Commentary
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The True Cost of Free Parking: A Conversation with Henry Grabar
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Henry Grabar is the author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. His book examines how parking shapes Americans’ lives through day-to-day interactions such as violence over a parking spot to its role in affordable housing development. Paved Paradise questions whether parking is the most efficient use of space…
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Death to “Buy, Borrow, Die”
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Every year millions of Americans begrudgingly file their taxes. Each household must spend countless hours deciding which deductions to take, bemoaning the complexity, and eventually sending off the precious dollars they must pay to fund our roads, bridges, firefighters, and military. At the end of the day, taxes serve as…
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Crafting Beer Policy: An Interview with Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association (Part 2)
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In part one of the Chicago Policy Review’s interview with Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, the Chicago Policy Review’s Will Macheel discussed the role of a beer economist and the history of beer regulation in the United States. While some issues have been a focus of craft…
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Crafting Beer Policy: An Interview with Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association (Part 1)
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What’s in a beer? Is it simply a fermentation of hops, yeast, grains, and water? In many instances, yes. You would also be wise to highlight some beers that include other ingredients, such as juniper in a Finnish sahti or a version of the popular IPA style made with spruce…
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Analyzing Great Recession-Era Unemployment Benefits in Five Steps
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From COVID-19 stimulus checks known virally as “stimmy” to expanded unemployment benefits, most Americans know that the government steps in with emergency programs to cushion the blow during economic crises. However, many of these programs involve frequently changing guidelines and a lack of data transparency, obscuring how they function in…
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Are Segregation and Hate Crimes No Longer (Pressing) Problems?
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“Someone help this ch***!” These were the last words Michelle heard as the middle-aged man, who had just struck her across the cheek, began to walk away. What had once just been another frightening story on the news of an Asian woman’s account of harassment in New York City was…
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The Hidden Dilemmas of Vote-by-Mail
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Vote-by-mail (VBM) has garnered national attention since 2020 as a system to increase voter turnout by allowing citizens to exercise their voice safely and conveniently, especially given the new wave of voter suppression efforts. What many proponents have failed to realize, however, is how VBM can, and often does, disproportionately…
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A Solution in Search of a Problem: Cryptocurrency and Institutional Trust
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Imagine a cutting-edge new platform for economic development. It has value because everyone says it does. That value tends to fluctuate wildly. Accessing an account requires remembering a random string of letters and numbers. Some services allow users to use a traditional password, but if someone cracks that password or…
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Raising the Poverty Line in Divided Government
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Once again, Congress appears deadlocked. Following the tight 2022 midterm elections, Democrats managed to maintain a slim majority in the U.S. Senate, but narrowly lost the House. More recently, the prolonged race for Speaker of the House revealed the instability of the Republican House majority. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is…
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Why are there Golf Courses in the Desert?
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With an annual average of just 9.5 inches of precipitation, Nevada wins the title of driest state in the United States. Nevadans thus heavily depend on Lake Mead and the Colorado River that feeds it to fulfill their water needs. These life and commerce-sustaining resources, however, are undergoing a historic,…
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Cat Declaw Bans Help Both Cats and Veterinarians
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Niki Gianni, DVM is the veterinarian at Ravenswood Animal Hospital LLC in Chicago, IL. She is a 2019 graduate of the University of Illinois School of Veterinary Medicine. Crystal Heath, DVM is a shelter veterinarian, the Executive Director of the non-profit veterinary support organization Our Honor and a 2012 graduate…