By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Lowering taxes, growing the economy, and creating more jobs were three of Donald Trump’s main promises during the campaign. [i] According to his official policy platform, Trump plans on using tax policy to achieve these three goals. The Trump administration envisions reducing taxes “across-the-board,” especially for the working class and middle-income families, but...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced a policy to reform India’s sizeable cash economy by voiding the two largest note denominations and enacting a plan to decrease the amount of notes in circulation, which will help to address India’s problems with “black money.” Modi’s plan was inspired by the European Bank’s recent decision to stop circulating the 500...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) The Supreme Court announced last Friday that it will be examining a case this term on whether or not a transgender boy, Gavin Grimm, may use the boys’ restroom in a public high school in Virginia. For some time, the school allowed Gavin Grimm to use the boys’ restroom, but the school later reversed its opinion after the school board adopted a policy that required...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Presidential nominations to the Supreme Court are heavily scrutinized given a justice’s direct role in influencing the nation’s legal precedent. Given that there is currently an open seat and three justices are in their late 70s or beyond, the next president could be nominating up to three potential judges. Donald Trump has released names of 21 judges...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Paid family leave policies are a standard in the developed world. According to an OECD study, however, the U.S. ranks dead last among developed countries offering paid leave policies to new parents.[1] In fact, only eight countries in the world do not offer paid leave for new parents, and the U.S. is the only industrialized country on the list.[2] This is a...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Last Monday, Aleppo, a rebel held city in Syria that is home to roughly 275,000 civilians, sustained major bombing.[1] Aleppo has been a controversial target of U.S. and Russian bombing campaigns against ISIS and anti-Assad rebels. In last Monday’s attack, however, 20 civilians were killed, half of whom were children.[2] The attack also destroyed more than half of the...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Six days ago, Bayer and Monsanto announced a $66 billion merger that would create the world’s largest agrichemical company in the world. This deal, valued at $128 a share, will be the most expensive all-cash buyout in history.[1] In recent years, the agriculture industry has been largely dominated by six firms (Monsanto, Syngeta, Bayer, DuPont, Dow, and BASF)...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) As independent watchdogs protecting citizens against governments and corporations, NGOs play a vital role in a maintaining a flourishing civil society. They provide information, deliver essential services, and advocate for equitable rights. NGOs balance society’s most powerful and checks the influence of powerful figures like China, India, and Russia. This is why many...
By Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) Burqa bans are back in the media with fresh scrutiny as French officials fine women who wear “burkinis” on the beaches of France, calling the burkinis “the uniform of Islamic extremism” and a threat to public safety.[1] On August 26th, the French Council of State, which is France’s highest administrative court, ruled that the burkini ban was illegal...
By: Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) The South China Sea disputes have been a source of extreme tension in the past few years, but they also have a long history. The conflicts began in the 1940s when China made its nine-dash line map, claiming a majority of the South China Sea, including territory also claimed by many neighboring countries[1]. Tensions mounted in 1974 when the Chinese defeated the...
