It’s no coincidence that democratic countries with capitalist systems typically have the highest quality of life, standard of living, economic productivity per capita, life expectancy and educational standards. Democratic systems also tend to have the lowest levels of corruption. In many countries, however, democracy is currently being challenged, which may have the potential to bring about harsh consequences. Democratic backsliding could, in turn, cripple our capitalist systems and reduce our standards of living. read more...

The key to U.S. economic growth and job creation lies in our ability to innovate new products and services and deliver them to the world’s nearly 8 billion consumers. This requires tax policies that incentivize entrepreneurs to take risks and pro-globalization legislation that secures access to foreign markets.

Today’s most critical challenges are impacting every American. These include the direction of globalization and Chinese relations, shifting demographics and labor shortages, and rising inequality and threats to American capitalism. Understanding these challenges, the risks they pose, and how to adapt will be necessary to survive and thrive in the years ahead.

The flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border has markedly risen over the last several years. In FY2021, Border Patrol had 1,662,167 encounters with illegal immigrants and other border crossers. So far in FY2022, which ends on September 30th, Border Patrol has had almost the same number of encounters. This year will set a new record. From a low number of encounters in April 2020 due in large part to the pandemic, encounters have increased steadily and began to rise even faster after President Biden took office.

The labor shortage in the U.S. is an urgent national concern. As of July 2022, USCC counted 11 million job openings but only 6 million unemployed workers, and many companies are struggling to maintain their level of productivity. While moving forward is a challenge, fortunately navigating the labor shortage is possible if companies assess the problems ahead. Let’s take a closer look below.

On January 1, 1997, Hong Kong, effectively seized by Great Britain in war a century before, reverted to Chinese rule. Only recently liberated from the madness of Mao Zedong's rule, Beijing promised to preserve Hong Kong's "separate system" for 50 years. Alas, the People's Republic of China (PRC) terminated the political regime based on historic British liberties 27 years early, with passage of the National Security Law in June 2020. The PRC's increasingly repressive Xi Jinping government created a police state in the Special Administrative Region as suffocating as that on the mainland. read more...

There are several critical issues facing the United States today. These include the labor shortage and skills deficit, the disruption of supply chains, the new direction of globalization, fear of new Covid variants, and inflation, which is made worse by all these issues. In addition, there are many serious concerns caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and the fallout of China continuing to support Russia.

Give President Joe Biden credit for talking with Vladimir Putin over the latter’s demands for security guarantees. Yet the way forward appears blocked by Moscow’s insistence on assurances which Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman declared to be “simply nonstarters.” Russian officials were equally blunt. “Our patience has run out,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Everyone understands that the situation is not improving. The potential for conflict is growing.”

Attempting to predict short-term fluctuations in inflation is extremely difficult. However, if you look at the evolution of globalization, which has a major impact on inflation, accurately predicting long-term inflation trends is a bit easier. So let me start with globalization and how it’s evolving.

Relations between the U.S. and China took a precipitous dive during the Trump administration and that trajectory unexpectedly continued after President Joe Biden took over. Biden and President Xi Jinping finally talked—virtually, which may become the new norm in the post‐COVID world. Hopefully their online meeting halted the relationship’s rapid descent, but what next?