Featured Commentary category, Page 3
Peter Morici: Fed should tap the brakes, not hit the gas
After cutting interest rates in September and October, the Federal Reserve should pause at its December meeting — the jobs market isn’t in crisis but inflation remains menacingly high. By the summer of 2023, the economy was at full employment but continued to grow robustly. From September 2023 to December...
Kelly McKinney: Thoughts on ‘Frankenstein,’ AI and the perils of our unfinished creation
We are nearing a tipping point with artificial intelligence. Scientists call it the singularity — the moment when machine intelligence surpasses our own. Some experts warn that it could come as soon as next year. AI already writes our code, drives our cars and designs our weapons — yet no...
Ron Grossman: There are echoes of World War II in Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine
By his account, Donald Trump has been repeatedly denied the Nobel Peace Prize he was due. Like the 1980s standup comedian Rodney Dangerfield, he complains: “I don’t get no respect.” This time, Trump is determined by hook or crook or shady diplomacy to get a Nobel. He’s proposed a peace...
David M. Drucker: It’s getting harder for governors to run for president
There’s a reason George W. Bush was the last governor to win the White House: In the 25-plus years since, governors have proven incapable of weathering the intense public scrutiny and navigating the media barrage of gotcha questions that accompany running for president. There are reasons for that. As local...
Claudia Sahm: $2,000 tariff checks are a good idea badly planned
President Donald Trump is promoting the idea of sending a $2,000 check to most Americans funded by revenues brought by his tariffs on imports. The scheme has received a frosty reception from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress and economists alike, and they are unlikely to happen. If the White House...
Adam Patric Miller: As a teacher, I’m seeing the death of American education
A student I like turns in an essay. (She won me over because she brings “Crime and Punishment” to class, and her last name is Russian, which makes me think of the great-grandparents I never met who left Russia for the reasons many Jews left.) A few sentences into her...
Point: Standardized tests were built for a predictable world; that world is gone
For more than a century, American education has been driven by the same invisible engine: standardization. Rows of desks. National tests. Rankings. From No Child Left Behind to statewide report cards, we have long measured success by what can be quantified, compared and controlled. This model, born in the industrial...
Counterpoint: Standardized tests help students by creating a framework for accountability
When the College Board canceled SAT testing in 2020, hundreds of colleges adopted test-optional admissions policies for that fall. The Urban Institute reported that the number of four-year colleges and universities going test-optional nearly doubled in one year, from 713 to 1,350. Test-optional admissions had been spreading before the covid...
Cal Thomas: Conservative giants Buckley, Thatcher deserve more praise
While only a small number of us live to be 100, everyone’s birthday has a centenary date. For historians who seem mostly to be of the liberal persuasion and obituary writers (ditto) the way the 100th anniversary of a conservative’s birth usually results in one of the following: ignored, diminished...
Chris Rosselot: Pittsburgh’s mayoral transition opportunity for community commitment
As Pittsburgh prepares to begin a new chapter under Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor, the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) views this moment as an opportunity to center neighborhood voices and recommit to a development strategy that is responsible, equitable and grounded in community experience. Transitions in leadership can create uncertainty, but...
Dr. Debra Bogen and Dr. Val Arkoosh: Protect Pa. children from hepatitis B infection
This week, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the group that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccines for all Americans, will discuss whether to change its recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine. Their vote could negatively affect the health of children and families...
Panini A. Chowdhury: Rural Pa.’s data center mirage
Rural Appalachian communities in Pennsylvania know the feeling of being promised the world and left with the bill. For generations, coal powered the region’s economy. But when demand collapsed, so did entire towns. More than 33,000 mining jobs have vanished in Appalachia since 2011, leaving behind shuttered plants, hollowed-out tax...
Allison Schrager: AI is more likely to cause a labor shortage. Here’s why.
There are two big worries when it comes to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence. The first is that it will lead to robot overlords that will eradicate humanity. The second is that AI will eliminate many jobs. The more likely scenario is that it creates a labor shortage, or...
Ronald Brownstein: The GOP tried loyalty, then rebellion. Both failed.
For Republicans, November was bookended by two ominous developments: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation and the party’s resounding defeats in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. The Republican candidates in those races — Jack Ciattarelli in New Jersey and Winsome Earle-Sears in Virginia — tried one strategy for dealing...
Kenny Stein: Future of AI in Pa. begins with regulatory reform
Artificial intelligence and data centers are the hottest investment topics at the moment, reminiscent of the Amazon headquarters sweepstakes of the past. This time, increased energy demand, combined with flexibility in location, means that almost any part of the country where the energy supply is abundant is a potential data...
Tim Wesley: If the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet!
Given the recent sports-betting and gambling scandals, this seems like a relevant question: If we knew the game was fixed, would we still watch? You bet we would. And we would probably still bet on it, too. It’s our nature. It’s entertainment, and we can’t resist. Examples abound, including Hollywood...
Dr. Kim-Lien Nguyen: Subsidizing insurance just props up dysfunction. Empower consumers instead
Congress ended its impasse to reopen the government, but the Democrats’ reason for the shutdown remains unresolved: the renewal of expiring subsidies for insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Republicans offered an olive branch to end the standoff by proposing to make payments into Americans’ health savings accounts...
Jason Lias: With respect, Deluzio’s message crossed a line
Rep. Chris Deluzio, let me start with something simple and sincere: Thank you for your service to this country. Your time in uniform matters, and nobody can take that away from you. Americans respect that — I respect that. But respect for your service does not mean giving you a...
Peter Morici: Prosperity without workers — the AI paradox shaping Trump’s economy
The economy is growing, but jobs are harder to find. Second-quarter growth in gross domestic product was 3.8%, thanks to robust investment in information processing equipment, software, and research and development, mostly to build out artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal survey of private prognosticators pegged third-quarter growth at 2.5%,...
Sophia Greene and Dr. Claudia Fernandes: A broken pipeline — costing us our next generation of scientists
Science has always relied on young innovators to drive progress. In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, still PhD students, founded Google. More recently, in 2020 and 2021, Kizzmekia Corbett, then a senior research fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Vaccine Research Center, led a team of scientists...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Republicans hope the Supreme Court will help them hold the House
Perhaps it was inevitable. But it seems increasingly likely that the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, will play a major role in determining which party wins the U.S. House next year. That possibility increased when Justice Samuel Alito paused a lower court’s rejection of the effort by Texas...
Abby McCloskey: The gender wars are heating up — on the right
More than half a million women left the labor force this year. Many are mothers with young children. It’s being called the next she-cession. This may be a good thing to the extent it reflects women’s preferences, such as wanting to spend more time with their families or it represents...
Dr. Nina Stachenfeld: So DEI doesn’t work. OK, what would be better?
It is no secret that diversity, equity and inclusion programs are under attack in our country. They have been blamed for undermining free speech, meritocracy and America itself. The University of Virginia is the latest to settle with the government and walk away from its DEI initiatives rather than defend...
Allison Schrager: The American middle class is shrinking, and that’s OK
The good news is that Americans have never been richer. The bad news is that most of them don’t feel like it. There has been tremendous growth in income and wealth in the U.S. in the last half-century, even for poorer and middle-class households. But because of the nature of...
Cal Thomas: We lose, they win
In 1988, when President Ronald Reagan was asked by a reporter during the summit in Moscow what his goal was in the Cold War, he said: “we win, they lose.” When it comes to today’s Russia and its unprovoked war with Ukraine, President Trump’s goal at least in practice and...
