Skip to content
Markets data →
S&P 500−0.35%FTSE 100−0.17%Euro/Dollar+0.22%Brent Crude+1.25%10-Year US+1.40%Nikkei 225+0.84%Gold−0.12%
RELIABLEPOLITICAL ECONOMY · PUBLIC POLICY
RELIABLEPOLITICAL ECONOMY · PUBLIC POLICY
Home / Policy

Policy: Laws, Rules and Impact

Assessment of what governments spend, tax and regulate, measured against the objectives stated when each measure was introduced. Sources include budget offices, program evaluations and comparable schemes abroad. For officials, evaluators and analysts who need the counterfactual as well as the reported outcome.

Assessment of what governments spend, tax and regulate, measured against the objectives stated when each measure was introduced. Sources include budget offices, program evaluations and comparable schemes abroad. For officials, evaluators and analysts who need the counterfactual as well as the reported outcome.

Policy

How Lobbying Disclosure Rules Actually Work

The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act moved influence out of the shadows with quarterly reports — and its foreign-agent sibling reaches conduct the LDA does not touch.

Valentina Sokolov · May 30, 2026
Infographic of quarterly disclosure pipeline from lobbyist to public database
Policy

How the Debt Ceiling Works, and What the X-Date Means

The statutory debt limit caps how much the Treasury may borrow to pay bills Congress has already ordered — and every standoff ends the same way, at the X-date or before it.

Henrik Larsen · April 18, 2026
Close-up of Treasury bond certificates and a payment ledger on a desk
Policy

What Presidential Impoundment of Funds Really Means

Impoundment is a president's refusal to spend money Congress appropriated — banned in general by a 1974 law whose meaning is back at the center of budget fights.

Valentina Sokolov · April 5, 2026
Sealed funding envelopes stacked beside an unfilled treasury warrant