American Action Forum

10/15/2026

Here’s the Weekly Economic Tracker. Douglas Holtz-Eakin discusses this week’s economic news.

10/15/2026

September CPI inflation came in hotter than expected, with headline inflation rising to 3.7% year over year and core inflation up to 2.6%. Inflation has exceeded the Fed’s 2% target for 66 consecutive months, yet Fed officials see no urgency to raise rates.

Yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September report on the consumer price index (CPI). Inflation was hotter than expected across the board. The top-line CPI rose 0.6 percent (an annual rate of 7.3 percent) and is now up 3.7 percent from September last year. In August, year-over-ye...

10/14/2026

The Trump Administration credits tariffs with a manufacturing revival, but steel employment rose from 84,100 in 2018 to just 85,000 in 2025. After nearly a decade of tariffs, where’s the promised gusher of steel jobs?

In a generous effort to fill our holiday weekend, the Trump Administration posted The State of American Manufacturing on Saturday, October 10. Who needs Georgia vs. Alabama anyway? Not surprisingly, the administration’s Council of Economic Advisers concludes that things are good – really good: M...

10/13/2026

Federal agencies issued 14 rulemakings with quantified economic impacts during the first full week of October. DHS proposed rules on student visa fees and customs declarations, with estimated costs totaling billions of dollars.

Federal agency activity during the first full week of October 2026 landed decidedly on the cost-adding side of the regulatory ledger. All told, there were 14 rulemakings that contained some kind of quantified economic impact. The most significant items of the bunch came in a pair of proposed rules f...

10/13/2026

Headline inflation has been driven largely by global oil and energy prices, while core inflation has eased from 2.9% in May to 2.4% in August. But unusual shelter price movements complicate the progress toward the Fed’s 2% target.

Tomorrow the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the September report on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which will be an important input into the decisions of the Federal Open Market Committee at its October meeting. What can we expect? Most of the recent moves in top-line inflation have been d...

10/11/2026

The FDA may allow temporary sales of certain unapproved peptides through compounding pharmacies while developing new regulations. But allowing access before safety and efficacy are established risks undermining drug oversight.

This story in The Washington Post was so alarming my tin foil hat almost fell off. The Trump administration is crafting plans that would allow the temporary sale of certain previously restricted peptides as federal health officials hammer out new regulations around the controversial products, accord...

10/11/2026

Markets cannot function particularly well when prices are secret, inaccessible, or misleading. The next push in health care transparency should focus on making pricing information actionable and enabling patients and purchasers to make meaningful choices.

On Monday, the Trump Administration finalized its latest price transparency rules – a sensible evolution of existing requirements that have generated enormous amounts of pricing data without always making that information easy for patients and others to find, compare, or use. The Centers for Medic...

10/10/2026

A federal gas tax holiday would impose costs on the federal budget while offering modest consumer benefits. A three-month suspension would cost $10.3 billion and save a 50-gallon household $27.60.

President Trump has expressed support for temporarily suspending the federal gas tax. This examines the implications of a gas tax holiday.

10/10/2026

AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director of Fiscal Policy Jordan Haring, and Director of Energy and Environmental Policy Shuting Pomerleau join us to discuss the latest economic data, a rescission package, and a possible diesel export ban.

AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director of Fiscal Policy Jordan...

10/09/2026

Tariffs directly raise costs for importers and indirectly raise prices for U.S. producers and consumers. Recent research finds importers initially absorb about 90% of tariff costs, with roughly 60% of higher producer prices eventually passed to consumers.

(Not So) Fun Fact: Since the conflict with Iran began, U.S. consumers and businesses have paid an additional $129 billion due to higher gas and diesel prices; this amounts to more than $980 per household. A Story of Tariffs, Inflation, and Consumers What’s Happening: Poll after poll continues to s...