Last summer, a respected policy expert from the Brookings Institution spoke at a large meeting. He introduced himself, saying that he works with a lot of brilliant economists who can't understand why the recovery is so slow.

Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman has an explanation, "...corporations use...

This January, Senators Hatch and Klobuchar introduced The Immigration Innovation Act, known as "I-Squared." It will triple the number of foreign temporary workers from about 800,000 to over 2.3 million. This will distort the labor market for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which has only...

The U.S. and 10 other countries are negotiating our next big trade agreement, called TPP. It's time to re-examine what works and what doesn't work.

Imagine a thought experiment, where we put environmentalists in each country in charge of negotiating the next trade agreement. Preposterous! I...

My career is invested in the aerospace industry, so it was very sobering to me when the FAA ordered that 787 airplanes be grounded.

Friends ask me to explain the situation -- what lessons can we draw from the 787? Invariably, we start with "outsourcing."

We've heard a lot about loss of labor rights in Wisconsin, and so-called "Right to Work" legislation in Indiana, and now Michigan. We get the impression that laws in those states had somehow required workers to join unions.

Quite the contrary. Unions, are the...

We hear two views about the high-tech work force.

On one hand, employers warn of a dire labor shortage. On the other, recent high-tech graduates can't find jobs. Many face crushing student loans that they may never pay off. Mid-career high-tech workers are steadily being let go. Discouraged mid-career...

Everyone I know is in favor of trade done right.

Recently, I heard a congressman explain how investors interpret that.

From that perspective, trade is done right when the investor's property is protected from capricious foreign governments who might snatch property. I think he meant Hugo Chavez or Fidel...

The other day, I had lunch with an economist I respect and admire. I asked him, what would it take for China to become a modern democracy and build a strong middle class?

OK. I didn't ask him that. I told him that China would need strong institutions of...

A CEO, a Tea Party member and public employee sit at a table, with 12 cookies on a plate. The CEO grabs 11 cookies and tells the Tea Party member, "You better watch him. He wants your cookie."

The CEO took 11 out of 12 cookies. This isn't a question...

An editorial in my local paper is a good example of how we trivialize our public discussion of globalization and trade policy.

The editorial follows this logic: Trade is good. All trade is good. More trade is better than less trade. Maximum possible trade! Anyone who...

A few days ago, economist Joseph Stiglitz said something quite provocative: "We've been shaping our society to create people who are more selfish."

The eye is drawn to the last part, "... create people who are more selfish." My takeaway message is at the beginning, "We've been shaping our society...

Many American voters seem ready to run our country as if it were a business.

Some businesses take a long-range growth perspective, and honor all their stakeholders. A country run that way would be OK.

However, other businesses believe their markets are "unattractive," to use the business school expression....

I work for a labor union in the aerospace industry. We are 100% in favor of trade. We make products the rest of the world wants to buy.

With increased trade we expect more prosperity. Instead, we see the American economy de-industrializing and job security at historic lows. So,...

Let's look at public policies for economic development that help us recover from the recession.

In one view of economic development, the role of government is to "make business succeed." In this view, government should get out of the way and let markets find the most efficient outcome....

A great line in the Disney pirate movie was where Geoffrey Rush (as Captain Barbossa) explained the Code of the Pirates this way, to Keira Knightley (as Elizabeth Swann),

"... the Code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' really, than actual rules."

He was a pirate, after all.

Public attitudes toward workers send a weird mixed message lately. We are busy ripping out support for wages and benefits, while simultaneously asking why the recovery is going badly. Diane Ravitch's bitter joke captures the spirit of this contradiction: "It reminds me of an old Soviet joke where...

I am 100% in favor of trade policies that raise our standard of living.

I oppose trade policies that deindustrialize America, erode the middle class and compromise long-term prosperity. Case in point: I oppose the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.

For some reason, trade debates start with the false choice...

Last spring, a congressional staffer introduced me to a new expression. She said, "Our job is to make business succeed."

My message to her had been that careers in science and technology were threatened as our economy de-industrialized. As manufacturing work goes to low-wage countries, the engineering and R&D...

When I was young, the purpose of public policy was to raise our standard of living. Not so much, anymore. Now, public policy is designed to make business succeed, or be "competitive."

Our current policies are particularly well-crafted to the goal of making large multinational businesses succeed. Our policies...

In past recessions, we used the term "priming the pump" as shorthand for economic stimulus. Hand-pumps are no longer part of our daily experience, so the comparison is lost.

It's just as well. The whole "pump-priming" metaphor is misguided. When you prime a pump, you assume that the pump...