Trust in the institutions that have been the pillars of U.S. politics and capitalism is crumbling. That is one finding from the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which shows that Americans have limited confidence in its public schools, courts, organized labor and banks — and even less confidence in big business, […] Read more »
Robots Can’t Vote, but They Helped Elect Trump
When you look across America to see where jobs and wages have been lost to robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation, it is the middle of the country that stands apart from the rest. The accompanying map, which was produced by Daron Acemoglu of M.I.T. and Pascual Restrepo of […] Read more »
Offshore Drilling
The Trump administration announced a new regulatory decision Thursday that will open up nearly all U.S. coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling. This move would undo the ban that Barack Obama imposed on offshore drilling in 2016. Several political leaders from coastal states — both Democrats and Republicans […] Read more »
The Public and the Opioid-Abuse Epidemic
Over the past year, the U.S. opioid-abuse epidemic has gained enormous visibility. President Donald Trump has identified it as a “public health emergency,” and a national commission and a commission of state governors have issued recommendations for action. This concern stems from the fact that in 2016 more than 11 […] Read more »
The American Public in 2017: What We Learned
As it has for more than 80 years, Gallup continued in 2017 to measure and monitor Americans’ views on their government, political leaders, public policy, the economy and their own lives. The following are Gallup editors’ picks for the most important trends and discoveries reported each month this year. CONT. […] Read more »
Who’s Winning the Culture War? Corporate America.
… The contemporary geographic coalitions of the parties primarily reflect the nation’s roiling cultural conflicts, but the representatives chosen via today’s electoral map are equally polarized over economic policies — and it is pocketbook issues, not social matters, that dominate the business of Congress. Increasingly unfettered by a declining bloc […] Read more »