Business & Economics
Business & Economics
California Supreme Court Decision Quashes Innovation, Threatens Health, and Encourages Costly Lawsuit Abuse
Traditional tort law holds that manufacturers are responsible only for their own products, not those made by competitors. The California Supreme Court changed that in late January by declining to review Conte v. Wyeth, which leaves name-brand drug manufacturers liable for harm caused by another manufacturer’s generic version. This unprecedented ...
Agriculture
Bank Bailout Blues
Undeterred by the failure of the last injection of taxpayer dollars into a bloated banking system, our financial crusaders in DC are scratching their heads over the best way to flush another few hundred billion away. The latest scheme involves the creation of a “bad bank” that would purchase the ...
Business & Economics
Calif.’s Fertility Flap and the Future of Reproductive Tech
The news of octuplets born recently near Los Angeles shocked many people, especially since the mother, Nadya Suleman, apparently already had six children and is reported to be jobless and living with her parents. Such rare stories certainly sell newspapers, but they can also lead to knee-jerk calls for overly ...
Business & Economics
Obama Stimulus Not Necessary, as This Is No Great Depression
Milton Friedman had a rule: Increases or decreases in the money supply take six to nine months to alter economic output and as much as two years to move prices. As the Senate takes up the president’s stimulus package, the administration argues that, to avert another Great Depression, it is ...
Business & Economics
Don’t blame China for U.S. woes
Several Chinese readers have contacted me to express astonishment at the chorus of voices blaming China for the U.S. recession. They wonder: Is this the preamble of a protectionist backlash? There is plenty that China deserves to be bashed for – its political system and its backing of Sudan and ...
Business & Economics
Google.gov? The Perils of Technology and Government Transparency
Barack Obama led the most tech savvy presidential campaign in American history, using the Internet to recruit, mobilize, and engage more than 13 million supporters. As president, Obama has pledged to “integrate technology into every aspect of government,” and usher in “a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for ...
Business & Economics
The Fine Whine of California
Shortly after the national election last year, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management called a press conference at the Sacramento campus to announce their fourth UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders. This sounds interesting but there’s less here than meets the eye. As it turns out, UC ...
Business & Economics
Expand Economic Freedom in 2009
The onset of 2009, with a new president taking office, is a good time to reconsider the benefits of economic freedom. Contrary to what partisans of big government claim, the empirical case for economic freedom has grown much stronger in the last 10 years, due to the development of objective ...
Business & Economics
“Do You Austrians Have a Better Idea?”
A lot of people get annoyed with Austrian economists because they tend to be so dogmatic (we prefer the term consistent) and because they cloak their strictly economic claims with self-righteousness (we prefer the term morality). After a good Austrian bashing of the latest call to steal taxpayer money and ...
Business & Economics
Houston’s Wi-Fi, ‘Bubble’ Plan Both Fail
The city of Houston’s plan for municipal wi-fi began with the best of intentions: A grand plan to blanket the city with a wireless “cloud” providing cheap Internet access for the masses. When that project failed in 2007, as it has in many other places, the city turned to a ...
California Supreme Court Decision Quashes Innovation, Threatens Health, and Encourages Costly Lawsuit Abuse
Traditional tort law holds that manufacturers are responsible only for their own products, not those made by competitors. The California Supreme Court changed that in late January by declining to review Conte v. Wyeth, which leaves name-brand drug manufacturers liable for harm caused by another manufacturer’s generic version. This unprecedented ...
Bank Bailout Blues
Undeterred by the failure of the last injection of taxpayer dollars into a bloated banking system, our financial crusaders in DC are scratching their heads over the best way to flush another few hundred billion away. The latest scheme involves the creation of a “bad bank” that would purchase the ...
Calif.’s Fertility Flap and the Future of Reproductive Tech
The news of octuplets born recently near Los Angeles shocked many people, especially since the mother, Nadya Suleman, apparently already had six children and is reported to be jobless and living with her parents. Such rare stories certainly sell newspapers, but they can also lead to knee-jerk calls for overly ...
Obama Stimulus Not Necessary, as This Is No Great Depression
Milton Friedman had a rule: Increases or decreases in the money supply take six to nine months to alter economic output and as much as two years to move prices. As the Senate takes up the president’s stimulus package, the administration argues that, to avert another Great Depression, it is ...
Don’t blame China for U.S. woes
Several Chinese readers have contacted me to express astonishment at the chorus of voices blaming China for the U.S. recession. They wonder: Is this the preamble of a protectionist backlash? There is plenty that China deserves to be bashed for – its political system and its backing of Sudan and ...
Google.gov? The Perils of Technology and Government Transparency
Barack Obama led the most tech savvy presidential campaign in American history, using the Internet to recruit, mobilize, and engage more than 13 million supporters. As president, Obama has pledged to “integrate technology into every aspect of government,” and usher in “a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for ...
The Fine Whine of California
Shortly after the national election last year, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management called a press conference at the Sacramento campus to announce their fourth UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders. This sounds interesting but there’s less here than meets the eye. As it turns out, UC ...
Expand Economic Freedom in 2009
The onset of 2009, with a new president taking office, is a good time to reconsider the benefits of economic freedom. Contrary to what partisans of big government claim, the empirical case for economic freedom has grown much stronger in the last 10 years, due to the development of objective ...
“Do You Austrians Have a Better Idea?”
A lot of people get annoyed with Austrian economists because they tend to be so dogmatic (we prefer the term consistent) and because they cloak their strictly economic claims with self-righteousness (we prefer the term morality). After a good Austrian bashing of the latest call to steal taxpayer money and ...
Houston’s Wi-Fi, ‘Bubble’ Plan Both Fail
The city of Houston’s plan for municipal wi-fi began with the best of intentions: A grand plan to blanket the city with a wireless “cloud” providing cheap Internet access for the masses. When that project failed in 2007, as it has in many other places, the city turned to a ...
