Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Phil Gramm and John F. Early offer compelling evidence that Americans near the bottom of the income scale ultimately receive as much, if not more, income as those at the middle. Correcting the Census Bureau's income measure to account for taxes and transfer payments, Gramm and Early find roughly equal incomes among the bottom 60 percent of American households, despite those near the bottom working far less than those at the middle. On September 12, AEI President Robert Doar will join Gramm and Early for a conversation about their upcoming book, The Myth of American Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).

In the pages of National Review, Yuval Levin argues against Republican passivity and says the party needs a coherent legislative agenda to earn Americans' support. "The work of appealing in practical terms to potential voters," writes Levin, "is essential to the formation of leaders in our democracy."

As the federal government offers massive new social benefits, such as student debt cancellation, Matt Weidinger summarizes the pandemic-era policies that paid out trillions in cash assistance, which he argues were often unnecessary, excessive, and vulnerable to fraud.

Although many attribute high inflation to the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy, Robert J. Barro says the fiscal response to the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame. Barro contends that $4.1 trillion in excess federal spending, not low interest rates, contributed most significantly to the dramatic rise in prices.  

Robert Pondiscio outlines why traditional public schools have lost parents' trust and how they can get it back. "There is still a strong foundation on which to restore or reinforce faith in public education," he writes, but it will require public educators to reevaluate long-held assumptions about their societal role.

According to William C. Greenwalt, the Department of Defense has lost one of its most dynamic innovators. Mike Brown retired as head of the Defense Innovation Unit on Friday, September 2, after his efforts to engage with private-sector innovation reportedly met with "a critical lack of support from Pentagon leadership." The resistance to Brown's efforts, Greenwalt argues, shows that the Pentagon "is doubling down on a bureaucratic, risk-averse, and time-intensive system that puts us at greater risk to being outmaneuvered."