Wayne Winegarden
Business & Economics
Consumers paying at retailer’s expense
Most Americans swipe credit cards without thinking twice. But our ability to do so is under attack. Seven years ago, a group of retailers launched a lawsuit alleging that card issuers unfairly dictate merchant credit card fees. Although the parties agreed to a legal settlement, some retailers are threatening to ...
Commentary
Treating Alzheimer’s with regulations
Bureaucracy stands in the way of the best treatment The U.S. health care system is rife with rising costs and stagnating quality. All too often, the cure for these ailments calls for ever greater government intervention. Such cures misdiagnose the problem. The health care systems problems are caused by too ...
Agriculture
Uncle Sam likes his sugar
The federal government continues to envision itself as Saint Michael, whose role is to save failing industries from the horrors of the market’s cruel discipline. At least it would seem so from its recent actions. Government bailouts for investment banks, insurance companies, large banks, small banks and the automobile companies ...
Commentary
Mandating Inefficiency in the Health Care Industry
Despite 50 years of failure, faith that the federal government can cure what ails the health care industry endures. That enduring faith drives a seemingly never-ending call for plans, both grandiose and modest, that attempt to address the failings of this sector. Grand redesigns of the health care system began ...
Business & Economics
Fiscal mess deeper than ‘cliff’
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like a crisis. And, perhaps that is why the political class continually manufactures fiscal crises. The manufactured crises can be used to focus the collective political mind and help solve the underlying fiscal problem. The fiscal cliff the tax increases and ...
Business & Economics
New Report on Controlling Rising Government Compensation Costs
New Report on Controlling Rising Government Compensation Costs The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, today released a new report providing policy reforms to help control the rising compensation costs of state government employees. The report Policy Reforms to Control Rising Government Compensation Costs ...
Health Care
Benefits from Orphan Drug Research Outweigh Costs
PRI RELEASES PRIMER ON ORPHAN DRUG MARKET BENEFITS FROM ORPHAN DRUG RESEARCH OUTWEIGH COSTS A new study from the Pacific Research Institute reviews the economics of the orphan drug market and determines that the benefits from continued orphan drug research outweigh the costs. The report A Primer on the Orphan ...
Health Care
Dental Service Organizations Disproportionately Benefit Low-Income Communities
New Study Finds Dental Service Organizations Disproportionately Benefit Low-Income Communities October 15, 2012 A new analysis by the Pacific Research Institute finds that Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) create a win-win solution for consumers and taxpayers by providing important, efficient and effective health services to people who have historically lacked ...
Business & Economics
California’s politicians failing taxpayers
California’s state and local politicians are failing their fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers. As the taxpayers’ agents, California’s politicians should be establishing compensation policies that are generous enough to attract and retain the right people, but not so generous that government workers earn a substantial premium compared to their private ...
Business & Economics
The Policy Value Gap, Part 1: A Fiscal Perspective
In the spirit of Jimmy Carter, an economic malaise plagues the country. Rather than being the product of a fundamental flaw in our economic system, though, the current stagnation is mainly the result of the nations misguided economic policies. The federal governments response to the financial crisis of 2008 was ...
Consumers paying at retailer’s expense
Most Americans swipe credit cards without thinking twice. But our ability to do so is under attack. Seven years ago, a group of retailers launched a lawsuit alleging that card issuers unfairly dictate merchant credit card fees. Although the parties agreed to a legal settlement, some retailers are threatening to ...
Treating Alzheimer’s with regulations
Bureaucracy stands in the way of the best treatment The U.S. health care system is rife with rising costs and stagnating quality. All too often, the cure for these ailments calls for ever greater government intervention. Such cures misdiagnose the problem. The health care systems problems are caused by too ...
Uncle Sam likes his sugar
The federal government continues to envision itself as Saint Michael, whose role is to save failing industries from the horrors of the market’s cruel discipline. At least it would seem so from its recent actions. Government bailouts for investment banks, insurance companies, large banks, small banks and the automobile companies ...
Mandating Inefficiency in the Health Care Industry
Despite 50 years of failure, faith that the federal government can cure what ails the health care industry endures. That enduring faith drives a seemingly never-ending call for plans, both grandiose and modest, that attempt to address the failings of this sector. Grand redesigns of the health care system began ...
Fiscal mess deeper than ‘cliff’
To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, nothing focuses the mind like a crisis. And, perhaps that is why the political class continually manufactures fiscal crises. The manufactured crises can be used to focus the collective political mind and help solve the underlying fiscal problem. The fiscal cliff the tax increases and ...
New Report on Controlling Rising Government Compensation Costs
New Report on Controlling Rising Government Compensation Costs The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in San Francisco, today released a new report providing policy reforms to help control the rising compensation costs of state government employees. The report Policy Reforms to Control Rising Government Compensation Costs ...
Benefits from Orphan Drug Research Outweigh Costs
PRI RELEASES PRIMER ON ORPHAN DRUG MARKET BENEFITS FROM ORPHAN DRUG RESEARCH OUTWEIGH COSTS A new study from the Pacific Research Institute reviews the economics of the orphan drug market and determines that the benefits from continued orphan drug research outweigh the costs. The report A Primer on the Orphan ...
Dental Service Organizations Disproportionately Benefit Low-Income Communities
New Study Finds Dental Service Organizations Disproportionately Benefit Low-Income Communities October 15, 2012 A new analysis by the Pacific Research Institute finds that Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) create a win-win solution for consumers and taxpayers by providing important, efficient and effective health services to people who have historically lacked ...
California’s politicians failing taxpayers
California’s state and local politicians are failing their fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers. As the taxpayers’ agents, California’s politicians should be establishing compensation policies that are generous enough to attract and retain the right people, but not so generous that government workers earn a substantial premium compared to their private ...
The Policy Value Gap, Part 1: A Fiscal Perspective
In the spirit of Jimmy Carter, an economic malaise plagues the country. Rather than being the product of a fundamental flaw in our economic system, though, the current stagnation is mainly the result of the nations misguided economic policies. The federal governments response to the financial crisis of 2008 was ...
