Why Bitcoin ETFs are a game changer

The SEC’s bitcoin ETF approvals have forever altered the global monetary system: When the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded products earlier this month, it did more than change the playing field for the currency: It set in motion the evolution of how money works at a fundamental level. As FREOPP President Avik Roy explains in Forbes, these ETFs will make it extremely difficult for the government to abolish the U.S. market for bitcoin for the foreseeable future. That matters because as U.S. federal debt continues to climb—driven largely by runaway spending on health care entitlements and rising interest payments—bitcoin is likely to become an even more important insurance policy against a weakened U.S. dollar. For the Americans most affected by inflation, those already struggling to make ends meet, it offers a crucial way to protect their savings and preserve their self-sufficiency.

Missouri is the latest state working to protect foster children’s benefits: As many as 80,000 American foster children are owed Social Security benefits as the result of a parent’s death or disability. Yet in states across the country, child welfare agencies apply for and take these funds, denying young people resources that could serve as a nest egg when they become independent. As FREOPP Senior Fellow Dan Lips writes at FREOPP’s OPPBlog, a growing number of state and local lawmakers—most recently in Missouri—are stepping in to correct this injustice. But, Dan argues, Congress must act to end this practice once and for all. Building on bipartisan consensus and a 2022 reform bill is a good place to start. For this vulnerable population, late is better than never.

New ideas on modernizing Medicare: Medicare is facing a fiscal crisis, with experts predicting the trust fund will run out of money by 2031. But when it comes to entitlement reform, politicians on both sides of the aisle are largely content to look the other way. That makes the essays in Modernizing Medicare: Harnessing the Power of Consumer Choice and Market Competition, a project spearheaded by Robert E. Moffit of the Heritage Foundation, a welcome addition to the conversation. In his review of the book, FREOPP Resident Fellow Gregg Girvan summarizes and assesses its proposed reforms (many of which will be familiar to followers of FREOPP), designed to save money while preserving or improving Medicare’s slate of benefits. Gregg concludes that Medicare reform need not be a zero-sum game and that legislators would be wise to apply the sound solutions Moffit and his fellow policy experts offer.

Building a skills-first economy: Businesses all over America are complaining that they don’t have enough workers—both skilled and unskilled. At FREOPP’s most recent Freedom & Progress conference, FREOPP scholars Preston Cooper, Jackson Mejia, and Natalia Dashan, as well as Laura Maristany of Prospera Insights LLC and David Bier of the Cato Institute, discussed ways to encourage more Americans to seek work and to attract the best and brightest workers from other nations. Among other topics, they considered the effect of the acute deficit of workers on the economy and Americans’ standards of living, the importance of adding ideas about how to up-skill and re-skill populations who need economic mobility to education policy debate, and the impact tax rates and tax increases have on workforce behavior.

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