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Articles by Robert Litan
Legal and economic aspects of the Supreme Court’s upcoming tariff decisions
Among the numerous legal challenges to the actions taken by the Trump administration, two cases the Supreme Court will hear in November have been top of mind for many in the business community and for investors. Both involve the authority of President Trump to impose tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA).1 Not since the 1930s has the United States imposed tariffs of such magnitude.
Alan Cotler and Robert Litan | Educating Ivy League student-athletes
Guest Column | You deserve scholarships, like the thousands of other Division-I student-athletes. In his song “No Surrender,” Bruce Springsteen wrote, “We busted out of class, had to get away from those fools. We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school.” Today, as Ivy League student-athletes, you have the opportunity to learn a great deal about life outside the Ivy League classrooms. You will experience successes, failures, joys, and sadnesses.
Trump’s regulatory housecleaning won’t be easy
Among President Donald Trump’s major preoccupations throughout the 2024 campaign was an oft-repeated desire to “demolish” the “deep state.”1 He aims to reduce not only the army of civil servants throughout the federal government but also the volume of regulation. Frustration with the sheer volume and scope of federal regulation is understandable.
How competitive debate can improve public education
Civil, informed debate is essential for any healthy democracy. This is truer than ever judging from the often uncivil, fact-free public discourse one sees too often on television and social media. Knowing how to debate this way is a learned activity, yet only a small fraction of students in our secondary schools acquire such skills. But does participation in formal debate training improve educational outcomes?
TikTok shows why social media companies need more regulation
Executive Summary There has been increasing political awareness regarding the national security issues posed by TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Lawmakers and the public are right to be concerned—numerous data points are now available, from ByteDance’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party to its potential for social manipulation to its gathering of American personal data.
Rethinking bank oversight in the wake of recent banking turmoil
Alice Cho, Alice Cho Board Member - First Interstate BancSystem and Globe Life Robert E. Litan Robert E. Litan Nonresident Senior Fellow - Economic Studies, Center on Regulation and Markets @BobLitan April 21, 2023 The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Treasury Department recently took extraordinary actions to help prevent the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank from spilling over and igniting a potential financial contagion.
Rethinking bank oversight in the wake of recent banking turmoil
The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Treasury Department recently took extraordinary actions to help prevent the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank from spilling over and igniting a potential financial contagion. The Fed created a new lending program and took other steps to infuse liquidity into banking institutions in distress.
Bank bosses are hiding $600 billion in unrealized losses to keep their mega bonuses. Heres why portfolio securities...
It's time for regulators to require that all securities be marked to market and reflected in banks' income, without resorting to clumsy exceptions.
Why Biden would be justified in blocking or modifying Musk’s Twitter acquisition on national security grounds
On October 27, Elon Musk purchased Twitter in a deal worth . Expectations and opinions about the deal vary widely. Critics are concerned that Musk will remove important safeguards against hate speech, online harassment, and incitement of violence, and weaken the platform’s rules against mis- and disinformation.
The national security grounds for investigating Musk’s Twitter acquisition
On October 27, Elon Musk purchased Twitter in a deal worth . Expectations and opinions about the deal vary widely. Critics are concerned that Musk will remove important safeguards against hate speech, online harassment, and incitement of violence, and weaken the platform’s rules against mis- and disinformation.
The national security grounds for investigating Musk’s Twitter acquisition
On October 27, Elon Musk purchased Twitter in a deal worth . Expectations and opinions about the deal vary widely. Critics are concerned that Musk will remove important safeguards against hate speech, online harassment, and incitement of violence, and weaken the platform’s rules against mis- and disinformation.
The Time for Geoengineering Is Now
“Geoengineering” can mean a number of things, but it usually refers to the attempt to offset the rising global temperatures that result from the greenhouse effect by introducing particles in a systematic and sustained way into the earth’s atmosphere so that it better reflects the sun’s rays. Although the idea sounds futuristic, the basic concept has been around for a long time.
The Time for Geoengineering Is Now
Sign in and save to read later Print this article Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Get a link Page url Request Reprint Permissions “Geoengineering” can mean a number of things, but it usually refers to the attempt to offset the rising global temperatures that result from the greenhouse effect by introducing particles in a systematic and sustained way into the earth’s atmosphere so that it better reflects the sun’s rays.
In Praise of Radical Moderation
Alice Rivlin was tiny in physical stature – barely above 5 foot tall – but a giant as a public servant, an economist, an intellectual, and a great human being. One of America’s best in my lifetime. And as readers will learn at the end, someone I was not only privileged to know and work with, but also a huge force in my life (as well, I know, in the lives of countless others).
Luck Matters
I’m in the middle of reading Walter Isaacson’s remarkable biography of Henry Kissinger, who at 99 has just published yet another book about leadership. As a baby boomer who was very much against the Vietnam War, and Kissinger’s role in prolonging it, I have mixed views of him, to say the least. On the one hand, I admire his genius, his brilliant books and his unmatched ability to put virtually anything and everything into historical perspective.
The Supreme Court Won't Dismantle the Administrative State Quite Yet
Text size The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, March 14, 2022. Al Drago/Bloomberg About the author: Robert Litan is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he has previously been a senior fellow on staff, and vice president and director of Economic Studies. He is also a practicing attorney specializing in antitrust and business litigation, as a shareholder of Berger Montague.
Russia can be made to pay for Ukraine damage now
Billions of people around the world are watching helplessly as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates into its second month, continuing to kill more innocent people every day, while destroying infrastructure throughout the country and forcing millions of refugees into neighboring European countries.
Russia can be made to pay for Ukraine damage now - Robert Litan
Billions of people around the world are watching helplessly as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates into its second month, continuing to kill more innocent people every day, while destroying infrastructure throughout the country and forcing millions of refugees into neighboring European countries.
Russia can be made to pay for Ukraine damage now
Billions of people around the world are watching helplessly as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine accelerates into its third week, continuing to kill more innocent people every day, while destroying infrastructure throughout the country and forcing millions of refugees into neighboring European countries.
How Even Without Use Nuclear and Cyber Weapons Have Enabled Mass Murder
I write this with tears in my eyes as I watch on TV how the modern equivalent to the Nazis’ crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1944 is unfolding as Russians are doing the same to the Ukranians in Kiev. Even almost 80 years later, the technology and methods are the same. The Ukranians use guns and Molotov cocktails to slow the advance of the Russian tanks, just as the Jews did in Warsaw.
When a universal coronavirus vaccine arrives, we should test payments for vaccine recipients
The omicron wave of the COVID-19 virus has the new year off to a bad start, as infections soar throughout the country.
How to repair the world’s broken carbon offset market
[This article originally was published on Yale Environment360.] In the wake of the Glasgow climate summit, governments must now return to the daunting challenge of making good on their emissions-reductions pledges, which at this point remain insufficient to hold warming below 2 or even 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.
What if We Had Really Paid People to Take the COVID Vaccine?
As the Omicron variant of the COVID virus spreads rapidly throughout the globe, I revisit here my earlier What If (https://robertlitan.substack.com/p/what-ifs-in-life) and Timing is Everything (https://robertlitan.substack.com/p/timing-is-everything-almost-in-business) posts and apply them to the continuing COVID vaccination challenge.
What to do about Facebook (Meta)?
Wow, what a difference a several years makes. I remember only a few years ago the chatter about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg running for President.
Carbon markets don't have to fail
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360. It appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the wake of the Glasgow climate summit, governments must now return to the daunting challenge of making good on their emissions-reductions pledges, which at this point remain insufficient to hold warming below 2 or even 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Fixing the world’s broken carbon offset markets
This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the wake of the Glasgow climate summit, governments must now return to the daunting challenge of making good on their emissions reductions pledges, which at this point remain insufficient to hold warming below 2 C or even 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.
Manchin and the Democrats’ last chance
It is not surprising that Senator Joe Manchin is the man to watch in Washington. It was obvious once the Democrats took control of the Senate that the centrist Democratic Senator from West Virginia, (a state that voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden by nearly 40 points), would be the deciding vote on the most important legislative matters in this Congress. But now it is crunch time for him, his fellow Democrats, and the country.
A framework to ensure that voluntary carbon markets will truly help combat climate change
Given the number and increasing severity of climate-related events, combating climate change is urgent.
Why Does Congress Let the Ivy League Operate as a Monopoly?
In a unanimous decision last month, the Supreme Court ruled that universities’ long-standing practice of colluding through the NCAA to limit education-related financial benefits for college athletes violated antitrust laws. “The NCAA is not above the law,” declared Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his widely praised concurrence.
The Supreme Court’s Total War on Congress
As the first term of the Mitch McConnell–engineered 6–3 right-wing Supreme Court supermajority drew to a close last week, most liberal observers expressed qualified relief. With some exceptions—in particular, the last day’s evisceration of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and simultaneous invalidation of California’s donor-disclosure mandate for charities operating in the state—the assessment was that the decisions were, overall, less “conservative” than had been anticipated.
Alan Cotler & Robert Litan | The Ivy League must allow full merit and athletic scholarships
Guest Column | By allowing full merit and atheltic scholarships, Penn — and the other Ivy League schools — can be competitive with other institutions in athletics as well as other disciplines. By Alan Cotler and Robert Litan 15 hours ago Students from middle class families, including star student athletes and especially students of color, have trouble affording an Ivy education because even need-based aid still leaves many owing $10,000 or more per year.
The Democrats Are Doing Court Reform Backward
The ultraconservative hijack of the Supreme Court, enabled by Mitch McConnell’s chicanery and President Donald Trump’s assent to Federalist Society–blessed nominees, has left liberals and Democrats flummoxed by a justifiable dread. Now comes the question: What is to be done about it?
Regulation - Econlib
Businesses complain about regulation incessantly, but many citizens, consumer advocates, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) think it absolutely necessary to protect the public interest. What is regulation? Why do we have it? How has it changed? This article briefly provides some answers, concentrating on experience with regulation in the United States. Regulation consists of requirements the government imposes on private firms and individuals to achieve government’s purposes.
Carving out Resilience Investments from the “American Jobs Plan” Could Attract Bipartisan Support
We recently argued in an essay for the Brookings Institution that greater attention should be given to investments in climate resilience in the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” Plan, which was formally proposed as the “American Jobs Plan” on March 31. Potential resilience investments and policies illustrate how most of the nation would benefit: Higher seawalls would better protect Eastern and Southern coastal states from more frequent and intense hurricanes and windstorms.
The Republican Legal Assault on Biden’s Covid Relief Plan Could Be Devastating for Democrats
From President Biden’s first day in office, when he sent his American Rescue Plan Act to Congress, until March 11, when he signed the $1.9 trillion economic relief package into law, his top officials and allies on the Hill were laser-focused on keeping the Democrats’ slim majorities on board.
Debate-centered instruction can be new classroom tool for civility and racial justice
When stressed-out students and teachers return to their schools, it will be a challenge not only to re-engage with education, but to do so in an environment where truth itself has come under challenge. One recent report from the RAND Corporation, based on a national survey of elementary and secondary students and teachers, finds that even before the pandemic, the war over “truth” and decline in civility in society at large had seeped into classrooms.
The climate wolf at the door: Why and how climate resilience should be central to building back better
The Biden administration’s economic recovery strategy, widely known as “Build Back Better,” is expected to vastly improve our national response to climate change. So far, virtually all attention on this subject has focused on mitigation—slowing the pace of climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions and taking existing carbon dioxide out of the air through “carbon capture” technologies.
Point, Counterpoint
How debate instruction can bolster public education and revive democracy. By Robert Litan Ifthere is one takeaway from the history of presidential debates that is beyond dispute, it is this: these are not real debates, but a series of well-rehearsed sound bites, a low standard that this election year’s debacle did not come even close to meeting.
If necessary, the U.S. should pay people to get a COVID-19 vaccine
Now that the first COVID vaccine, made by Pfizer, is being injected into people’s arms, Americans are anxiously awaiting their turn to get either the two Pfizer vaccine shots or those of at least two other vaccines in the FDA’s approval pipeline, by Moderna and AstraZeneca. But once those vaccines are widely available, they will not necessarily get us back to normal.
Who will hold the most power in the next Senate?
In conventional wisdom, the two Georgia Senate races are set up to be a titanic struggle between Democrats and Republicans over which party will control the Senate for the first two years of the incoming Biden-Harris administration. The two Democrats—Jon Ossoff and Reverend Ralph Warnock—are arguing that their election is required if the Biden-Harris campaign promises can become law, at least in some form.
The Supreme Court’s Obamacare Bait and Switch
Immediately after the conclusion of Tuesday’s Supreme Court arguments concerning the bid of 18 red-state attorneys general, backed by the Trump administration, to strike the Affordable Care Act down in its entirety, the media—with uniformity—pronounced the law “likely to survive.” With a laser focus, these after-action accounts focused on strong indications that a majority, of at least five justices, is poised to hold that even if the Affordable Care Act’s “individual mandate” to purchase...
We Need a Market-Based Incentive to Promote Vaccines and Get the U.S. Back to Work
It's no secret that Main Street businesses, which commune directly with the public, have been hammered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although new business applications have also soared since March, presumably most with adapted business models, that's no comfort to the more than 100,000 small businesses listed on Yelp that have shuttered, a fate that awaits many more firms as the current "third wave" rolls through America.
True Debating Can Revolutionize Education and Eventually Improve our Politics
The recent presidential “debate” gave debating a bad name. In real debates, the participants offer reasoned positions, backed by evidence, in civil discussion, without name-calling and constant interruptions, in speeches that last longer than one or two minutes, the typical time slots allotted to candidates in past debates.
Resolved
“Amidst all our passionate political conflicts, Bob Litan offers up just the kind of ‘modest proposal’ that, along with similar sensible initiatives on other fronts, will give Americans a fair chance of ‘binding up the nation’s wounds’ over the coming generation.” —Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University “It would be easy to believe our lives would greatly improve if we all just decided to agree more, or perhaps disagree less.
Op-Ed: America needs real debating
If you’ve been watching the Presidential debates over the years you should know one thing: these are not real debates, but crafted sound bites that too often whistle past each other and the moderator, aimed at ratifying what each candidate’s voter base already believes. What the nation saw Tuesday night didn’t come even close even to meeting that standard.
America Needs Real Debating
(Olivier Douliery/Pool vi AP) If you’ve been watching the Presidential debates over the years you should know one thing: these are not real debates, but crafted sound bites that too often whistle past each other and the moderator, aimed at ratifying what each candidate’s voter base already believes. What the nation saw last night didn’t come even close even to meeting that standard.
America Needs Real Debating
If you’ve been watching the Presidential debates over the years you should know one thing: these are not real debates, but crafted sound bites that too often whistle past each other and the moderator, aimed at ratifying what each candidate’s voter base already believes. What the nation saw last night didn’t come even close even to meeting that standard.
Want herd immunity? Pay people to take the vaccine
When I was a child, doctors giving vaccine shots used to hand out candy or a little toy to take the sting and fear out of the shot. A similar idea could rescue the U.S. economy when one or more COVID vaccines are approved by the FDA and widely available for mass uptake.
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