Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Stimulus spending fails on jobs front
The White House recently announced the results of its stimulus package, billed as instrumental in averting a second Great Depression. In reality, the stimulus has been a profligate flop, even if we take the administration’s numbers at face value. The Web site Recovery.gov breaks down stimulus expenditures and the reported ...
Business & Economics
Why students and taxpayers should protest UC fee hike
Los Angeles Daily News, December 1, 2009 Roadrunner.com, December 1, 2009 CSU Northridge (CA): December 2, 2009 THE University of California Regents have approved a plan to raise student fees 32 percent over the next year and admit fewer students, the latest in a series of fee increases and service ...
Business & Economics
Eyes on the Prize
Next week the 2009 year’s Nobel winners receive their prizes. They include two women who deserved their awards but are not likely to draw cheers from feminist celebrities. This year, for the first time, the Nobel committee awarded the prize in economics to a woman. Elinor Ostrom was not picked ...
Business & Economics
Lawsuits hurt taxpayers
We’ve all read and laughed at the stories of ludicrous lawsuits and the runaway juries who decide on multi-million judgments. Unfortunately, fellow New Yorkers, the joke is on us. A recent independent economic study conducted for New Yorkers for Lawsuit Reform — a statewide coalition of large and small businesses, ...
Business & Economics
New Yorkers pay a high price for liability litigation
High taxes help make New York an expensive place to do business. A new report argues convincingly that costly malpractice litigation and insurance also kill jobs and drive away business. The report from the conservative Pacific Research Institute notes that from an economic perspective, New York state ranks near the ...
Business & Economics
Frosting on an already-sweet pension deal
When people have an entitlement mentality, enough is never enough. Even though government employees enjoy absurdly generous defined-benefit pensions that often allow them to retire with 80 percent to 90 percent of their final year’s pay guaranteed forever, employees game the system by taking advantage of various pension-spiking schemes. A ...
Business & Economics
Giving Thanks for Leading Health Technology Advances
While Congress debates an US$850 billion healthcare bill with questionable benefits, leaders in the technology industry are quietly creating products and services that will truly reform healthcare. This Thanksgiving, for example, Americans can be appreciative of the incredible price decline in genome sequencing, one of the most important health advances. ...
Business & Economics
People vote for freedom with their feet and effort
“Why are they all running to Colorado? What have they got down there that we haven’t got?” So asks a villain in Ayn Rand’s, “Atlas Shrugged.” He complains about Colorado’s primitive, lazy government that “does nothing outside of keeping law courts and a police department.” A young worker answers, “Maybe ...
Business & Economics
Derailing public pension gravy train
Orange County Register (CA), November 22, 2009 Defenders of government employees’ current retirement system depict critics as haters of government workers who want public “servants” to spend their retirement years eating cat food and living in dire poverty. That’s the response I always get when I point to the absurdity ...
Business & Economics
NY suer system stinks
New York Post, November 18, 2009 Report: Legal costs rob economy of $16B New York’s court system is among the most lawsuit-friendly in the country — socking citizens with millions of dollars in wacky jury awards, higher taxes and increased costs of insurance and health care, a study released yesterday ...
Stimulus spending fails on jobs front
The White House recently announced the results of its stimulus package, billed as instrumental in averting a second Great Depression. In reality, the stimulus has been a profligate flop, even if we take the administration’s numbers at face value. The Web site Recovery.gov breaks down stimulus expenditures and the reported ...
Why students and taxpayers should protest UC fee hike
Los Angeles Daily News, December 1, 2009 Roadrunner.com, December 1, 2009 CSU Northridge (CA): December 2, 2009 THE University of California Regents have approved a plan to raise student fees 32 percent over the next year and admit fewer students, the latest in a series of fee increases and service ...
Eyes on the Prize
Next week the 2009 year’s Nobel winners receive their prizes. They include two women who deserved their awards but are not likely to draw cheers from feminist celebrities. This year, for the first time, the Nobel committee awarded the prize in economics to a woman. Elinor Ostrom was not picked ...
Lawsuits hurt taxpayers
We’ve all read and laughed at the stories of ludicrous lawsuits and the runaway juries who decide on multi-million judgments. Unfortunately, fellow New Yorkers, the joke is on us. A recent independent economic study conducted for New Yorkers for Lawsuit Reform — a statewide coalition of large and small businesses, ...
New Yorkers pay a high price for liability litigation
High taxes help make New York an expensive place to do business. A new report argues convincingly that costly malpractice litigation and insurance also kill jobs and drive away business. The report from the conservative Pacific Research Institute notes that from an economic perspective, New York state ranks near the ...
Frosting on an already-sweet pension deal
When people have an entitlement mentality, enough is never enough. Even though government employees enjoy absurdly generous defined-benefit pensions that often allow them to retire with 80 percent to 90 percent of their final year’s pay guaranteed forever, employees game the system by taking advantage of various pension-spiking schemes. A ...
Giving Thanks for Leading Health Technology Advances
While Congress debates an US$850 billion healthcare bill with questionable benefits, leaders in the technology industry are quietly creating products and services that will truly reform healthcare. This Thanksgiving, for example, Americans can be appreciative of the incredible price decline in genome sequencing, one of the most important health advances. ...
People vote for freedom with their feet and effort
“Why are they all running to Colorado? What have they got down there that we haven’t got?” So asks a villain in Ayn Rand’s, “Atlas Shrugged.” He complains about Colorado’s primitive, lazy government that “does nothing outside of keeping law courts and a police department.” A young worker answers, “Maybe ...
Derailing public pension gravy train
Orange County Register (CA), November 22, 2009 Defenders of government employees’ current retirement system depict critics as haters of government workers who want public “servants” to spend their retirement years eating cat food and living in dire poverty. That’s the response I always get when I point to the absurdity ...
NY suer system stinks
New York Post, November 18, 2009 Report: Legal costs rob economy of $16B New York’s court system is among the most lawsuit-friendly in the country — socking citizens with millions of dollars in wacky jury awards, higher taxes and increased costs of insurance and health care, a study released yesterday ...
