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Alice Temnick tells how she teaches her high-school students about human capital.

Bob Graboyes isn’t impressed with political-scientists’ rankings of U.S. presidents.

My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague, Veronique de Rugy, talks with Yuval Levin about restoring American institutions.

My Mercatus Center colleague Alden Abbott, writing at Forbes, argues that the recent antitrust ruling against Google “may not hold up on appeal.”

Kamala Harris displays even more of her economic ignorance by endorsing the FTC’s opposition to the merger of Kroger with Albertsons.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board reports on – Are you seated? – a negative unintended consequence of one of California’s officious interferences with human choice. A slice:

California is known for its ban-first-ask-questions-later approach to problems, and in 2014 it was the first state to pass a comprehensive ban on single-use plastic bags. Whoops, plastic in the garbage went up, not down. Naturally, California politicians now think this justifies another new ban on carryout bags that will further inconvenience citizens.

Specifically, the weight of plastic bag waste per capita increased after the original ban was passed. Even a study called “Plastic Bag Bans Work,” done by environmental and public interest groups, features a table showing that the amount of plastic bags thrown away per 1,000 people in California rose from 4.08 tons in 2014 to 5.89 tons in 2021. The report blames this on a “loophole” in the law.

When the ban on thin, single-use plastic bags went into effect, shoppers were left with a choice between paper bags or heavier, multiuse plastic bags. But many people apparently didn’t reuse these thicker plastic bags as often as politicians imagined that they would, leading to the overall increase in plastic garbage. As a fix, the state Assembly and Senate are moving now to crack down on these carryout bags, which have been permitted for the past 10 years.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board also decries the GOP’s and Democrats’ irresponsible populist bidding war to buy votes. A slice:

With Kamala Harris now calling to increase the child tax credit, including to $6,000 for the first year after birth, Republicans are . . . well, where are Republicans? The Senate GOP recently blocked Chuck Schumer’s effort to expand the credit, arguing it would discourage work. Then J.D. Vance went on TV and endorsed raising the amount to $5,000 per child.

Mr. Vance is putting himself into a bidding war against Ms. Harris, using taxpayer money. Meantime, he is cornering his patron and GOP running mate, Donald Trump, into $3 trillion of bad policy that could sink any chance of extending Mr. Trump’s successful 2017 tax reform. “I’d love to see a child tax credit that’s $5,000 per child,” Mr. Vance said last Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

GMU Econ PhD candidate Giorgio Castiglia observes how inflation is affecting some of his favorite local restaurants.

Norbert Michel and Jerome Famularo set the record straight after one of Elizabeth Warren’s many distortions of it.