AEI This Week

AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most

DEFENDING CENTRAL BANK INDEPENDENCE

Trump’s Attack on the Fed Should Galvanize the GOP

January 24, 2026

Republican senators including Thom Tillis, Lisa Murkowski, and John Kennedy have spoken out forcefully against the criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Writing in Financial Times, AEI Economic Policy Studies Director Michael R. Strain explains why the GOP needs to defend central bank independence, especially throughout the process of selecting Powell’s successor.

President Trump has accelerated the weaponization of the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the past year—fundamentally breaking with norms of impartial law enforcement that Attorney General Edward Levi instilled after Watergate. DOJ veteran and leading expert on executive power Jack Goldsmith reflects on Levi’s achievements—and the costs of abandoning his legacy.

As we enter 2026, it would be a mistake to celebrate 250 years of American independence as merely a birthday or an anniversary. Drawing attention to the vague character of public celebrations so far, Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies Director Yuval Levin offers a more profound vision of how citizens can use this year to reflect on and recommit to the American tradition.

The COVID pandemic exposed flaws in our nation’s unemployment benefits system that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments. In a new AEI report, Matt Weidinger, the leading expert on this scandal, identifies reforms that could address these problems by improving efficiency and accountability.

For the past two years, spending on health care has grown faster than inflation and economic growth—reaching $5.3 trillion in 2024. In testimony before the House Committee on the Budget, Benedic N. Ippolito demonstrates the threat this poses to the United States’ long-run fiscal outlook—and the need to pursue market-based reforms to drive savings.

The Golden Thread, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West

On January 27, Encounter Books is publishing The Golden Thread, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West, cowritten by James Hankins and AEI historian Allen Guelzo. Building on the first volume, written by Hankins, that covered the period between antiquity and the Renaissance, Guelzo, across 900 pages, takes the story from the Reformation to the present, tracing how the West developed epochal political, scientific, and cultural advancements that unleashed unprecedented prosperity and freedom but undermined its own classical unity. Responding to critics of the idea and study of Western civilization, Guelzo provides a constructive basis for understanding the practical and intellectual achievements, as well as the paradoxes, of the tradition that created the world we live in.