For the past three years the Republican Party leadership have stood by the president through thick and thin. Previous harsh critics and opponents in the race for the Republican nomination like Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Ted Cruz fell in line, declining to say anything negative about the president even while, at times, taking action…

While the country’s attention has been riveted on the COVID-19 pandemic, the general election contest is quietly taking shape, and the news for President Trump is mostly bad. After moving modestly upward in March, approval of his handling of the pandemic has fallen back to where it was when the crisis began, as has his…

On Jan. 14, 2017, the Obama White House hosted 30 incoming staff members of the Trump team for a role-playing scenario. A readout of the event said, “The exercise provided a high-level perspective on a series of challenges that the next administration may face and introduced the key authorities, policies, capabilities, and structures that are…

As news began to leak out that the White House was thinking about winding down the coronavirus task force, it was greeted with some consternation. After all, we are still in the midst of a pandemic—we need the president’s leadership, don’t we? And then, in an abrupt turnaround, President Trump reversed himself and stated that…

President Trump threatened during an April 15 pandemic briefing to “adjourn both chambers of Congress” because the Senate’s pro forma sessions prevented his making recess appointments. The threat will go nowhere for constitutional and practical reasons, and he has not pressed it. The administration and Senate Republicans, though, remain committed to confirming as many judges…

For America to minimize the damage from the current pandemic, the media must inform, science must innovate, and our government must administer like never before. Yet decades of politically-motivated attacks discrediting all three institutions, taken to a new level by President Trump, leave the American public in a vulnerable position. Trump has consistently vilified the…

Most state governors and cannabis regulators were underprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis is affecting every economic sector. But because the legal cannabis industry is relatively new in most places and still evolving everywhere, the challenges are even greater. What’s more, there is no history that could help us understand how the industry will endure the current economic situation. And so, in many…

Since its peak in late March, public approval of President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has slowly but steadily declined. Why is this happening? Will his new guidelines to the states for reopening the country’s turn it around? What will be the impact of his latest tweets, which call on his supporters to “liberate”…

Over the past month, President Trump has fired one inspector general, removed an acting inspector general set to oversee the pandemic response and its more than $2 trillion dollars in new funding, and publicly criticized another from the White House briefing room. These sustained attacks against the federal government’s watchdogs fly in the face of…

On March 27th, President Trump signed the CARES Act providing for more than $2 Trillion in federal spending in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Overseeing the outlay of relief funding from the bill will be no easy task, given its size, complexity and the backdrop of the 2020 election. However, this is not the first…

Amid the many plans and projects that have been set awry by the rampage of COVID-19, spare a thought for the world’s census takers. For the small community of demographers and statisticians that staff national statistical offices, 2020—now likely forever associated with coronavirus—was meant to be something else entirely: the peak year of the decennial…

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, America has begun to open up for some business and limited social interaction, especially in parts of the country that did not bear the initial brunt of the coronavirus.  However, the number of counties where COVID-19 cases have reached “high-prevalence” status continues to expand. Our tracking of these…

The release of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook provides an initial country-by-country assessment of what might happen to the world economy in 2020 and 2021. Using the methods described in the World Poverty Clock, we ask what will happen to the number of poor people in the world—those living in households with less than $1.90…

Several economic studies, including many of our own (here and here), have found evidence of a significant downturn in human well-being during the midlife years—the so-called “happiness curve.” Yet several other studies, particularly by psychologists, suggest that there either is no midlife dip and/or that it is insignificant or “trivial.” We disagree. Given that this…

The COVID-19 pandemic has already shown a dispersion away from the nation’s most urban and densely populated counties to suburban, somewhat whiter, and less politically Democratic parts of the country.  Yet the group of counties that newly qualify as areas with a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases are even more dispersed, and represent places where…

There is a stereotypical view of the places in America that COVID-19 has affected most: they are broadly urban, comprised predominantly of racial minorities, and strongly vote Democratic. This underlines the public’s perception of what kinds of populations reside in areas highly exposed to the coronavirus, as well as some of the recent political arguments…

Will the coronavirus change everything? While that sentiment feels true to the enormity of the crisis, it likely isn’t quite right, as scholars from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program have been exploring since the pandemic began. Instead, the COVID-19 crisis seems poised to accelerate or intensify many economic and metropolitan trends that were already underway, with huge…

There are two small business crises in the United States. The first—the sudden shock to small businesses induced by COVID-19—is acute and immediate. Our recent analysis indicates that over 50% of small businesses with employees (an astounding 4 million establishments) face immediate or near-term risks due to the pandemic. The second crisis—the structural racial and…

Every day since the COVID-19 pandemic began surging, The New York Times and other sources have reported the size and geographic scope of coronavirus cases. But in addition to these raw numbers, it is useful to know the key demographic attributes of places with the most cases, in comparison to those with lower (but likely…

Since the first novel coronavirus case in the United States was registered on January 19, 2020, we have learned one thing about the discipline of public health: It has been masquerading as medicine but it is at best a social science, and not an especially sophisticated one. Public health experts in the U.S. and the…

On May 1, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings hosted the 10th annual Sakıp Sabancı lecture featuring former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In her remarks, Secretary Albright offered perspectives on Turkey’s political and economic development during a period of rapid global transformation. She also explored how Turkey’s evolution is shaping its partnership with…

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Kaushik Basu for the ninth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Basu discussed the persisting global economic crisis and the policy challenges facing emerging countries. Kaushik Basu is senior vice president (Development Economics) and chief economist of the…

At a time of great change in the Middle East and Europe, the Turkey Program of the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe announced the launch of an annual lecture series in honor of Sakip Sabanci. Mr. Sabanci was not only the most prominent Turkish business leader of his generation but a visionary…

Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, delivered the second annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Prior to assuming leadership of the world's largest source of aid to developing nations, Mr. Wolfowitz spent more than three decades as an ambassador, educator, and senior government official under seven U.S. presidents.To establish a prominent forum for exploring Turkey's increasingly…

Richard C. Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and vice chairman of Perseus LLC, delivered the third annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. He was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, ending the war in Bosnia; assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian Affairs (1994-96); U.S. ambassador to Germany (1993-94); assistant…

On May 8, the Center for the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted R. Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state for political affairs, for the fourth annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. Ambassador Burns focused his address on the future of U.S.-Turkish relations. In March, Ambassador Burns retired as the under secretary of state…

On May 5, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Lord Christopher Patten for the fifth annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. In his address, Lord Patten drew on his decades of experience in elected government and international diplomacy to discuss how Turkey, Europe and the United States can realize opportunities for…

On March 17, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted Assistant Secretary of State and former Brookings Senior Fellow Philip Gordon for the sixth annual Sakip Sabanci Lecture. In his lecture, Assistant Secretary Gordon offered the Obama administration’s perspective on Turkey, its relations with the United States and the European…

On May 4, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted former European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana for the seventh annual Sakıp Sabancı Lecture. In his address, Solana offered perspectives on security, stability and democracy in a changing world, and discuss how these changes…

On May 2, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings (CUSE) hosted a discussion with former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. In his remarks, Brzezinski offered perspectives from his new book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power (Basic Books, 2012), on how the United States and Europe can…

As we have previously discussed, the decision to prioritize a single primary cluster in a regional economic development plan is challenging. For Milwaukee, this was especially difficult in development of its global trade and investment plan because it has three legitimate clusters:  energy, power and controls; food and beverage; and water technologies. The team developing the plan was reluctant to pick a favorite.

Why have some cities become great global centers, and which cities will be future leaders? What explains the rise and fall of global cities? From Athens and Rome in ancient times to New York and Singapore today, a handful of cities have stood out as centers of economic, military, cultural or political power beyond their […]

I recently moderated a panel on metropolitan competitiveness and inclusion in the global economy, and was struck by these panelists’ resolve to promote the twin aims of competitiveness and inclusion through public-private collaborations.San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor was also slated to join, but due to severe weather, she was unable to leave her home state. Afterwards, I had the chance to ask Mayor Taylor about her vision for an inclusive, internationally-competitive San Antonio. Below is an edited version of our conversation.

Fighting inequality is not only a global and national concern; it is also very local,” remarked Ángel Gurría, secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), last month at the Washington launch of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth in Cities Campaign.

A dilemma surrounds global trade and investment efforts in metro areas. Economic development leaders are increasingly convinced that global engagement matters, but they are equally (and justifiably) convinced that they should use data to better determine which programs generate the highest return on investment. Therein lies the problem: there is a lack of data suitable for measuring export and foreign direct investment (FDI) activity in metro areas. Economic theory and company input validate the tactics that metros are implementing – such as developing export capacity of mid-sized firms, or strategically responding to foreign mergers and acquisitions – but they barely impact the data typically used to evaluate economic development success.

Scanning the departures and arrivals board on the way home from launching metro Atlanta’s new foreign direct investment strategy under the Global Cities Initiative, it was easy to understand why local leaders remain focused on finding strategies to better leverage their airport as a unique infrastructure asset for global economic opportunities.

When asked how to create a great city, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: “Create a great university and wait 200 years.”  It would be an understatement, then, to say that the fall 2015 launch of the University of Paris-Saclay—which merges 18 French academic and research institutions in one sprawling 30-square-mile research campus—heeds Moynihan’s words. As part of a Global Cities Initiative research effort to benchmark the Paris region’s global competitiveness, we visited the Paris-Saclay cluster to better understand this transformative investment.

For the past five years as part of their economic development strategies, 28 U.S. metro areas have been developing global trade and investment plans. These metro areas have devoted substantial energy and resources to this process, motivated by the conviction that global engagement will have a significant impact on their economies. But things often change once plans are released: The conviction that fuels the planning process doesn’t necessarily translate into the resources required to put these plans into action.

Over the past two decades, the Santiago Metropolitan Region has emerged on the global stage. Accounting for nearly half of the nation’s GDP, Santiago contains a significant set of economic assets—an increasingly well-educated workforce, major universities, and a stable of large global companies and budding start-ups. These strengths position it well to lead Chile’s path toward a more productive, technology-intensive economy that competes in global markets based on knowledge rather than raw materials.

The steep decline of manufacturing jobs, stagnant wages, and rising anger among working class voters about their economic future has sparked a growing skepticism about globalization, launching the country into a weeks-long back and forth about the merits of trade for the U.S. economy.

On March 16, television producer and author Shonda Rhimes tweeted “Been homeschooling a 6-year old and 8-year old for one hour and 11 minutes. Teachers deserve to make a billion dollars a year. Or a week.” Six hundred thousand likes and 100,000 retweets later, it is safe to say her message resonated with the public.…

Under normal circumstances, children spend 80 percent of their waking time outside the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic has quite abruptly turned that 80 percent into 100 percent. Across the U.S., schools and child care centers have been mandated to close, and children of all ages are now home full time. This leaves many families, especially…

As Wall Street takes a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock we place in teachers is on the rise. If you didn’t appreciate the expertise, labor, and dedication that teachers patiently pour into our children most days of the week, then you probably do now. To help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, districts…

I am a “glass is half full” kind of person. While uncertainty and fear from the coronavirus epidemic is of course top of mind, I have also seen many acts of human kindness on social media and on trips to the supermarket, library, or just walking my dog that give me hope. One of the…