Kevin Cochrane is a writer and policy analyst who contributed to The Weekly Standard during 2016 and 2017. His articles covered a wide range of domestic policy issues, including taxation, housing policy, education, childcare, agricultural policy, and economic regulation, often from a free-market perspective critical of government intervention.
We’ve all heard the ubiquitous urban legend: “Large retailers ruin local economies.” Typically, big-box critics assert that mega-retailers cause lower wages, lower prices force mom-and-pops out of business, and profits aren’t reinvested locally.
California tries diligently to be an environmental leader. From spending billions of dollars building a high-speed rail system to nowhere to forking over tens of millions each year on urban forestry—code for planting trees in cities—the state has not shied away from spending big on green goals.
In the final week of the Obama administration, the outgoing president filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) accusing China of unfair trade practices. This wasn't a big surprise: Obama averaged one complaint against China every six months throughout his presidency. Indeed, Donald…
Almost fifty years ago a professor at the University of Geneva formed a group that would become the World Economic Forum (WEF). You probably know it as "Davos," named after the Swiss city that hosts its invitation-only annual meeting that draws 2,500 of the famous that want to be leaders like…
Writing in the Wealth of Nations in 1776, Adam Smith stated that, "corn is a necessary, silver is only a superfluity (sic)." Faced with a growing population and flattening agricultural productivity, essentially what Smith was pointing out was the world needed more corn and less silver.
In 2012 the Justice Department came up with what at the time seemed like a good idea. Operation Chokepoint's stated goal was "…to attack internet, telemarketing, mail, and other mass market fraud against consumers by choking fraudsters' access to the banking system." But like most genies, once it…
When Donald Trump takes office in January he's promised a long list of executive orders and federal regulations he'll unwind or eliminate. And if he wants to avoid another economic meltdown driven by the housing market, he should rapidly start undoing the regulatory misapplication of the Community…
Daycare used to be downright quaint: When I was a kid, my "daycare center" was Mr. and Mrs. Cummings' front yard across the street from my house. I walked there after school and under their careful watch I played every dangerous game that existed until my parents got home from work. The cost of…
Venezuela. Algeria. Russia. Even Saudi Arabia. These are countries that always seem to top the list when we consider who was hurt the most economically by OPEC's multi-year price war on oil. In 2014, when OPEC countries opened the petroleum floodgates in an attempt to break the U.S. fracking…
In the depths of the Great Depression, two progressive congressmen added a little noticed amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act that over the next 80 plus years grew like an octopus with its tentacles touching every single American. At its inception, the Jones-Costigan Amendment was intended…
What would you think of a lender that holds more than one $1 trillion in loans outstanding, targets low income and minority borrowers, has a payment delinquency and default rate in excess of 25 percent, and has postponed repayment on 14 percent of its loans, but is still accruing interest on them?…
"Democrats believe that we need to give Americans affordable banking options, including by empowering the United States Postal Service to facilitate the delivery of basic banking services." That's a statement on page twelve of the 2016 Democratic party platform. At first I thought it was a joke—a…
Successful compensation systems generally include some form of pay-for-performance. If you are a salesperson, you receive higher commissions the more you sell. If you are an assembly line worker paid by the piece, you receive a bigger check the faster you work. Even if you are a CEO, you receive a…
"77 cents for every dollar!"
The next big crisis facing commercial banks and corporate bondholders doesn't involve mortgages, but it has everything to do with the mortgage crisis that began in 2008. The knee-jerk reaction of Congress that created the legislative mess known as "bank reform" has driven lenders away from…
Why have California and New York state moved to implement a $15 minimum wage? They say that it's to provide workers with a "living wage."