Brian Knight

December 7, 2021 | Financial Regulation

Regulatory sandboxes were developed to achieve several important goals, including encouraging innovation, competition, and entry in highly regulated industries; providing regulators with greater insight and transparency into cutting-edge products and services; and furthering consumer protection by both helping innovators design their products to be compliant with the law and encouraging the introduction of products and services that will better serve consumer needs.

Christine McDaniel and Polina Prokof’yeva

December 8, 2021 | The Bridge

The odds are that your artificial Christmas tree — amid reports of shortages for both real and fake trees — will be Chinese made. Some 80% of Americans observe the holiday with an artificial tree, and 98.3% of fake tree imports are from China. While scarcity and shipping-container costs in the ongoing supply-chain crunch may be driving up tree prices, Washington’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports don’t appear to be a factor like they are for many other goods. Artificial Christmas tree importers in 2019 sought and received a tariff exemption from the U.S. Commerce Department.

Bruce Yandle

December 9, 2021 | The Bridge

Word from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that October’s unfilled job openings jumped to around 11 million — the second highest level on record and up from some 6.8 million in October 2020 — provided powerful evidence that employment markets have a long way to go before things begin to feel normal again. But for those inclined to look on the bright side, we can find some silver lining.