Charles Hughes
Manhattan Institute
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Charles:
Streamlining Infrastructure Environmental Review
Many roads, bridges, sewers, pipelines, and other infrastructure need repair. Lengthy reviews introduce uncertainty, add to the costs, and threaten the viability of infrastructure projects. → Read More
Seattle Quickly Repeals Misguided Jobs Tax
The experience in Seattle, and the quick reversal from the policymakers there, should lead other cities to reconsider making a similar mistake. → Read More
Drone Pilot Programs Take Off
This pilot program is a positive step in that direction, and the different demonstration should be followed closely, as they will provide valuable insights to companies and government officials. → Read More
Chinese Trade Tensions Ramp Up
This week the White House announced that it would be moving forward with plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of goods imported from China. This move comes days before Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross lands in China for another round of trade talks, and just days after Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin declared that the administration was “putting the trade war on hold.” → Read More
E-Cigarettes Reduce Adult Smoking
The long-term effects of e-cigarettes certainly merit further study, and that information should help shape a reasonable regulatory framework that balances concerns about health risks with potential harm reduction. Multiple studies have presented evidence that e-cigarettes can provide a pathway to cessation, and their use increases the probability both of trying to quit and successfully doing… → Read More
Satellites to Authoritarian Regimes: Your GDP Is Inflated
Access to high-quality data on economic growth, employment, and other indicators is vital when evaluating the effectiveness of different public policies. Gross Domestic Product growth rates are often used as metrics to compare broader economic performances of different countries. Because of its prevalence in these comparisons, some leaders have an incentive to manipulate GDP growth to make their… → Read More
Corporate “Freeloader” Fee Would Do Nothing to Help Low-Wage Workers
A “Corporate Freeloader Fee” is misguided, and would dissuade large employers from creating more opportunities for low-wage workers, incentivizing them to outsource more functions. By worsening prospects for some low-wage workers and increasing the number without any form of employment, total taxpayer outlays going to support these people would actually increase over the status quo. Facilitating… → Read More
Apps Help SNAP Recipients to Budget and Find Jobs
Reforms to data access regulation and contracting should complement these efforts by protecting access to food stamp data for outside parties, so food stamp recipients are free to make use of those offerings. Such a move would encourage innovation and competition. Eventually, recipients could eventually transition out of the food stamp program by making it easier to more efficiently manage… → Read More
Getting Stuck Working for Uncle Sam
If Democrats’ jobs-guarantee proposals sound too good to be true, it’s because they are. → Read More
California Makes New Homes Even More Expensive
Californians are being squeezed by high and rising housing costs, in addition to high electricity rates. The new solar panel requirements will do nothing to solve either of these problems and will make new homes even more expensive. Instead of layering on ever more rules and requirements, policymakers in California should consider increasing the role for competition and markets for energy. → Read More
Louisiana Avoids Danger of Unlicensed Florists
With Mother’s Day fewer than two weeks away, people are wondering what to get their mothers as a token of appreciation. Flowers are a classic gift. Beautiful bouquets are available everywhere, but customers in Louisiana are unique in that their florists must obtain licenses to practice their profession. After a bill that would have repealed the licensing requirement was defeated in the State… → Read More
Persistent VA Problems Need More Than New Secretary
The problems at the VA span multiple administrations and five different Secretaries of Veterans Affairs. While it will take leadership to help make progress, nominating a good candidate for the position is only the first step. Continued oversight, rooting out mismanagement and manipulation of wait time data, and continuing to implement the Veterans Choice Program to help veterans get more timely… → Read More
Seattle Proposes Taxing Jobs to Build Affordable Housing
Seattle’s new proposal would levy a tax of about $520 per employee per year on affected businesses, while doing little to alleviate housing affordability. Instead, the burden of the tax would ultimately fall on workers, and induce some businesses to reduce employment. While concerns about Seattle’s affordability are well-founded, this new proposed tax is no solution. → Read More
D.C.’s Burdensome Food Truck Regulations
Food trucks are a booming business across America. They offer lower startup costs, more flexibility to go to areas where demand is highest, and other advantages that could reduce barriers to entry to the food industry. However, those barriers depend to a large extent on the regulatory framework in place in cities, which vary significantly between cities. → Read More
D.C.’s Gift to Uber and Lyft
Policymakers have increasingly expressed concerns about market concentration, leading to calls for more expansive antitrust policy or stricter regulations across a range of industries. However, government policies create barriers to entry that lead to the very market concentration that fuels so much consternation. The most recent example is in Washington D.C., where Mayor Bowser’s office said… → Read More
What Uber Can Tell Us about the Pay Gap
Looking for a simple solution through the imposition of new legislation or regulations in an effort to completely eradicate any gaps in crude earnings is misguided and fails to address or consider what is driving those differences. → Read More
New Infrastructure Supports LNG Export Boom
New LNG terminals have supported massive growth in exports, which played a role in America becoming a net natural gas exporter for the first time in six decades. LNG exports will play an increasingly important role in the years to come, and this rapid growth has only been made possible by having the necessary energy infrastructure in place. → Read More
No, Mayor Bowser, Don’t Fund Metro through Ride-Sharing Taxes
Hiking taxes on ride-hailing trips is not the way to generate funding for the Metro, it would make one of the reliable options people rely on to get where they need to go more expensive, and would do nothing to address the underlying problems that limit Metro’s effectiveness. → Read More
New FCC Rules Will Accelerate 5G Rollout
These new rules could reduce the time to deploy small cells by months and significantly reduce associated costs for carriers, which would incentivize a more comprehensive and swift rollout of the infrastructure needed to support the 5G network. Small cells, which will become increasingly important and prevalent in the coming years, will no longer be required to undergo these reviews, and larger… → Read More
Proposed Bill Would Not Protect Puppies
Not every tragic occurrence can or should be addressed with new legislation. While the intentions may be good, and no one in the country wants to see any kind of incident with a beloved pet, it is unlikely the new bill would have prevented this one, and the related unintended consequences could leave pets and their owners in a worse place overall. → Read More