Wayne Winegarden
Commentary
Nobody wins when bureaucrats make health care decisions instead of patients
What is called “health insurance” in the U.S. is not insurance. People buy insurance to protect themselves against unlikely but costly risks, like having a car accident. The purpose of purchasing automobile insurance is not to pay for routine maintenance costs; the purpose is to pay the huge costs that ...
Commentary
Government Mandates Don’t Lower Health Care Costs
Free lunches are often the most expensive meals. And yet, when it comes to the nations health care system, the federal government blindly offers free lunch buffets in lieu of policies that would actually address the core problems of the nations health care system. An example of this free lunch ...
Agriculture
Today’s Energy Crisis: Too Much, Not Too Little, Fossil Fuel
Back in April 1977, President Carter warned that “the oil and natural gas we rely on for 75% of our energy are running out.” In response to the perceived energy supply shortages, he wanted to limit the annual growth in overall U.S. energy usage, force American consumers to lower their ...
Business & Economics
Uncle Sam’s Phantom Loan Revenues
You may have heard that lawmakers in Washington struck a deal last week to preserve the current low student-loan rates for at least another year. You may not have heard that for fiscal year 2013 the federal government booked $32 million in revenuesprofits, if it were a private entityfor every ...
Commentary
Beware of a Forestry Standard Monopoly
Before any policy is changed, the potential economic consequences that they can cause should be considered. The Community Reinvestment Act and other affordable housing regulations, for instance, were supposed to increase loan availability to under-served communities. Unintentionally, these regulations played an important role in creating the housing boom and bust ...
Commentary
Creating Better Forestry Certification Programs through Competition
It is basic Economics 101. Competitive markets create better outcomes than monopolists. Monopolists restrict supply and charge higher prices. Dynamically, monopolists face fewer incentives to create new products or improve how their products are made. In fact, creating new technologies or processes could undermine a monopolists current market dominance. What ...
Business & Economics
Outside Opinion: ‘Swipe fees’ aren’t so bad
Most Americans swipe their credit cards in the checkout line without thinking twice. But our ability to do so is under attack. Seven years ago, a group of stores launched a lawsuit alleging that credit card issuers unfairly dictate the so-called swipe fees. Although the parties agreed to a settlement ...
Business & Economics
An Economic Assessment of New York’s Smoking Policies
By some measures, New Yorks decline in smoking incidence, particularly youth smoking incidence, was even less flattering. The percentage of 9th through 12th graders in the U.S. who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day fell from 13.8 percent in 1997 to 7.8 percent in 2011, it rose in New ...
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 ...
Nobody wins when bureaucrats make health care decisions instead of patients
What is called “health insurance” in the U.S. is not insurance. People buy insurance to protect themselves against unlikely but costly risks, like having a car accident. The purpose of purchasing automobile insurance is not to pay for routine maintenance costs; the purpose is to pay the huge costs that ...
Government Mandates Don’t Lower Health Care Costs
Free lunches are often the most expensive meals. And yet, when it comes to the nations health care system, the federal government blindly offers free lunch buffets in lieu of policies that would actually address the core problems of the nations health care system. An example of this free lunch ...
Today’s Energy Crisis: Too Much, Not Too Little, Fossil Fuel
Back in April 1977, President Carter warned that “the oil and natural gas we rely on for 75% of our energy are running out.” In response to the perceived energy supply shortages, he wanted to limit the annual growth in overall U.S. energy usage, force American consumers to lower their ...
Uncle Sam’s Phantom Loan Revenues
You may have heard that lawmakers in Washington struck a deal last week to preserve the current low student-loan rates for at least another year. You may not have heard that for fiscal year 2013 the federal government booked $32 million in revenuesprofits, if it were a private entityfor every ...
Beware of a Forestry Standard Monopoly
Before any policy is changed, the potential economic consequences that they can cause should be considered. The Community Reinvestment Act and other affordable housing regulations, for instance, were supposed to increase loan availability to under-served communities. Unintentionally, these regulations played an important role in creating the housing boom and bust ...
Creating Better Forestry Certification Programs through Competition
It is basic Economics 101. Competitive markets create better outcomes than monopolists. Monopolists restrict supply and charge higher prices. Dynamically, monopolists face fewer incentives to create new products or improve how their products are made. In fact, creating new technologies or processes could undermine a monopolists current market dominance. What ...
Outside Opinion: ‘Swipe fees’ aren’t so bad
Most Americans swipe their credit cards in the checkout line without thinking twice. But our ability to do so is under attack. Seven years ago, a group of stores launched a lawsuit alleging that credit card issuers unfairly dictate the so-called swipe fees. Although the parties agreed to a settlement ...
An Economic Assessment of New York’s Smoking Policies
By some measures, New Yorks decline in smoking incidence, particularly youth smoking incidence, was even less flattering. The percentage of 9th through 12th graders in the U.S. who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day fell from 13.8 percent in 1997 to 7.8 percent in 2011, it rose in New ...
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 ...
