China is gambling Obama doesn’t have will to respond to its massive land grab

You may not have noticed, as ISIS expands its reach across Iraq and Russia fuels conflict in Ukraine, but the odds of an armed confrontation between the United States and China just dramatically increased. Modal Trigger After years of ignoring China’s growing assertiveness in Asia, the Obama administration has been taken unaware by a major land and power grab by Beijing. Over the past several years,...

Pentagon’s aviation plan headed for a dead stick landing

It is time for Congress to end the charade and throw out the Pentagon’s annual aviation report—or demand that it be fixed. Otherwise, the plan will remain an expensive waste of time for both its readers and its writers. It has changed over time, making comparisons from year to year near impossible and...

The incredible shrinking tax refund

April may or may not be the cruelest month, but this year April was particularly cruel for Affordable Care Act subsidy recipients. A recent H&R Block analysis says that 61 percent of tax filers will have to repay part of the premium subsidies they received to buy health insurance on the law’s exchanges. The average repayment amount was $729, or about a third of the average refund of $2,195 that...

How liberal are we?

Friday morning, Gallup released the results of a survey showing that more Americans call themselves pro-choice than pro-life by 50 to 44 percent. Gallup noted that this time was the first time since 2008 that the pro-choice label had a statistically significant lead over the pro-life one. Several other recent Gallup releases show significant movement in a more liberal direction over the past few years...

One pager: A US strategy for the South China Sea

Download the PDF. Read more on diplomacy and tensions in the South China Sea. from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1Az02...

Review: Cage-busting teachers go after solutions

As a teacher, I can tell you that my job is comprised of three, distinct elements—passion, instructional practice, and…frustration. As an avid reader of anything and everything to do with education, I know that there is plenty written on the first two components, but not nearly enough on the latter. That’s why I was excited to pick up The Cage-Busting Teacher. Author Frederick Hess points out that...

Why JPMorgan says the US economy is stuck in ‘the slow lane’

Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs published a modstly upbeat research note suggesting the US economy is doing better than we think because we are mismeasuring productivity. The bank argues that “potential biases in the GDP statistics resulting from the growth of software and digital content” means “we would be skeptical of confident pronouncements that the standard of living is growing much more slowly...

China military buildup & Baghdad bombings: Bolton on Fox Business Network’s ‘Varney & Co.’

Senior Fellow John Bolton discusses recent events in China and Iraq on Fox Business Network's 'Varney &Co.' from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1HATO...

The bad middle-class math of the FairTax

Should we replace the income tax with a national sales tax? Some commonsense on the FairTax by the Tax Policy Center: The tax is designed to protect low-income people from higher taxes via a large new cash transfer program called a “prebate.”  Every household would get a cash transfer equal to the amount of tax that a family at the poverty level would owe.  (Ironically, this would be the...

Taliban five could be free to travel within days: Bolton on Fow News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’

Senior Fellow John Bolton discusses national security on Fox News' 'America's Newsroom.' from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1HXdI...

Lost victory

This review will be published in the June 8 edition of The Weekly Standard. The Unraveling is a love story. Like many love stories, it starts with two seemingly irreconcilable personalities forming a bond they never anticipated. But, true to form, the ending is tragic. In this instance, the main character is author Emma Sky, the British, Oxford-educated, lefty international do-gooder who falls for...

New estimate Of Obamacare’s fiscal impact on private doctor practices

Under Obamacare, doctors have been strained by costly new regulations, intricate payment “reforms” that tie their Medicare reimbursement to complex federal reporting requirements, and mandates that they install and make “meaningful” use of electronic health records. Add a new burden to the mix: The proportion of patients they see are rapidly shifting away from commercial health plans and toward Medicaid,...

Robots rising: How humans can flourish in the age of brilliant machines

“The Great Decoupling: An Interview with Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee” is a must-read Q&A from Harvard Business Review. I’ve written often about the two MIT academics and their work on labor markets and the impact of technological change. Two things from the HBR interview that I want to highlight. First, their explanation of the above “decoupling” chart is noteworthy in that they point...

Is the U.S. losing the war against ISIS? Thiessen on Fox News’ ‘The Kelly File’

Fellow Marc Thiessen discusses the United States fight against ISIS on Fox News' 'The Kelly File' from AEI » Latest Content http://ift.tt/1ACqH...

India’s economic growth: Be wary

India just announced that growth in gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 7.3 percent during the fiscal year April 2014 – March 2015. This will be seized upon by some as world-beating, even ahead of China’s. It will be heralded as a sign of India’s global economic rise. In fact, it may be fairly meaningless. The first reason for this has to do with India. The country recently altered its approach...

Please, don’t freak out over the negative first-quarter GDP report. Just worry

So the US economy went and did a very bad thing. Instead of growing during the first three months of this year — government’s first estimate was a 0.2% increase — it shrank. Now positive is sure better than negative, especially when many speculated/hoped/prayed/wished 2015 would see a marked acceleration in growth. But there’s a caveat in play here. A couple, actually. First, something odd has...

Is Puerto Rico America’s Greece?

Tolstoy famously remarked that all happy families are alike but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The same might be said of the unhappy state of the Greek and Puerto Rican economies. But while both those economies are struggling with very high debt burdens within a monetary union, there are very big differences between the two that makes it difficult to tar them with the same brush. Indeed,...

Does the media hold anyone to a lower ethical standard than the Clintons?

Let’s say, just for kicks, you murdered your husband (or wife). Your neighbors have been suspicious ever since your nightly arguments suddenly stopped, right around the time you put something large in your trunk and drove off in the middle of the night. Now they see you driving his car and putting his suits and golf clubs up for sale on eBay. The police find your explanations implausible and contradictory,...

Rick Santorum’s crucial message for the right

Rick Santorum is running for president, and every conservative and Republican should listen to him. I can see readers’ eyes rolling now. Many conservatives, libertarians, and moderate Republicans dislike Santorum. They may think he’s a horrible messenger. They may find him terribly wrong on some issues. They may think he has no chance of winning the nomination, or that he would be a disaster in the...

Vox is partnering with McClatchy to bring its explainers to local readers

You might have heard: Vox card stacks are now embeddable anywhere on the Web (Vox) But did you know: As Vox makes its card stacks embeddable anywhere on the Web, Vox is working with McClatchy to bring their explainers to readers on McClatchy’s 29 local news sites. On Thursday, McClatchy began including card stacks in relevant national and world stories, which are then distributed to the company’s...

Why visual communication remains a vital skill for journalists

Zach Kitschke, Canva’s head of communications, says that as the Internet becomes a shouting match, it’s not about who shouts the loudest but who shouts the smartest. To make people stay on the page, share your article and remember what they read, Kitschke says visuals are essential. People only retain 20 percent of what they read, but if you put that information into an image, retention jumps to 80...

UK media banker predicts that newspapers ‘will not only survive, but prosper’

Media banker Lorna Tilbian believes that there’s cause for optimism in the newspaper industry as digital advertising revenues grow. While acknowledging the challenges that have hit the newspaper industry, Tilbian says the industry is headed toward a rebound in display advertising. Tilbian says: “I believe that the next decade will see newspapers move away from a free ad-funded model towards a diverse...

How to break free from legacy technologies

New technologies hold potential for new ways to serve customers, but established companies can find it difficult to abandon the technologies they’ve used for so long. To spur the adoption of new technologies, Willy C. Shih says established organizations should encourage experimentation with new tools and methods. Shih also recommends designing systems so that they can be easily upgraded and can adapt...

Whether or not the Apple Watch is a big hit, it will expose how little publishers know about their readers

The Apple Watch is representative of a new class of devices that demand customized experiences for their users, which Joshua Benton says will expose how little publishers know about their readers. While only a small share of news consumers will have a smartwatch in the near future, Benton notes that the first generation of news apps for the Apple Watch are shallow in content and clumsy to navigate,...

Eric Nuzum’s plans for Audible: Make it a place where people come to do their best work without worrying about paying for it

Eric Nuzum, NPR’s outgoing programming VP, has big plans for the future of Audible.com in his new role as its senior VP for original content. His ideas range from a documentary series to a game show, but he also wants Audible to help audio producers do groundbreaking work. Nuzum says he wants Audible to become, “the place where … top-shelf creative talent come to do the best work of their lives, and...

Need to Know: May 29, 2015

Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism OFF THE TOP You might have heard: Vox card stacks are now embeddable anywhere on the Web (Vox) But did you know: Vox is partnering with McClatchy to bring its explainers to local readers (Poynter) As Vox makes its card stacks embeddable anywhere on the Web, Vox is working with McClatchy to bring their explainers...