Experts in the News

Is the end of the pandemic near? How are COVID-19 cases looking in Houston and what's the latest on vaccine efficacy? Health economics fellow Vivian Ho answered these questions.

President Biden's focus on capital-gains taxes has highlighted concerns about the role of taxation in economic growth. “A rate increase this large would be expected to slow long-term growth. It’s not going to slow it by a substantial amount but I don’t think it’s insignificant,” said public finance fellow John Diamond. “I don’t think it’s a story of just hey, we’re taxing the rich and no one else gets hurt by this.” Diamond is the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance.

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a nonresident scholar at the Baker Institute Center for the United States and Mexico, said the key for the new facilities will be the financing and the conditions they offer for the child migrants coming from Central America. “One thing is the rhetoric and the intentions, but the real funding for the minors and the length of the commitment is another thing,” she said.

“I’d say this announcement by ExxonMobil is massive in the carbon capture space,” said Ken Medlock, the senior director of the Center for Energy Studies. He added that a major outcome of the establishment of this hub would be the reduction of barriers to entry for other carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, the former mayor of Irving, Texas, has been called the political right’s answer to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Van Duyne is “just reflecting what the Republican base thinks about Donald Trump, and that is that they’re very supportive of him,” said political science fellow Mark Jones.