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Jeffrey Wenger Named Rand's Distinguished Chair, AI, Workers, and the Economy
SANTA MONICA, California, Aug. 22 -- Rand issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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Jeffrey Wenger Named RAND's Distinguished Chair, AI, Workers, and the Economy
Jeffrey Wenger, a senior economist at RAND, has been appointed Distinguished Chair, AI, Workers, and the Economy. In the two-year role, he will advance RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure's research agenda on artificial intelligence, including its effects on workers, labor markets, public finances, and the broader economy.
The position is supported by the Diller - von Furstenberg Family Foundation and the
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SANTA MONICA, California, Aug. 22 -- Rand issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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Jeffrey Wenger Named RAND's Distinguished Chair, AI, Workers, and the Economy
Jeffrey Wenger, a senior economist at RAND, has been appointed Distinguished Chair, AI, Workers, and the Economy. In the two-year role, he will advance RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure's research agenda on artificial intelligence, including its effects on workers, labor markets, public finances, and the broader economy.
The position is supported by the Diller - von Furstenberg Family Foundation and theLowy Family Foundation.
Wenger also directs the RAND Lowy Family Middle-Class Pathways Center and the Master of Policy Analysis Program at the RAND School of Public Policy. Additionally, he codirects the RAND von Furstenberg Family Budget Model, a suite of tools that helps decisionmakers understand federal spending and tax policy in unprecedented detail and evaluate ways to improve them.
"This role comes at a critical moment, as AI begins to reshape work and the broader economy," said Jason Matheny, RAND president and CEO. "Jeff's expertise will strengthen RAND's work in this area and help policymakers understand AI's impacts on economic opportunity."
Wenger's research focuses on the forces that shape economic opportunity, including middle-class stability and mobility, labor force participation, and the quality of work.
His published work includes A Typology of Economic Shocks and Applications for Macroeconomic Analysis, as well as research on veterans' pathways into civilian careers and how economic policy changes affect the American workforce. He has also coauthored research with RAND colleagues in the American Economic Review on the trade-off between working conditions and wages.
"I'm honored to step into this position and help build on RAND's work on the economic and workforce implications of AI," Wenger said. "As these technologies continue to evolve, policymakers will need careful research to better understand how they are affecting jobs, mobility, and economic opportunity."
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About RAND
RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous.
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Original text here: https://www.rand.org/news/press/2026/08/jeffrey-wenger-named-rands-distinguished-chair-ai-workers.html
[Category: ThinkTank]
Ifo Institute: Almost a Quarter of Companies in Germany Have a Shortage of Skilled Workers
MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 22 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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Almost a Quarter of Companies in Germany Have a Shortage of Skilled Workers
The shortage of skilled workers in Germany has increased again somewhat. In July, 23.2% of companies stated that they had a shortage of qualified workers, up from 21.1% in April. Despite the increase, the skilled labor shortage still remains below the long-term average of 31.7%. "The weak economy is currently keeping the demand for skilled workers within limits," says ifo researcher Daria Schaller. "However, as the economy
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MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 22 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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Almost a Quarter of Companies in Germany Have a Shortage of Skilled Workers
The shortage of skilled workers in Germany has increased again somewhat. In July, 23.2% of companies stated that they had a shortage of qualified workers, up from 21.1% in April. Despite the increase, the skilled labor shortage still remains below the long-term average of 31.7%. "The weak economy is currently keeping the demand for skilled workers within limits," says ifo researcher Daria Schaller. "However, as the economymakes a stronger recovery, the shortage of skilled workers is likely to increase considerably again."
In the service sector, the share of companies that are unable to find enough skilled workers remains virtually unchanged at 25.7%. In some industries, however, it rose significantly. In telecommunications, it went up from 16.3 to 31.1%, reaching its highest level since October 2023. In legal and tax consultancy as well as in auditing, the share also went up sharply, rising to 64.7% from 52.4% previously.
In trade, the shortage of skilled workers remains at a comparatively low level at 16.2%. In manufacturing, 18.7% reported a shortage of skilled workers, a noticeable increase of 4.5percentage points compared to April.
The paper industry, in particular (35.0%), is finding it harder to recruit adequately trained employees. In construction, almost one in three companies (32.6%) report a shortage of skilled workers.
"More unemployed people does not automatically mean more available skilled workers," says Schaller. "What matters is whether the qualifications match the requirements of the vacancies."
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More Information
Survey (https://www.ifo.de/en/facts/2026-08-21/almost-quarter-companies-germany-have-shortage-skilled-workers)
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Original text here: https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2026-08-21/almost-quarter-companies-germany-have-shortage-skilled-workers
[Category: ThinkTank]
America First Policy Institute: No, U.S. Service Members Aren't Victims. They Are Warriors, and This Administration Has the Pulse.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Aug. 21, 2026:
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No, U.S. Service Members Aren't Victims. They Are Warriors, and This Administration Has the Pulse.
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has issued the following statement on the strength and morale of America's warfighters from Amber Smith, AFPI Senior Advisor for America First Warfighters. Smith is a former U.S. Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot and air mission commander in the 101st Airborne Division who flew two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The frenzied
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following statement on Aug. 21, 2026:
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No, U.S. Service Members Aren't Victims. They Are Warriors, and This Administration Has the Pulse.
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has issued the following statement on the strength and morale of America's warfighters from Amber Smith, AFPI Senior Advisor for America First Warfighters. Smith is a former U.S. Army OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter pilot and air mission commander in the 101st Airborne Division who flew two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The frenziedmedia reporting about how long U.S. Navy deployments in the Middle East are impacting service member morale fundamentally misunderstands what this Administration gets. The United States military is the tip of the spear when it comes to confronting our adversaries - they are warriors, not victims. And the recruiting numbers tell the tale.
This Administration is equipping warfighters, not focused on creating social justice warriors via the woke policy imposition of the previous Administration. Since the beginning of his term, the President and U.S. Secretary of War have taken actions focused on restoring the warfighter mentality. As a result, morale is high, and this is the best recruiting year for the U.S. military in 15 years. Our warfighters know their task and their identity under this Administration, and they are performing with excellence."
AFPI maintains that America's warfighters are not victims; they are resilient, mission-focused professionals prepared to meet the challenges they are called upon to face.
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/no-u.s-service-members-arent-victims-they-are-warriors-and-this-administration-has-the-pulse
[Category: ThinkTank]
America First Policy Institute: American Bar Association Meets Accountability
WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (TNSbrep) -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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The American Bar Association Meets Accountability
Today, the Department of Education released a new report addressing continued defiance of federal civil rights law by the American Bar Association's Council. This action follows a formal request from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) to the department to investigate the ABA Council's compliance with federal recognition criteria.
"The ABA has abused its position as the Nation's sole federally recognized accreditor
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (TNSbrep) -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Aug. 21, 2026:
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The American Bar Association Meets Accountability
Today, the Department of Education released a new report addressing continued defiance of federal civil rights law by the American Bar Association's Council. This action follows a formal request from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) to the department to investigate the ABA Council's compliance with federal recognition criteria.
"The ABA has abused its position as the Nation's sole federally recognized accreditorfor Juris Doctor programs by mandating unlawful racial discrimination under the guise of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,'" said Chad Mizelle, Law and Justice Senior Fellow at AFPI. "It has had ample opportunity to remedy these practices. By refusing to do so, the ABA has created a conflict with federal civil rights law and our Nation's fundamental commitments to equal treatment under law."
As described by AFPI's Chief Legal Affairs Officer, Leigh Ann O'Neill, "The problem for the ABA is that federal civil rights law is not a cafeteria menu. Recipients of federal funds cannot pick and choose which laws they comply with and which laws they ignore. By mandating divisive ideological indoctrination-- which creates hostile learning environments--as a condition of accreditation, the ABA has effectively abdicated its Title IV gatekeeping responsibility. That is precisely why we wrote to the Department of Education in April, urging them to halt their recognition of the ABA as the sole JD program accreditor."
When faced with a recent decision to drop DEI mandates for accrediting law schools, the ABA chose to keep them intact, further demonstrating their commitment to infusing race-essentialist dogma into American legal education. AFPI applauds the Department of Education for stepping in to defend the constitutional rights of our Nation's students.
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/the-american-bar-association-meets-accountability
[Category: ThinkTank]
The Supreme Court Should Keep Federal Regulators Out of Your Home
PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug. 21 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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The Supreme Court Should Keep Federal Regulators Out of Your Home
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Every day, millions of American adults enjoy drinks made with whiskey, gin, rum and other spirits. But while the drinks are perfectly legal, anyone who dares to distill their own spirits at home is committing a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison-all because home-based distilleries are harder for the government to tax and regulate. That's an alarming assertion of federal power that threatens the privacy,
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PHOENIX, Arizona, Aug. 21 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:
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The Supreme Court Should Keep Federal Regulators Out of Your Home
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Every day, millions of American adults enjoy drinks made with whiskey, gin, rum and other spirits. But while the drinks are perfectly legal, anyone who dares to distill their own spirits at home is committing a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison-all because home-based distilleries are harder for the government to tax and regulate. That's an alarming assertion of federal power that threatens the privacy,autonomy, and economic liberty of every American, and that's why the Goldwater Institute has filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to end this government overreach.
The case, Ream v. Department of the Treasury, involves an Ohio hobbyist who would like to take up home distilling but is blocked by a 19th-century ban on the practice. Goldwater's
petition asks the Court to review the federal ban under both the taxing power and the Interstate Commerce Clause and to establish a solid, uniform standard in favor of principled federalism-one that recognizes that there must be a definitive end point to the government's implied federal powers.
The central issue in Ream exposes a radical theory of unlimited federal authority. Congress's authority is tied to the Constitution's list of express, enumerated powers. The federal government can only reach beyond that limited scope when doing so is necessary and proper for exercising one or more of those core powers listed in the Constitution. Under the Department of Treasury's logic in Ream, however, the federal government can ban any private home activity if that activity might reduce commercial sales or complicate tax enforcement. The federal excise tax applies to all spirits the moment they are made, even if they are used for personal consumption and never sold. In this case, the government claims it can ban home-based distilleries because they're harder to monitor for the purposes of tax collection and because allowing people to craft spirits at home could lead to fewer commercial purchases.
Under that theory, if Congress institutes a tax on cookies or bread, it could also outlaw at-home baking under the pretext that commercial factories are easier for inspectors to supervise. In a free society, constitutional barriers protect private homes from pervasive federal surveillance. Instead, the government treats administrative convenience as a blank check to criminalize peaceful household production.
When the federal government's authority is stretched to police what Americans make in their own kitchens, garages, and workshops, it ceases to operate within constitutional limits and assumes a general police power the Constitution expressly denies it.
The importance of this case is underscored by a glaring, direct conflict among federal appellate courts. While the Sixth Circuit created a dangerous precedent by rubber-stamping the home-distilling prohibition under the government's taxing power, the Fifth Circuit struck down the exact same statutory ban, holding that the Necessary and Proper Clause does not grant Congress a general police power over the home. The Supreme Court urgently needs to intervene here to establish clear constitutional boundaries on federal power.
This constitutional defense reflects Goldwater's broader commitment to defending home-based enterprise and economic liberty nationwide. Through our model Home-Based Business Fairness Act-enacted in states including Texas, Missouri, Iowa, West Virginia, and North Carolina-and our work defending cottage-food entrepreneurs, Goldwater continues to demonstrate that local matters belong at the local level. After all, states and local governments, not distant federal bureaucracies, are best equipped to balance health and safety while safeguarding the right of citizens to pursue productive livelihoods at home.
As the Supreme Court considers the petition in Ream, the stakes could not be higher for constitutional federalism. The Goldwater Institute will continue to stand at the vanguard of the fight to keep the federal government out of the American home.
Read the Goldwater Institute's amicus brief here.
Tony Napolitano is a Senior Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
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Original text here: https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/the-supreme-court-should-keep-federal-regulators-out-of-your-home/
The Buckeye Institute: Ohio Job Market Outpaces National Average in July
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 21 [Category: Think Tank] -- The Buckeye Institute, an independent research and educational institution that says its mission is to advance free-market public policy, posted the following news release:
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The Buckeye Institute: Ohio Job Market Outpaces National Average in July
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Columbus, OH - Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute, commented on the July 2026 jobs report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
"Ohio's unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, while its
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COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 21 [Category: Think Tank] -- The Buckeye Institute, an independent research and educational institution that says its mission is to advance free-market public policy, posted the following news release:
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The Buckeye Institute: Ohio Job Market Outpaces National Average in July
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Columbus, OH - Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute, commented on the July 2026 jobs report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
"Ohio's unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, while itslabor force participation rate fell to 61.4 percent, outpacing the national average. While the low unemployment rate is positive, in Ohio and across the nation, it is linked to declining labor force participation, with unemployed workers leaving the job market, thereby lowering the unemployment rate.
"Nationally, there are indications of a cooling job market, with total employment declining, and only 30,000 new private-sector jobs added nationwide in July. Unlike much of the country, Ohio saw positive job growth with 9,600 new private-sector jobs. However, a 3,000-job downward revision to Ohio's June jobs report is troubling.
"With a declining labor force participation rate, Ohio policymakers need to focus on attracting more employers to the Buckeye State, and that starts with preparing Ohio's workers for the in-demand, high-skilled jobs that 21st century employers need to fill. In a forthcoming policy paper, The Buckeye Institute will offer specific policy recommendations lawmakers can adopt to build on Ohio's solid economic foundation and make the state even more attractive to employers."
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Original text here: https://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/research/detail/the-buckeye-institute-ohio-job-market-outpaces-national-average-in-july
CPA Warns USTR: America's Section 232 Metals Tariffs Are National Security Measures, Not Bargaining Chips
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Coalition for a Prosperous America posted the following news release:
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CPA Warns USTR: America's Section 232 Metals Tariffs Are National Security Measures, Not Bargaining Chips
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -Ahead of U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer's meeting today with Canadian Minister for Canada-U.S. Trade Dominic LeBlanc for further trade negotiations, the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), which represents American steel mills, aluminum extruders, and other domestic metals producers, warned the administration against reducing or
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Coalition for a Prosperous America posted the following news release:
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CPA Warns USTR: America's Section 232 Metals Tariffs Are National Security Measures, Not Bargaining Chips
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -Ahead of U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer's meeting today with Canadian Minister for Canada-U.S. Trade Dominic LeBlanc for further trade negotiations, the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), which represents American steel mills, aluminum extruders, and other domestic metals producers, warned the administration against reducing ortrading away Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs.
The Section 232 metals tariffs are national security measures, imposed after Department of Commerce investigations found that import dependence threatens the United States. They are not bargaining chips. The administration strengthened that policy by raising steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent, eliminating exemptions, and expanding protection to downstream and derivative products -where 97 percent of U.S. aluminum jobs and the majority of the value-added manufacturing in these industries occurs.
"Our aluminum extruders and our steel mill members are deeply concerned by reports that the protection this administration just finished building could be given away at the negotiating table by USTR," said Jon Toomey, President of CPA. "Commerce did the hard work here -the investigations, the findings, the analysis that proved these protections are necessary for national security. That work should not be traded away. National security tariffs on critical sectors are not pawns for negotiation. The administration made that commitment to American producers, producers made investment decisions in reliance on it, and there is no deal with Canada or Mexico worth breaking it."
For aluminum extruders, cutting both primary and downstream tariffs from 50 percent to 25 percent would sharply reduce protection on the American conversion work where jobs and margins are concentrated. At 50 percent, U.S. extruders can compete. At a flat 25 percent, many would be underwater. As CPA has documented extensively in its economic analysis, U.S. aluminum tariff policy must consider the full aluminum value chain.
Steel mills face the same danger: weakening protections after companies have committed capital and restarted capacity would undermine the domestic production Section 232 was designed to restore. CPA's economic analysis on the Section 232 steel tariffs document how these protections have revitalized American manufacturing, created jobs, and strengthened national security.
"If Canada wants a deal, there is no shortage of things Ottawa can put on the table -America's national security tariffs on aluminum and steel are not among them," Toomey added. "The choice is not tariffs versus no tariffs. It is whether the deal is designed so that the American workers these tariffs exist to protect are the ones who pay for it. That is not a good deal. There is no version of it that is."
CPA has repeatedly urged the administration to keep its Section 232 actions singularly focused on rebuilding domestic output across the full supply chain -not deployed as leverage in unrelated negotiations.
As CPA's recent report on USMCA aluminum exemptions documents, whatever Canada wins walks straight into the USMCA review -and Mexico takes the same deal. Then it is no longer Canadian metal but Chinese metal, remelted in Mexican cast houses and shipped north as "Mexican" extrusion. This is not speculation -the Department of Justice secured a $549.5 million False Claims Act settlement from Perfectus Aluminum for precisely this playbook: Chinese-owned companies disguising aluminum extrusions to evade duties. Mexican extrusion imports are already up 167 percent, and the extrusion AD/CVD orders are gone. A flat 25 does not open a door to Canada -it opens a highway to China.
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Original text here: https://prosperousamerica.org/cpa-warns-ustr-americas-section-232-metals-tariffs-are-national-security-measures-not-bargaining-chips/
