Bruce Yandle and Stephen Strosko

December 1, 2021 | Regulation

With 2021’s conclusion almost in sight, a quick scan of the economic landscape reveals a degree of chaos generated by unexpected fluctuations in demand and supply delivered by the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it. Many of the major challenges America now faces spring from multiple trillions of stimulus dollars that have been injected to the economy without an accompanying supply of goods and services that normally go with income flows. Once the effects of peoples’ responses to closed workplaces and shuttered schools are added, the result is a combination of uncertain changes in demand and supply and rising expectations for more inflation.

Scott Sumner

November 30, 2021 | Monetary Policy

In 2020, the Federal Reserve adopted a new approach to monetary policy called flexible average inflation targeting. Under this policy, the Fed commits to maintaining an average inflation rate of 2 percent, as measured in the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, over an extended period. (The news media’s focus on the alternative Consumer Price Index can occasionally create the false impression that inflation is running above the Fed’s 2 percent PCE target.)

Angela K. Dills

November 30, 2021 | Healthcare

During the coronavirus pandemic, the use of telehealth—especially real-time video conferencing to provide medical care—has sharply increased. State governments and the federal government have made several policy changes to facilitate access to telehealth in general and telemedicine in particular, such as granting waivers to insurers and regulators for telemedicine regulations and mandating that private insurance plans cover telemedicine if they cover the same services when those services are provided in person. The latter policy change especially has rapidly expanded the prevalence of state-level telemedicine parity laws that apply to private health insurance plans.

Adam Thierer

November 30, 2021 | Technology & Innovation

Can American companies compete? Lawmakers of all stripes are asking this question today in response to growing Chinese economic and military power. What’s more, they are calling for an industrial policy to boost innovation in semiconductors, 5G wireless networks, artificial intelligence, and other strategic high-tech sectors.