

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Have you ever attended a sporting event where signs and billboards flashed advertisements? In that instance and many more, advertisers help subsidize your ticket purchase. The practice is so common as to be unremarkable. And yet the government now wants to ban sponsored data on the Internet.

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The civilian labor force participation rate has dipped to 62.8 percent, the lowest level in nearly 30 years. Far from a short-lived blip, this decline is projected to continue, further depressing growth. Although conservatives have been at the forefront of policies to get Americans back to work, they have largely overlooked paid leave as a solution. That's a mistake.

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The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 established the modern federal budget process. All signs indicate that the act, now four decades old, is not working. The current budget process does not force policymakers to confront the pressure that entitlement programs exert on the federal budget.

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They’re big on globalization, free trade, and open borders. They’re anti–labor union, but they’re also pro-Obamacare and believe that government should act like a business. Silicon Valley — and, more broadly, an entire new class of urbanized professionals — represent a distinct political category. They're both pro-capitalism and pro-government. What do they want?

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There's a lot of money in public schooling. Some research indicates such money matters little to student achievement. Even as the cost of education has grown dramatically during the last four decades, key test scores have remained relatively stagnant. But there's more to the story.

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Steven Teles and David Dagan have a new book out that chronicles the rise of a conservative-led prison reform movement. They find that despite what many believe, this change of heart from Republicans is only minimally spurred by a desire to rein in costs. Watch now to discover the three factors that explain conservatives' evolving position.

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Parents are a child’s first teachers, yet most families rely on the state for their child’s education. While families are not exactly looking to state statutes for cues on how to raise their kids, parental-choice laws can serve as powerful tools for reformers to set up a stronger dynamic between public schools and families.

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What is the blogosphere commenting on, and what trends are picking up around the web? AEIdeas editor Sarah Gustafson has her finger on the pulse of the Internet and provides a daily recap of "notables and quotables" for your convenience.

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