The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Analyzing the Tillis-Alsobrooks Compromise on Stablecoin Rewards
English Summary
The Tillis-Alsobrooks Compromise (Section 404) attempts to regulate stablecoin rewards by banning yields functionally equivalent to bank deposits. CATO argues this approach is flawed because it relies on an ambiguous 'equivalence test' that incorrectly compares regulated stablecoins to traditional fractional-reserve banking models. Since compliant stablecoins are backed 1:1 with high-quality liquid assets and do not engage in credit transformation, applying a deposit standard is inappropriate. Policymakers should recognize that stablecoin rewards represent healthy price competition and avoid using the bank deposit model as the regulatory yardstick to ensure market innovation.
中文摘要
《蒂利斯-奧爾博克妥協案》（Tillis-Alsobrooks Compromise，第404條）試圖透過禁止與銀行存款功能等效的收益率來規範穩定幣回報。CATO 認為這種方法存在缺陷，因為它依賴一個模糊的「等值性測試」，錯誤地將受監管的穩定幣比擬為傳統的分數儲備銀行模式。由於合規的穩定幣是以高品質流動資產進行1:1抵押，且不從事信貸轉換（credit transformation），因此套用存款標準是不恰當的。政策制定者應認識到，穩定幣的回報代表健康的價格競爭，並避免將銀行存款模型作為監管的衡量標準，以確保市場創新。
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