Maxwell School News and Commentary

Mark Jacobson, assistant dean of Washington programs says that "the [John] Kerry pick [as Biden's special presidential envoy for climate] is really incredible from a structural standpoint." His selection, Jacobson says, is "an admission that our mid-20th century national security structures were not designed to deal with some of the more holistic and potentially existential threats, in this case, climate change."

"The further away, the less likelihood of being fired," says Assistant Dean Mark Jacobson of U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper's frequent travel amid persistent rumors that he will either quit or be fired after the election. 

"Short-term fixes like tariffs don’t work," says Professor Mary Lovely. She claims that the large U.S. trade deficit is fundamentally driven by larger economic factors—like the fact Americans spend more than they save and have to borrow from abroad to finance the difference.

Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology, assesses that Trump's executive order suspending the entry of foreign workers seeking H1-B visas "seriously undermines American leadership in fields such as technology and medicine where skilled immigrants serve as the backbone."

Now, "Chinese international students in the U.S. overwhelmingly consider China a safer place, with [their] government more competently handling the crisis than the American government," says Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology. "That is why so many Chinese students have returned home, despite the high risk of international travel and the enormous difficulty in buying airplane tickets."

"Everything the president has done has shown that the advice of more traditional economists has actually been very solid—so we don’t see the trade deficit closing as a result," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. 

“He [incumbent Ryan McMahon] is keen on making his own mark and I think he’s in a very good position to do so,” said Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. “I don’t think there’s a big reason to send him packing.”

The highly educated, richer professionals of the Democratic Party "are aware they are building barriers around who succeeds and who doesn’t," says Jeffrey Stonecash, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science. "A lot of people disparage all of this, but a lot of white guilt is built around the fact that the world can be unfair."