Author: Mark Fernald

The rebirth of ‘voodoo economics’

Since the Reagan administration, the Republican Party has been enraptured by what the first President Bush called “voodoo economics” — the “theory” that tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting economic growth and tax receipts. Republicans have acted on this…

Making maple syrup and saving the world

Maple syrup production in the United States peaked in 1860. This had nothing to do with agricultural trends or culinary tastes. It was political and moral beliefs in action. The Northern states were abolitionist, but their political efforts to end…