Think Tanks
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Manhattan Institute Issues Commentary to Bloomberg Opinion: America Gets Retirement Wrong. Can Vanguard Fix That?
NEW YORK, Dec. 9 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to Bloomberg Opinion:
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America Gets Retirement Wrong. Can Vanguard Fix That?
By Allison Schrager
I've been a retirement economist for my entire adult life, and yet I am continually amazed at how America continues to get retirement saving so wrong. Now, finally, the world's largest issuer of mutual funds is showing signs that it recognizes a major flaw in the system.
Vanguard announced last week that next year it plans to offer target-date mutual funds that allow customers to buy
... Show Full Article
NEW YORK, Dec. 9 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to Bloomberg Opinion:
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America Gets Retirement Wrong. Can Vanguard Fix That?
By Allison Schrager
I've been a retirement economist for my entire adult life, and yet I am continually amazed at how America continues to get retirement saving so wrong. Now, finally, the world's largest issuer of mutual funds is showing signs that it recognizes a major flaw in the system.
Vanguard announced last week that next year it plans to offer target-date mutual funds that allow customers to buyannuities. This may address one of the failings of the US retirement system, which is that it does not offer any good answers for what people should do with their money once they retire.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Bloomberg Opinion (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-08/america-gets-retirement-wrong-can-vanguard-fix-that?srnd=undefined)
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Allison Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
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Original text here: https://manhattan.institute/article/america-gets-retirement-wrong-can-vanguard-fix-that
[Category: ThinkTank]
CSIS Issues Commentary: Turning the AI Revolution Into Dollar Dominance
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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Turning the AI Revolution into Dollar Dominance
By Navin Girishankar
Last month, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed the Strategic Artificial Intelligence Partnership. On the heels of a May 2025 agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United States has approved sale of leading-edge semiconductors to state-run companies in the UAE's G42 and Saudi Arabia's Humain. Access to American compute power will enable both Gulf countries to export AI-enabled goods
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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Turning the AI Revolution into Dollar Dominance
By Navin Girishankar
Last month, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed the Strategic Artificial Intelligence Partnership. On the heels of a May 2025 agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United States has approved sale of leading-edge semiconductors to state-run companies in the UAE's G42 and Saudi Arabia's Humain. Access to American compute power will enable both Gulf countries to export AI-enabled goodsand services in sectors such as autonomous logistics, precision agriculture, medical diagnostics, and finance.
The Trump administration aims to ensure that "American AI technology continues to be the gold standard worldwide," according to Vice President JD Vance. But these agreements miss an essential ingredient of American power: a guarantee that AI-enabled exports generated using American chips will be invoiced and settled in dollars. Giving other countries access to compute gives them the ability to export AI-enabled goods and services globally. That throws up a critical question: in which currency will they settle that trade--dollars, renminbi, or another currency?
Claims that compute is the new oil are now commonplace, but they often overlook what makes this comparison truly powerful. A country might spend $10 billion on data-center infrastructure using American chips--a one-time capital cost. Those chips can then generate $50-100 billion annually in AI-enabled exports to third countries, including China and the Global South: for example, they may contribute to the autonomous vehicle systems that end up on tens of thousands of vehicles, or they may help a drug discovery algorithm locate a new multi-billion dollar therapeutic. The currency used to invoice and settle these exports is a critical source of global influence.
Failing to deliver a solution to this problem would be tantamount to letting the gold standard collapse without a replacement. Fortunately for Americans, in 1974, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and U.S. Treasury Secretary William Simon helped engineer the petrodollar system as a replacement for the gold standard in 1974. The United States didn't just sell military equipment to Saudi Arabia--it anchored global energy markets to the dollar through an implicit agreement with lasting effects and provided the fiscal capacity that helped the United States win the Cold War.
Building a compute-dollar system poses different challenges than its predecessor petrodollar arrangement. Oil is a physical commodity with clear delivery points and standardized pricing. AI-enabled services--measured in compute units like FLOPs (floating-point operations) or AI tokens--are digital, distributed, and harder to track. For instance, a diagnostic AI trained in Abu Dhabi can serve a hospital in Berlin through cloud infrastructure spanning three continents. Without explicit enforcement mechanisms, tracking currency settlement for these transactions becomes impossible.
This is where the compute-dollar system must advance beyond its predecessor: by making dollar settlement an explicit, enforceable condition of chip access rather than an implicit understanding.
First, the United States should condition access to leading-edge chips on binding commitments to settle AI-enabled exports in dollars. The Commerce Department should modify its semiconductor licensing framework to require that any country receiving leading-edge AI chips commit that all AI-enabled services exported to third countries will be settled in dollars or dollar-backed stablecoins. This isn't foreign policy overreach--it's standard export control practice. Recent trade agreements with Malaysia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Thailand already require alignment with U.S. export controls, restrictions on transactions with sanctioned entities, and investment screening mechanisms. Adding currency settlement simply extends this proven framework to the most strategic technology of the century.
Second, the United States should use dollar-backed stablecoins as the settlement mechanism. This solves the enforcement problem that didn't exist in 1974. In July, President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing federal regulation of payment stablecoins backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries. These stablecoins provide instant, programmable settlement with automatic transparency through distributed ledger technology. When a European hospital pays for an AI diagnostic service, the transaction settles immediately in dollar-backed stablecoins, creating verifiable records and sustained demand for Treasury securities held as reserves. Stablecoins can match the speed of China's digital yuan while maintaining the dollar peg and Treasury backing--turning distributed AI services into an engine for dollar demand rather than a vector for yuan adoption.
Third, provide an economic security umbrella--a modern complement to the Cold War-style defense umbrella. Recent U.S. trade agreements already reflect elements of such an umbrella. Malaysia receives streamlined defense trade and preferential licensing in exchange for export control alignment and sanctions cooperation. The UAE's $1.4 trillion investment commitment came with technology diversion protections. South Korea secured $25 billion in military purchases and nuclear submarine approval. Qatar's $38 billion security partnership includes Al Udeid burden-sharing.
The compute-dollar system would formalize these arrangements--for instance, offering priority access to mineral reserves critical for AI infrastructure, participation in AI safety protocols, streamlined licensing for emerging applications, and protection from Chinese economic coercion. When Beijing threatens to cut off chip access to pressure policy changes, countries with U.S. compute-dollar agreements have guaranteed alternatives.
China grasps what's at stake. Beijing is exporting its AI stack--chips, models, and infrastructure--while building alternative payment rails via its central bank digital currency to promote yuan settlement. Chinese officials explicitly describe the digital yuan as escaping the "weaponization" of dollar-based systems--meaning U.S. sanctions power.
When a European hospital's diagnostic AI runs on Chinese chips settled in digital yuan, Beijing can threaten to cut access to influence policy. If the digital yuan becomes the settlement standard for AI services, the United States loses hundreds of billions in sustained dollar demand. Higher Treasury borrowing costs follow. The fiscal capacity needed to fund national priorities such as the pandemic response or bipartisan legislation such as the CHIPS and Science Act erodes. Network effects around the Chinese package of AI services and payment rails make reversal impossible once established.
The alternative is straightforward: the Secretaries of Treasury, Commerce, and State should ensure that all AI chip export licenses are conditioned on verifiable commitments to settle AI exports to third countries in dollars and dollar-based stablecoins. Commerce should issue guidance within 60 days requiring currency settlement plans for all frontier chip applications. Currently, agreements with Saudi Arabia and the UAE contain no such provisions. Negotiations with South Korea, Japan, and India are ongoing and should include the same.
The petrodollar system provided 50 years of monetary advantage that helped the United States win the Cold War, manage the 2007-08 financial crisis, and fund the industrial policy now rebuilding American manufacturing. The compute-dollar system offers comparable advantage--if we architect it now. The agreements currently being negotiated leave room for further detailing. They should be finalized to ensure that America's technology edge translates to extended monetary power.
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Navin Girishankar is president of the Economic Security and Technology Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
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Original text here: https://www.csis.org/analysis/turning-ai-revolution-dollar-dominance
[Category: ThinkTank]
CSIS Issues Commentary: Manifest Modernization Act - Enhancing Visibility Into Forced Labor Risks in U.S. Supply Chains
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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The Manifest Modernization Act: Enhancing Visibility Into Forced Labor Risks in U.S. Supply Chains
By Laura T. Murphy and Anasuya Syam
The Manifest Modernization Act enhances forced labor risk identification, assists Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in trade enforcement action, levels the playing field for legitimate trade, and creates a harmonized approach to data transparency in the United States.
Over the course of the last five to seven years, academics, think
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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The Manifest Modernization Act: Enhancing Visibility Into Forced Labor Risks in U.S. Supply Chains
By Laura T. Murphy and Anasuya Syam
The Manifest Modernization Act enhances forced labor risk identification, assists Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in trade enforcement action, levels the playing field for legitimate trade, and creates a harmonized approach to data transparency in the United States.
Over the course of the last five to seven years, academics, thinktanks, legal researchers, and the media have increasingly relied on U.S. customs records (also known as shipping manifests) to identify the import of forced-labor-made goods into the United States. For example, customs records revealed dozens of shipments of wigs made by Uyghur forced laborers that listed the address of one of the region's most notorious internment camps as the shipments' origin. Vietnamese laborers held in debt bondage in Taiwan's bike manufacturing industry made $400 million worth of elite bicycles that were shipped to the United States and Canada over 10 years, a fact that became clear to reporters when they reviewed publicly available U.S. customs records. In 2020, advocates petitioned the U.S. government to block Malaysian palm oil made with forced labor from the U.S. market after documenting details of the abuse and verifying supply chain links using customs data.
In all these cases, until researchers and journalists scrutinized publicly available ocean vessel manifest data, these forced-labor-made products entered the United States undeterred by U.S. CBP and were sold freely in U.S. stores and online.
The public availability of customs data has significantly enhanced the CBP's capacity to target illicit goods by empowering civil society, academics, media, and other stakeholders to analyze and publish information that leads to necessary enforcement action. This information is critical for ensuring robust enforcement of laws prohibiting the import of forced-labor-made goods, such as the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930, the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). It has also been useful in identifying counterfeits, transshipment, dumping, and sanctions evasions.
The benefits of disclosing customs data extend beyond U.S. borders as well. For example, Canadian NGOs have used U.S. import data to uncover forced labor ties to personal protective equipment (PPE), palm oil, and other goods entering the Canadian market, and the data has aided civil society in encouraging the Canadian government to catch up with the United States in addressing forced labor risks in its supply chains.
Despite the clear advantages of publishing customs records, the United States only makes a limited segment of customs data available to the public, leaving large swathes of trade activity invisible. Expanding access to customs records will increase the United States' (and other countries') ability to identify imports of forced-labor-made goods and protect legitimate international trade.
Background
A shipping manifest is the document required for all cargo carried by any vessel for transport internationally. Section 431 of the Tariff Act of 1930 mandates that all vessels arriving in the United States create and maintain a "manifest" containing details about their voyage and all cargo on board. The manifest includes data on the shipper and receiver of the cargo, country of origin, a description of the items included in the shipment, and the quantity, value, and weight of the goods.
For decades, the public has only had access to maritime shipping manifests and no other mode of transport. But this gap has not gone unnoticed.
An amendment in 1984 established a requirement to make publicly available information from these manifests. However, a series of confusing legislative amendments in the 1990s resulted in unintended restrictions on what types of vessel manifests can be publicly disclosed.
In 1996, Congress enacted the Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) to enhance seizure of counterfeit goods through different modes of transport, including aircraft. To this end, ACPA sought to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to extend public disclosure requirements to cover air cargo. However, this extended disclosure never materialized. Due to a drafting error in the 1996 Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act that resulted in the term "vessel" being repeated twice in the statute, the additional disclosure requirement from the ACPA was interpreted by courts and CBP to apply only to "vessel" (ocean) shipments, even though Congress had apparently intended to include both air and sea cargo. As a result of this narrow interpretation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) publicly releases only ocean shipping data, limiting transparency in ways unintended by Congress.
The Problem
A lack of publicly available data on cargo shipped to the United States in any non-ocean-going mode of transport leaves a significant blind spot.
CBP indicated in May 2025 that imports arriving by sea accounted for only 38 percent of the total import value. That means more than 60 percent of total U.S. imports enter the country via air or land. That's more than a billion shipments a year for which there is no public disclosure.
Many of the United States' most critical imports arrive by air and road. According to a July 2025 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, "air cargo operations are critical for the secure and timely delivery of high-value, perishable, and time-sensitive goods like electronics, produce, and medical supplies." The GAO report also notes a surge in U.S. air cargo imports for certain goods, such as pharmaceuticals and perishables. Though multiple research reports have shown that these goods are highly vulnerable to being made with forced labor or otherwise being noncompliant with U.S. trade law, there is no public visibility into these products entering the U.S. market when they arrive by air or road.
This lacuna in publicly available data has a real impact on U.S. trade enforcement. CBP and the U.S. FLETF rely heavily on civil society, corporate, media, and academic allegations that identify products made with forced labor and imported into the United States. When these groups provide CBP and the FLETF with information suggesting that an importer is noncompliant, those allegations are typically accompanied by evidence that the products are entering the United States.
The Manifest Modernization Act
A bill recently introduced in Congress--the Manifest Modernization Act (MMA, S.1259)--seeks to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to expand trade data disclosure requirements to all modes of transport.
The MMA is designed as a direct response to today's supply chain visibility gap that lets high-risk goods slip through our borders unchecked--whether they're counterfeit, tainted by forced labor, narcotics, or otherwise illicit. Issues with customs data visibility entered the public debate three years ago, in October 2022, when Associated Press published an expose into a corporate campaign to reduce customs transparency by attempting to hide currently available ocean manifests from public disclosure. Associated Press noted that if this data were to be shrouded in secrecy, it would have an enormous impact on "researchers and reporters seeking to hold corporations accountable for the mistreatment of workers in their foreign supply chains."
Civil society organizations (CSOs) quickly responded. Thirty-eight labor groups and coalitions signed a letter addressed to the then CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus requesting that he dismiss this problematic proposal. The CSOs emphasized that the trajectory should be towards more data transparency, not less.
The MMA, reintroduced this Congress (and first introduced in 2023), would require public disclosure of manifest information for imports arriving by air, truck, and rail, in addition to the existing requirements for ocean carriers.
The Stakes
Publicly available manifest data has been used across a wide range of investigations to trace and expose forced labor in supply chains. The lack of information available on imports arriving by land and air has created a significant traceability gap and has thwarted efforts to understand how forced-labor-made goods are making their way into the U.S. market. It has provided an opportunity for those who knowingly import goods made using forced labor to avoid public scrutiny.
Indeed, thousands of products made with forced labor are likely entering U.S. borders through air or land transportation every single day.
Take, for example, shipments of products made in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), which, under the UFLPA, are presumed to be made with forced labor and are thus prohibited from entry into the United States. Xinjiang customs authorities indicate that the region shipped $2.4 billion worth of goods to the United States in the first six months of 2025. In the years since the UFLPA went into effect, practically zero shipments from Xinjiang appear in ocean vessel manifest data available to the public. One hypothesis as to why these shipments are escaping public scrutiny is that they enter the United States via air. This is a critical gap in knowledge, especially seeing as pharmaceuticals are highly likely to be transported via air and many major Chinese pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing in the XUAR. The public disclosure of air freight under the MMA would aid in understanding how these goods continue to enter the United States despite the significant regulatory barriers.
Small packages are also a significant avenue through which forced-labor-made goods reach American consumers. E-commerce shipments are typically sent through express courier services via air freight. Congress has repeatedly raised concerns regarding the working conditions and safety of products entering our market from international e-commerce platforms. While media and NGO reports have alleged that many of these products are made with forced labor, child labor, or other labor exploitation, there is currently no visibility into what products are shipped in these individual business-to-consumer packages when they arrive via air or road transport. Thus, passage of the Manifest Modernization Act would provide greater insight into potential violations in the small package environment as well.
More information on air and land cargo will certainly help bolster coordination under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)'s provisions to identify and monitor cross-border movement of goods made with forced labor. There are concerns that goods with high forced labor risks could be routed through Canada or Mexico--either as raw inputs or finished products--masking their true origin. The current data blind spot severely impairs civil society's ability to effectively trace forced labor risks in North American supply chains and support the enforcement of our forced labor laws.
Industry Concerns
Expanded transparency should be welcomed by the trade community. Indeed, the bill has been endorsed by several industry associations, as well as dozens of labor rights groups, supply chain data providers, law enforcement, national security, and NGOs that span the political spectrum.
Despite the demonstrated importance of transparency, the MMA has received some pushback. Detractors contend that the added obligations to disclose aircraft, railway, and trucking data would compromise business confidential information, give competitors access to proprietary information, or be too burdensome.
These concerns are misplaced. The MMA limits the information disclosed to precisely the same as that disclosed for cargo shipped by sea. There is no increased risk in expanding to other modes of transport. Furthermore, for data that might be deemed sensitive, U.S. law already grants both importers and shippers the right to request confidentiality of their data on a case-by-case basis (19 C.F.R. Sec. 103.31). Some businesses prefer the reduced transparency because it decreases competition for their customers and suppliers. Under the MMA, all imports would be transparent, ensuring fair competition, which could reduce consumer costs and increase corporations' ability to identify suppliers that are compliant with U.S. law.
Others worry that manifest transparency would represent an additional burden on the exporters and importers. However, exporters already submit this information as part of their standard data disclosures when shipping goods to the United States. There is no additional data disclosure required by the shipper or importer. The only difference is that CBP will make the data related to these additional routes available to the verified data publishers who already publish the ocean manifest data. Those data publishers provide the trade community, law enforcement, and other interested stakeholders the added advantage of processing the data in ways that make the discovery of forced labor, trade fraud, and other illicit activity more likely.
Far from being a risk or a burden to legitimate importers, a harmonized approach to public data disclosure across the various modes of transport actually makes it less likely that importers will use air, rail, or land transport as a way to hide illicit activity.
Increased Data Means Increased Trade Security
Increased transparency levels the playing field for legitimate business and allows for greater scrutiny of those businesses that choose to import goods made with forced labor. The ocean vessel manifest data disclosed under the current law has been critical in uncovering myriad trade violations--not only forced labor, but also counterfeits, illegal transshipment and dumping, sanctions evasion, and illicit drug trafficking. Furthermore, companies can use this data to more accurately trace their own supply chains and identify risky suppliers. By making air, rail, and road transport data publicly available, the U.S. government will eliminate the risk of bad actors using those means to hide their shipments from public scrutiny.
If the United States passes this law, it could have ripple effects for legitimate trade globally. It will create an opportunity for Canada and Mexico to follow suit and put into action the commitments they made under USMCA. The United States' actions might also influence other allied nations to share their customs data in the interest of public safety and to aid in the collective response to goods made with forced labor. Given the recent announcements of trade agreement provisions requiring forced labor import bans, the United States has a new opportunity to encourage manifest transparency globally.
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Laura T. Murphy is a senior associate (non-resident) in the Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Anasuya Syam is the human rights and trade policy director at the Human Trafficking Legal Center.
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Original text here: https://www.csis.org/analysis/manifest-modernization-act-enhancing-visibility-forced-labor-risks-us-supply-chains
[Category: ThinkTank]
American Action Forum Issues Commentary: Tracker - The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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Tracker: The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
By Thomas Kingsley
Introduction
This tracker follows the Federal Reserve's (Fed) total consolidated assets, held on its balance sheet, as the best indicator of the Fed's direct intervention in the economy.
Context
The Fed's dual mandate requires it to ensure both stable prices and maximum employment. The traditional tool the Fed uses to accomplish these goals is the adjustment of the federal funds rate, the short-term interest rate that
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025:
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Tracker: The Federal Reserve's Balance Sheet Assets
By Thomas Kingsley
Introduction
This tracker follows the Federal Reserve's (Fed) total consolidated assets, held on its balance sheet, as the best indicator of the Fed's direct intervention in the economy.
Context
The Fed's dual mandate requires it to ensure both stable prices and maximum employment. The traditional tool the Fed uses to accomplish these goals is the adjustment of the federal funds rate, the short-term interest rate thatdetermines how much it costs for banks to lend to each other overnight. The 2007-2008 financial crisis, however, demonstrated that even lowering the interest rate to zero was considered insufficient to shore up economies in freefall, and the Fed turned to more unusual tactics. One of these measures was what the Fed refers to as "large-scale asset purchases," which is more commonly known as "quantitative easing." Under this process, the Fed enters the market to buy securities, typically mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and Treasuries, injecting both capital and liquidity into the market. This approach is not without risks - for the first time in its history, the Fed is regulator, supervisor, and now participant in the economy.
The development of quantitative easing as a go-to tool for the Fed in times of crisis has led to an unprecedented focus on one of its traditionally unremarkable aspects - the Fed total assets. Just as with any other firm, securities that the Fed purchases are considered assets and therefore are represented on the Fed's balance sheet. This therefore is the most reflective guide of the state of quantitative easing and, by extension, the degree to which the Fed has deemed it necessary to intervene in the economy.
Each week, the Federal Reserve publishes its balance sheet, typically on Wednesday afternoon around 4:30 p.m.
As of December 3, the Fed's assets stand at $6.5 trillion.
Sources:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TREAST
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WSHOMCB
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Thomas Kingsley is the Director of Financial Services Policy at the American Action Forum.
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Original text here: https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/tracker-the-federal-reserves-balance-sheet/
[Category: Think Tank]
America First Policy Institute: Energy Abundance Will Power Florida's Future
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to the Palm Beach Post:
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Energy Abundance Will Power Florida's Future
By Bob Rommel
Picture a hospital in Miami during a hurricane. The storm rages outside, but inside the lights stay on, life-support machines run, surgeries continue, and newborns are kept warm and safe. Now, picture a hospital in rural Bangladesh during a routine power outage. The power fades, machines shut down, and patients wait in silence.
The difference in such a moment isn't medicine or skill - it's energy.
Reliable,
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to the Palm Beach Post:
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Energy Abundance Will Power Florida's Future
By Bob Rommel
Picture a hospital in Miami during a hurricane. The storm rages outside, but inside the lights stay on, life-support machines run, surgeries continue, and newborns are kept warm and safe. Now, picture a hospital in rural Bangladesh during a routine power outage. The power fades, machines shut down, and patients wait in silence.
The difference in such a moment isn't medicine or skill - it's energy.
Reliable,affordable energy is the invisible force that separates hardship from hope, poverty from prosperity, and sometimes, life from death. Human progress over the last century is, in many ways, the story of energy. As we gained access to abundant power, lifespans increased, infant mortality plummeted, and billions were lifted out of poverty.
Yet today, a movement is pushing us to abandon the very energy sources that built the modern world - all in the name of "saving the planet." This thinking gets the problem exactly backwards. If our goal is human flourishing, then what the world needs is more reliable energy, not less.
To read the full article, click here (https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-palm-beach-post/20251207/282338276192547).
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Bob Rommel, Executive Director, AFPI Florida
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/energy-abundance-will-power-floridas-future
[Category: ThinkTank]
AFPI Statement on Georgia Lawmaker Charged With Pandemic Unemployment Fraud
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Dec. 8, 2025:
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AFPI Statement on Georgia Lawmaker Charged with Pandemic Unemployment Fraud
Today, Rebecca Yardley, Executive Director of American First Georgia at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), issued the following statement about Georgia State Representative Sharon Henderson for allegedly defrauding pandemic unemployment programs:
"Representative Sharon Henderson has been charged with falsely claiming unemployment benefits during the pandemic, stealing from taxpayers and exploiting a
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Dec. 8, 2025:
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AFPI Statement on Georgia Lawmaker Charged with Pandemic Unemployment Fraud
Today, Rebecca Yardley, Executive Director of American First Georgia at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), issued the following statement about Georgia State Representative Sharon Henderson for allegedly defrauding pandemic unemployment programs:
"Representative Sharon Henderson has been charged with falsely claiming unemployment benefits during the pandemic, stealing from taxpayers and exploiting acrisis program meant to help Americans who had truly lost their jobs and were struggling to survive."
Henderson has been indicted on two counts of theft of government funds and ten counts of making false statements, after allegedly fabricating her employment with Henry County Schools and submitting repeated false certifications to obtain more than $17,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits.
"It is reprehensible that a state representative would take advantage of a disaster program meant to help struggling Americans in a time of crisis. This case shows a much larger, systemic problem. The federal government distributed trillions with few guardrails, creating huge opportunities for abuse. No bureaucrat, including Sharon Henderson, should ever be above accountability and the law."
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/afpi-statement-on-georgia-lawmaker-charged-with-pandemic-unemployment-fraud
[Category: ThinkTank]
AFPI Applauds Launch of Farmer Bridge Assistance Program
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Dec. 8, 2025:
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AFPI Applauds Launch of Farmer Bridge Assistance Program
The America First Policy Institute released the following statement in response to news that the Trump administration will provide $12 billion in bridge payments to American farmers:
"Throughout 2025, AFPI and farm country welcomed President Trump, Ambassador Greer, Secretary Bessent, and Secretary Rollins for their bold reciprocal tariff and trade policies aimed at strengthening the farm economy. These policies have already
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Dec. 8, 2025:
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AFPI Applauds Launch of Farmer Bridge Assistance Program
The America First Policy Institute released the following statement in response to news that the Trump administration will provide $12 billion in bridge payments to American farmers:
"Throughout 2025, AFPI and farm country welcomed President Trump, Ambassador Greer, Secretary Bessent, and Secretary Rollins for their bold reciprocal tariff and trade policies aimed at strengthening the farm economy. These policies have alreadydelivered more than a dozen framework, final, and investment trade agreements. At the same time, U.S. farmers and ranchers faced a difficult year of thirty percent higher input costs, low commodity prices, and an unprecedented fifty billion dollar U.S. agricultural trade deficit that resulted from Biden-era policies", said Kip Tom, AFPI Vice Chair for Rural Policy.
"As such, AFPI applauds today's announcement of the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program. The administration is once again following through on its promise to meet the immediate needs of farmers while also delivering long-term results including access to critical markets such as China. Today's announcement, combined with policies that drive greater demand and consumption of U.S. agricultural products at home and abroad, will result in lasting prosperity for farmers and ranchers."
Learn more about AFPI's Farmers First Agenda here (https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/policy-areas/farmers-first-agenda).
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/afpi-statement-on-georgia-lawmaker-charged-with-pandemic-unemployment-fraud
[Category: ThinkTank]
