Opinion

BY SETH BARRON On a slushy, snowy December day, the lower concourse of Grand Central Terminal, which includes a mall-style food court, is packed with tourists, commuters, office workers eating lunch—and homeless people, some sleeping upright on benches, some parked

On February 4, President Donald Trump delivered his third State of the Union address. Manhattan Institute scholars offer their analysis and reactions to some of his policy proposals and announcements. U.S. Economy It was wise, and not particularly surprising, that

BY BILL HAMMOND Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s response to the Empire State’s big Medicaid deficit, as laid out in his budget presentation on Tuesday, was a disappointing mix of delay, deflection and delegation. In an especially concerning development, Cuomo’s budget director, Robert

BY E.J. McMAHON From a statewide perspective, New York’s economic performance since the end of the Great Recession hasn’t been especially outstanding, roughly equaling the U.S. averages for growth in private employment and GDP, while slightly trailing the national rate

From a statewide perspective, New York’s economic performance since the end of the Great Recession hasn’t been especially outstanding, roughly equaling the U.S. averages for growth in private employment and GDP, while slightly trailing the national rate of increase in

BY KYLE POMERLEAU It seems like it is conventional wisdom that if Democrats take the White House and the Senate in November the corporate income tax rate is going to go up. Of the six candidates on the debate stage

BY E.J. McMAHON New York State is facing its biggest budget deficit since Gov. Cuomo took office at the end of the Great Recession — but you’d never know it from watching or listening to the Board of Regents, the

BY BILL HAMMOND In spite of a growing and healthy economy, New York is facing a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, and concerned citizens deserve a straight accounting of what went wrong. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has blamed a surge in Medicaid spending—but

BY BILL HAMMOND In 2020, the biggest headache facing Albany will be Medicaid, the state-run health plan that covers more than 6 million lower-income and disabled New Yorkers. As revealed last month, Medicaid is running 16 percent over budget—opening a

BY JAMES PETHOKOUKIS The famous Doomsday Clock — it’s a key visual motif in the Watchmen graphic novel and television miniseries — was created by Manhattan Project scientists as a metaphor to suggest how close mankind might be to global catastrophe, originally atomic war.

BY E.J. McMAHON The Cuomo administration has admitted there is a “structural imbalance” in its massive Medicaid budget, which means the Empire State’s biggest single government program is spending beyond its means. So, what does Gov. Andrew Cuomo plan to

BY JAMES DOBBINS French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that “we are experiencing the brain death of NATO.” He made this remark in support of longstanding French policy favoring a more united Europe less dependent for its security on American leadership

BY SOO W. KIM This year, North Korea has been reminding the United States that the window of opportunity for negotiating a nuclear deal is slowly drawing to a close. In a speech delivered to the Supreme People’s Assembly in

BY NATHAN VEST Amid intense clashes around southern Tripoli, Libya’s capital has become a proving ground for foreign military equipment. In flagrant violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Libya and with dire consequences for the country and region’s security,

President Donald Trump picked a horrible time to postpone designating Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), a misguided decision made at the request of the divisive leader of a country with record-high crime and a failing economy. Days

American taxpayers spend billions of dollars to fund a growing number of mandatory social justice courses, degrees and certificates as well as events at public universities nationwide, according to a study that documents the financial burden of a robust leftist movement in

BY SCOTT HAROLD Amid the downturn in South Korea’s relations with Japan this summer, the Moon Jae-in administration gave three months’ notice on August 22 of its intent to withdraw from the countries’ General Security of Military Intelligence Agreement, or

BY PETER MURPHY Last April, lawyers for private kindergarten through grade 12 schools found themselves defending, before a state trial-court judge, private and religious schools’ right to operate. The lawyers, representing Jewish, Catholic and nonsectarian independent schools, were challenging sweeping