“Our roads and highways serve as the front porch of our state,” writes law professor Ryke Longest. “North Carolina’s natural beauty is one of our greatest assets; don’t let the General Assembly sell out our state’s roadways to support a struggling billboard industry. Our elected representatives should know better than to put TVs out on our state’s front porch.”
Read More in The News & ObserverCategory: Business
Health Care is a Moral Issue First
“If you share these moral values, of course you should support the push to repeal. You have absolutely every right to do so,” writes political scientist David Siegel. “But if you do not share these moral values and are considering supporting a repeal anyway, perhaps it’s worth thinking about how you might better align your policy stances with your moral values.”
Read More in The Hill
What Will Kill Neoliberalism?
Suppose, indeed, that the age of capitalism is actually reaching its conclusion — but one that doesn’t involve the ascension of the working class. Suppose, instead, that we consider the existence of a third great social class vying with the other two for social dominance. …”
Read More in The Nation
Corporate Tax Reform: Expect the Unexpected
Because President Trump’s plans are light on specifics and not revenue neutral, it is unlikely the plan will see substantive debate without significant changes. “To be viable, tax reform needs to be closer to revenue neutral,” says Fuqua professor Scott Dyreng. “That means that lowering the corporate tax rate would be accompanied by the elimination of many one-off deductions. … The reality is that congressional representatives who want re-election are reluctant to support any legislation that might increase the tax burden to firms in their districts.”
Read More from The Fuqua School of Business
Choosing Which Cable Channels To Provide Is Speech, But Offering Internet Access Is Not
“The Supreme Court has always required substantive communication or self-expression as a necessary condition for the application of the First Amendment. And simply charging more money, or providing faster speeds, is not a substantive communication,” writes law professor Stuart Benjamin.
Read More in The Washington Post
NAFTA and Global Value Chains
“A winning way to view the world is through the lens of regional value chains competing with each other. North America is competing with Europe and East Asia, rather than the U.S. competing with Germany and China,” writes Gary Gereffi, director of the Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness at Duke. “The national approach is an outdated framework from the economic standpoint. Most industries today are organized into regional and global supply chains, which requires a new calculus of winners and losers involving both workers and companies.”
Read More at Brookings.com
Activists Try to Turn Anti-Trump Protests Toward Nine Companies
Liberal activists groups are hoping to turn the wave of anti-Trump outrage against nine corporations they say are enabling Trump’s agenda. “Whether we like it or not, everything is political now, including business,” says Aaron Chatterji, associate professor at The Fuqua School of Business. “We can leverage the way people interact with campaigns to the way they interact with companies.”
Read More in TIME
U.S. Cyber Defense ‘Terrible,’ Former NSA Director Says
“Over the last decade cyber has become an element of national power used by us and by our adversaries. We need the defensive architecture that allows industry to defend itself long enough for government to (then) come in and help,” Gen. Keith Alexander, former commander of U.S. Cyber Command and former director of the National Security Agency said in a speech at Duke.
Read More on Duke Today
GOP Keeps Obamacare ‘Fragile’ as Trump Nears 100 Days
It’s unlikely any repeal or replacement of the Affordable Care Act can be achieved anytime soon, leaving markets where Americans buy individual Obamacare policies in a “fragile” state, perhaps for another year or longer. “The fragility (of the market) will continue for some time,” says Dr. Mark McClellan, director of Duke’s Margolis Center for Health Policy and a former top health official in the George W. Bush administration.
Read More in Forbes
Will The March For Science Backfire By Politicizing Science?
“The science community’s effort to more actively engage in the public sphere could backfire. If science begins to be seen as a “liberal” pursuit, it risks losing public favor and the ability to attract the best talent,” writes Megan Mullin, associate professor of environmental politics. “If, however, science advocates keep the focus on supporting scientific research in all its forms, scientists may be able to protect their work from cuts in funding and support — even if the broader goals of evidence-based policy-making must take a back seat.”
Read More in The Washington Post
Scrutiny Over Terrorism Funding Hampers Charitable Work
“Women’s rights and their defenders are really often caught in the cross-hairs of these very risk-averse banks and overzealous regulatory authorities,” says law professor Jayne Huckerby, an author of a study that found institutional donors such as Western governments and large foundations — as well as banks — are increasingly neglecting human-rights organizations that focus their work on women’s issues and operate in areas such as Syria and Iraq.
Read More in The Washington Post
NCAA: The Most Powerful Political Organization in The U.S.
“NCAA pressure was the game-changer with North Carolina’s bathroom bill. It appeared that the law would stay in place until the state’s basketball fans realized there would be no tournament games played here,” says anthropologist Orin Starn. “And so we witnessed the unlikely spectacle of the much-criticized billion-dollar sports leviathan at the forefront of defending LGBT rights.”
Read More in The Boston Globe
