Productive Capacity

Input to USTR: USMCA’s Overlooked Value

As submitted November 2, 2025\ One question underpins the last decade of U.S. trade policy: what are trade agreements worth? Common criticisms cite everything from soaring trade deficits and manufacturing job losses to environmental degradation and infringements on national sovereignty. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is no exception. Since its entry into force in 2020, […]

America’s Allies are Essential to Economic Security.

The United States trade policy has overcorrected. In 2015, a bipartisan consensus formed around the idea that America’s trade agreements were too intrusive. Agreements such as the World Trade Organization and NAFTA were seen to overly restrict the U.S.’s ability to defend itself from anti-competitive behaviors, including subsidies and dumping. A new generation of trade […]

Leverage Wins Headlines; Architecture Wins the Future

Photo: Tower Bridge, London — a symbol of enduring architecture, connecting past and future. True strength lies not in leverage, but in the structures of trust we build together. Reflections after Busan—how America and its partners can transform temporary leverage into lasting architecture, building systems of resilience, reach, and trust that endure beyond any single […]

Sparking an Industrial Reawakening

This essay is part of the Made in Democracy series, exploring how allied nations can rebuild industrial and technological strength to sustain freedom in a more contested world. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________   Across capitals from Washington to Tokyo to Berlin, a quiet consensus is emerging: nations that value openness and transparency cannot secure prosperity or peace if they […]

Made in Democracy

This post launches my Made in Democracy series, part of my broader Mind the Gap effort to expose the distance between what democracies aspire to achieve and the tools they have prepared to achieve it. From Arsenal to Afterthought In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S. was the world’s leading manufacturer. The U.S. produced […]

Millions in the U.S. take this drug. Tariffs might complicate their care.