By James Dail (CMC ’20) The financial crisis of 2008 altered existing orthodoxy on monetary policy and changed the dynamic of the American economy. Monetary policy used to be fairly simple. If the economy was in a recession, then the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates. This would expand access to credit and provide the nation with needed economic activity. If the economy was doing...
By James Dail (CMC ’20) The state of Utah is an enigma for education policy makers. Most of the states that receive high marks on state education rankings typically have two things in common: they spend a large portion of their budget on funding public education and they have low student-teacher ratios. By both of these measures, Utah should be at the bottom of the pack. It spends the...
James Dail CM ’20 – Ever since she was rumored to be a possible pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos has been mired in controversy. The most common criticism that has been raised against her is that she favors charter schools and vouchers for private schools over the traditional public schools that she would be presiding over. But is she wrong to favor these options? It’s no...
James Dail CM ’20 – The United States is in the midst of its worst-ever drug crisis. Every day 91 Americans die from opioid overdose.1 To make matters worse, the crisis is not affecting all facets of American society. Poor and working class Americans bear the brunt of the carnage.2 Unless viable solutions are devised, these communities will continue to be devastated as they continue...
By James Dail (CMC ’20) Following the conclusion of last year’s presidential election, one thing pundits on both sides of the political aisle could not stop talking about was how it signaled a change. There had been a radical shift in the Republican base that would have reverberations for decades to come. Every year, the President submits his budget before Congress. The changes the...
James Dail CM ’20 – The two international developments in the twenty-first century that have defined relations between former Eastern bloc countries are growing Russian belligerence and the dawn of US isolationism. The Russian invasion of Crimea, and its covert involvement in the Ukrainian civil war, have the former Eastern bloc countries worried about their own security. Complicating...
James Dail CM ’20 – Democracy in America is changing. The last several decades have seen a remarkable increase in partisanship. Unless a single party controls both chambers of the legislature and the executive, it has become nearly impossible to pass any substantive legislation. There are those who point to the political compromises that the Clinton administration made with...
By James Dail PO ’20 A new faction has emerged within the Republican Party that has put its unique stamp on a solution for climate change. Former US Secretary of State James Baker, combined with seven other politicians and economists, proposed a carbon tax that would replace the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan, which forced businesses to cut back on emissions through the use of...
James Dail (CM ’20) Immigration is currently at the forefront of US political discourse, and it is an issue that provokes passionate responses from both sides of the aisle. On January 25th, President Trump issued an executive order entitled Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States (EPSIUS), which, among other things, called for the application and enforcement of the...
By James Dail (CMC ‘20) Student loan debt is crushing the newest members of the U.S. workforce. In 2014, the average amount of student loan debt held in the United States was $28,950.[1] With this consideration, it is not a surprise that Senator Bernie Sanders gained widespread support in the Democratic primary by placing this issue at the forefront during the campaign. However, it caused a sharp...
