John Merrifield and Barry Poulson

John Merrifield and Barry Poulson


  • December 1, 2020

    Student loan forgiveness would turn citizens into zombies

    Millions of borrowers in the federal student loan program are defaulting on their loans.  The Education Department now estimates the cost of student loan losses at more than $400 billion.  That exceeds the losses of...

  • May 31, 2020

    Too Small to Fail: Could Greater Public Trust Solve Our Debt Crisis?

    There is growing evidence that smaller nations are succeeding because social cohesion makes them easier to govern and economically efficient. It is argued that in smaller, more homogeneous societies citizens have greater trust in their governmental i...

  • February 24, 2020

    Trump proposes a new approach to the broken budget process

    President Trump's 2021 fiscal year budget proposal has created yet another firestorm of controversy. The proposal calls for a decrease in non-defense discretionary spending of 2 percent annually over the next decade and an increase in defense ...

  • November 15, 2019

    Fixing the Debt: A Reality Check

    The United States is now one of the most indebted countries in the world. The national debt is $23 trillion and is projected to grow to 150 percent of national income in coming years. Think tanks of different persuasions agree that this growth in deb...

  • August 15, 2018

    Should We Watch Wile E. Coyote Go Off the Cliff?

    For generations, one of the great joys in life has been watching Roadrunner cartoons, during which the Roadrunner always manages to find a way to trick Wile E. Coyote into running off a massive cliff. Sadly, it seems as though in the bizarre cartoon ...