The Century Foundation - Taking Note

Counting West Bank Checkpoints

Daniel Levy, The Century Foundation, 5/9/2008
I have written before about the seemingly unstoppable proliferation of checkpoints and obstacles to movement in the West Bank, but I thought an update was in order. After all, Secretary Rice has just devoted another round of relatively fruitless Mid-East shuttling on primarily this issue.

Extreme Makeover: Cosmetic Surgery on an Ugly Record

Bernard Wasow, The Century Foundation, 5/2/2008
Some people try to defend the Bush administration against the charge that its economic policy has favored the rich over the middle class by using distorted �facts.� Here are two common claims:

The rich pay almost all income taxes, so they ought to get almost all the tax cuts.
The Bush tax cuts did not favor the rich because the rich pay a bigger share of taxes today than they did before the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.

Government's Positive Economic Impact

Jeff Madrick, The Century Foundation, 5/2/2008
This week�s economic news is better than it�s been in a long time. Jobs losses are not so bad. The stock market�s rising. Some say credit is flowing a bit again. Are we out of hot water?

The Rise and Fall of the School Voucher Movement

Greg Anrig, Jr., The Century Foundation, 4/30/2008
The Washington Monthly just posted my new piece documenting how the school voucher movement may at long last seems to be running out of gas. Some conservatives are coming to grips with the fact that the lion's share of the evidence to date shows that the idea has failed in practice to live up to its theoretical promise. Politically, vouchers have been a loser.

Big Tobacco and Health Care Reform

Niko Karvounis, The Century Foundation, 4/29/2008
This New York Times story details how Massachusetts is the latest in a long line of states hoping to fund health care initiatives by raising tobacco taxes. The report notes that �bills to raise tobacco taxes have been active in 22 state legislatures in 2008, according to the Tobacco Merchants Association, a trade group.