Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Ohio taxes and spends too much
What’s the biggest political myth in Ohio? Maybe it’s the idea that our state government is a model of responsibility because it “lives within its means” – that is, it pays for its spending in the present, through taxes, rather than in the future, through debt. It’s true that our ...
Business & Economics
State legislators need to find a way to boost ranking
California legislators are in the midst of a “special session” to deal with this fiscal year’s budget deficit, estimated at $10 billion. They should use this session to boost California’s ability to generate economic growth and the tax revenues that go with it. The Golden State could stand for much ...
Business & Economics
Welfare is bad for automobile companies, too
Various commentators have tried to blame the dreadful condition of the Big Three automakers on unreasonable union demands, greedy and incompetent management or the government. In truth, these claims are all partially true. The United Auto Workers have saddled the Big Three with expensive compensation packages making it difficult to ...
Business & Economics
State Stem Cell Institute Short on Responsibility – and Results
Last month, California’s Little Hoover Commission, a public watchdog agency, completed its first hearing on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The proceedings flagged problems of governance and responsibility with the state’s stem-cell institute. At the same time, a medical breakthrough in Europe points out the shortfall in CIRM ...
Business & Economics
More tort reform
Editor: Pennsylvania doctors and consumers should be thrilled that the number of medical-malpractice lawsuits has fallen in the commonwealth (“Insurance rates for doctors shrinking,” Nov. 16). Meaningful tort reforms — of the sort advanced by the Keystone State in the past few years — are an effective way to reduce ...
Business & Economics
How Feminatics do the Math
The national election has finally passed, thankfully without any mandate for 50-50 gender representation of the kind favored by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. At last we can get caught up on an important story. Readers may recall that, in September, I cited Susan Pinker, author of The Sexual Paradox, on ...
Business & Economics
Taxes Determine Business Environments
WASHINGTON—Studies suggest that high taxes put corporations at a competitive disadvantage not only in the global markets, but also within different states in the United States. Companies have historically moved operations from U.S. states with high taxes to those with low corporate and personal taxes, says the Tax Foundation, a ...
Business & Economics
Upper Midwest Is Enjoying Sudden Renaissance of Economic Freedom
In news that has come as something of a surprise to economy watchers, the South is no longer the U.S. region offering the most promising trend toward economic freedom. The new champ is the Upper Midwest—places such as South Dakota, which tops the latest U.S. Economic Freedom Index, issued by ...
Business & Economics
Study ranks Idaho highly in economic freedom
The Pacific Research Institute, in association with Forbes magazine, ranks Idaho second in its 2008 U.S. Economic Freedom Index. The recent study measures factors related to an individual’s ability to pursue their interests through a voluntary exchange of private property under the rule of law. The measure assesses a state ...
Business & Economics
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
Ohio taxes and spends too much
What’s the biggest political myth in Ohio? Maybe it’s the idea that our state government is a model of responsibility because it “lives within its means” – that is, it pays for its spending in the present, through taxes, rather than in the future, through debt. It’s true that our ...
State legislators need to find a way to boost ranking
California legislators are in the midst of a “special session” to deal with this fiscal year’s budget deficit, estimated at $10 billion. They should use this session to boost California’s ability to generate economic growth and the tax revenues that go with it. The Golden State could stand for much ...
Welfare is bad for automobile companies, too
Various commentators have tried to blame the dreadful condition of the Big Three automakers on unreasonable union demands, greedy and incompetent management or the government. In truth, these claims are all partially true. The United Auto Workers have saddled the Big Three with expensive compensation packages making it difficult to ...
State Stem Cell Institute Short on Responsibility – and Results
Last month, California’s Little Hoover Commission, a public watchdog agency, completed its first hearing on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The proceedings flagged problems of governance and responsibility with the state’s stem-cell institute. At the same time, a medical breakthrough in Europe points out the shortfall in CIRM ...
More tort reform
Editor: Pennsylvania doctors and consumers should be thrilled that the number of medical-malpractice lawsuits has fallen in the commonwealth (“Insurance rates for doctors shrinking,” Nov. 16). Meaningful tort reforms — of the sort advanced by the Keystone State in the past few years — are an effective way to reduce ...
How Feminatics do the Math
The national election has finally passed, thankfully without any mandate for 50-50 gender representation of the kind favored by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. At last we can get caught up on an important story. Readers may recall that, in September, I cited Susan Pinker, author of The Sexual Paradox, on ...
Taxes Determine Business Environments
WASHINGTON—Studies suggest that high taxes put corporations at a competitive disadvantage not only in the global markets, but also within different states in the United States. Companies have historically moved operations from U.S. states with high taxes to those with low corporate and personal taxes, says the Tax Foundation, a ...
Upper Midwest Is Enjoying Sudden Renaissance of Economic Freedom
In news that has come as something of a surprise to economy watchers, the South is no longer the U.S. region offering the most promising trend toward economic freedom. The new champ is the Upper Midwest—places such as South Dakota, which tops the latest U.S. Economic Freedom Index, issued by ...
Study ranks Idaho highly in economic freedom
The Pacific Research Institute, in association with Forbes magazine, ranks Idaho second in its 2008 U.S. Economic Freedom Index. The recent study measures factors related to an individual’s ability to pursue their interests through a voluntary exchange of private property under the rule of law. The measure assesses a state ...
Piracy: Yet 1 more reason for drilling
Somali pirates recently seized the Sirius Star, a supertanker headed for North America with 2 million barrels of oil. In the process, the pirates unwittingly strengthened the case for more domestic oil production in this country. Shipping oil across vast oceans is a dangerous business. Tankers run aground and spill ...
