Browse Research and Commentary

How would a crackdown backfire? Because it would produce, immediately in Colorado, and eventually in other states, an atomized, anarchic state legalized but unregulated marijuana market that federal drug enforcers lack the manpower to contain and lack the legal power to force the states to contain.

May 8, 2013, Stuart S. Taylor, Jr., KCRW

It’s hard to imagine that it’s going to really be that expensive for online retailers to comply with the [“Internet Sales Tax”].

May 6, 2013, Tracy Gordon, ABC News

[Rick] Snyder is one of the governors who most gets the economic importance of the city. Without Detroit, Michigan cannot recover.

May 5, 2013, Bruce Katz, Financial Times

We've been in a very, very slow recovery now since 2009 and what we've been seeing is a very, very slow decline in the unemployment rate... increases in employment that barely keep up with the growth of the population.

May 3, 2013, William T. Dickens, Yahoo! News

Often the major problem is that the governments aren't enforcing the labor laws and the safety standards and regulations that they've actually agreed to and the international agreements they've signed up to.

May 2, 2013, Jane Nelson, National Public Radio

Part of the emphasis on the economic relationship is also an attempt to change the perception in America about Mexico and Mexican immigrants.

May 2, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, National Journal

Renters can change the culture of a neighborhood.

May 2, 2013, Alan Mallach, The Olympian

There’s a great advantage in complementary trade and I’d say it’s something we should think about. We need to have a viable economy, and a viable economy today is not just trade with the United States and it’s not in manufactured goods. It’s in the knowledge sector.

May 1, 2013, Bessma Momani , Ottawa Citizen

This is a new world, this is a much more integrated American market than we’ve seen in the past. I think updating the American people on this reality is the main objective for the White House.

May 1, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, Washington Times

The bilateral relationship at least with Mexico has been dominated by drugs and violence. I think there is going to be a concerted effort here to refocus attention on the depth and size of the economic relationship.

May 1, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, New York Times

When budget cuts hit high-profile business travelers, you can get Congress to act.

April 30, 2013, Darrell M. West, Bloomberg

[Ray Lahood] brought a different perspective to Washington. He is a straight shooter, and I think he took transportation from the back of the political discussion to more of the forefront.

April 30, 2013, Robert Puentes, National Public Radio

I don't expect a response [to Syria] soon because all the fiscal constraints on the Obama administration. Not to mention sequestering — the motion currently in the United States Congress — means it would be really hard-pressed to find the funding to do this. We're talking about budgets right now being cut for traffic controllers...that's priority over liberating the Syrian people.

April 29, 2013, Bessma Momani , Yahoo! News

One of [Cass Sunstein's] proudest accomplishments, he says, was nudging the Department of Agriculture toward replacing its old 'food pyramid' with a simpler 'food plate' showing that half your diet should be fruits and vegetables. He presided over big-ticket items too, including a rule to standardize safety warning labels that could save employers as much as $2.5 billion, and a rule to simplify doctors' and nurses' paperwork that could save hospitals and medical practices as much as $5 billion.

April 29, 2013, Cass Sunstein, Los Angeles Times

[The Obama administration hasn't] advertised [its regulation-trimming efforts] very well. No one knows that they've even been trying, let alone that they've accomplished anything.

April 28, 2013, Elaine Kamarck, Los Angeles Times

Sadly, divided party government, which we have because of the Republican House, in a time of extreme partisan polarization, is a formula for inaction and absolutist opposition politics, not for problem solving.

April 26, 2013, Thomas E. Mann, Moyers & Company

[Roberto Azevêdo] knows how the system works, how to get a deal done. But he has been saddled by the positions that he has had to take as Brazil’s ambassador. During the Doha round Brazil has not always been the most constructive contributor.

April 26, 2013, Joshua Meltzer, Financial Times

When you talk to people [of the Pacific nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu] they may say 'this is a beach or this used to be a piece of land that I play on as a kid but now you can see at high tide the water is encroaching and it's effectively under water.'

April 26, 2013, Jane McAdam, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service - Australia)

The president’s red line appears to have been crossed. The administration has to take some time to decide what to do about [Syria’s alleged chemical weapons use]. But if they end up leaving the impression that the president is not willing to enforce his red line, that will have consequences in the region, particularly when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, as well as for our ability to deter Assad’s use of chemical weapons in Syria.

April 25, 2013, Martin S. Indyk, New York Times

Perhaps three million people, 10 percent of Iraq's population, remain displaced - and forgotten.

April 23, 2013, Elizabeth Ferris, IRIN

The jobs that are growing fastest are jobs that don't pay very high wages. Lower-wage jobs are among the most suburbanized.

April 23, 2013, Elizabeth Kneebone, The Huffington Post

There are a crop of people at the bottom of the barrel still that are not being affected by the progress that’s being made [in the goal of universal access to primary education for all children].

April 22, 2013, Rebecca Winthrop, New York Times

It wasn't long ago that Las Vegas was given up as dead — another sunburned city that had become the new Detroit. It was easy to write this city off.

April 21, 2013, Robert E. Lang, Los Angeles Times

Videos from Chechnya are all over the Internet. They're constantly packaged as part of the Al-Qaeda network recruitment.

April 21, 2013, Fiona Hill, AFP

The political conditions have been the best in a number of years to actually pass comprehensive [immigration] reform but the Boston events already are emboldening critics ... It's going to slow down the process and in D.C. anytime you slow down the process it creates openings for critics to try to torpedo the overall legislation.

April 19, 2013, Darrell M. West, Bloomberg