Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Business & Economics
Is The Big Three Crisis Obama’s PATCO?
President-elect Obama faces serious economic challenges, including demands for a bailout of the Big Three automakers. America’s new president can find lessons in the way Ronald Reagan, the last president to assume office amidst such turmoil, handled a similar labor-dominated crisis. Ronald Reagan, the first union leader to be president ...
Business & Economics
San Francisco Tax Hike Cannot Help Public Health Bureaucracy
Don’t get me wrong: of all the various byzantine agencies that comprise the massive (and growing) government intervention in American health care, counties’ public-health agencies are probably my favorite (or, perhaps to assuage the arch-libertarian readers, “the least harmful”). They do things like inspecting restaurants for cleanliness, watching out for ...
Business & Economics
More Economic Freedom = Lower Jobless Rate
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, recently released the U.S. Economic Freedom Index: 2008 Report, a ranking of economic freedom in the 50 states. Published in association with Forbes, the Index scores states based on 143 variables, including regulatory and fiscal ...
Business & Economics
Beware shift in balance of power
Labor laws are intended to balance power between employers and employees — actually unions who represent employees. Changes to labor laws that tilt the balance too far in either direction impose serious costs on workers and our economy. Big Labor and members of the Democratic Party are demanding passage of ...
Business & Economics
PRI Fellow: The Future of Broadband Looks Bright
Tech Policy Central, November 24, 2008 This post has been weeks in the making, in the sense that it’s about an event that I attended in San Jose on November 6th: the broadband policy meeting co-hosted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). ...
Business & Economics
The Worst States For Business
Forbes.com, November 24, 2008 Three first-term governors fight problems that have plagued their states for decades. The economy is diving deeper into a recession seemingly by the day, forcing tough decisions on companies: Layoffs? Plant closings? Killing product lines? They’re also reassessing the business climate of the states where they ...
Business & Economics
Washington Ranks 37th on New U.S. Economic Freedom Index
The Pacific Research Institute recently released its 2008 Economic Freedom Index. Here’s how they describe it: … a ranking of economic freedom in the 50 states. Published in association with Forbes, the Index scores states based on 143 variables, including regulatory and fiscal obstacles imposed on businesses and residents. This ...
Business & Economics
Did the Fed, or Asian Saving, Cause the Housing Bubble?
Ludwig von Mises Institute, November 19, 2008 Just about the only good thing to come out of the housing bubble is that many financial analysts are coming to see the virtue of the Austrian theory of the business cycle. Specifically, though Greenspan did his best to blame deregulation and foreigners ...
Business & Economics
Letter, Opinion Piece Address Supreme Court Case Regarding Drug Safety, Federal Pre-Emption
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard opening arguments in Wyeth v. Levine, a case that could determine whether patients have the ability to file product liability lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in state courts (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/4). Summaries of a letter to the editor and an opinion ...
Will Electric Cars Jolt California’s Economy?
With the support of Governor Schwarzenegger, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose last week announced a $1-billion joint plan to make the Bay Area “the electric-vehicle capital of the world.” The announcement follows President-elect Obama’s pledge to reinvigorate the nation’s economy with millions of “green collar” jobs. ...
Is The Big Three Crisis Obama’s PATCO?
President-elect Obama faces serious economic challenges, including demands for a bailout of the Big Three automakers. America’s new president can find lessons in the way Ronald Reagan, the last president to assume office amidst such turmoil, handled a similar labor-dominated crisis. Ronald Reagan, the first union leader to be president ...
San Francisco Tax Hike Cannot Help Public Health Bureaucracy
Don’t get me wrong: of all the various byzantine agencies that comprise the massive (and growing) government intervention in American health care, counties’ public-health agencies are probably my favorite (or, perhaps to assuage the arch-libertarian readers, “the least harmful”). They do things like inspecting restaurants for cleanliness, watching out for ...
More Economic Freedom = Lower Jobless Rate
SAN FRANCISCO – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, recently released the U.S. Economic Freedom Index: 2008 Report, a ranking of economic freedom in the 50 states. Published in association with Forbes, the Index scores states based on 143 variables, including regulatory and fiscal ...
Beware shift in balance of power
Labor laws are intended to balance power between employers and employees — actually unions who represent employees. Changes to labor laws that tilt the balance too far in either direction impose serious costs on workers and our economy. Big Labor and members of the Democratic Party are demanding passage of ...
PRI Fellow: The Future of Broadband Looks Bright
Tech Policy Central, November 24, 2008 This post has been weeks in the making, in the sense that it’s about an event that I attended in San Jose on November 6th: the broadband policy meeting co-hosted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). ...
The Worst States For Business
Forbes.com, November 24, 2008 Three first-term governors fight problems that have plagued their states for decades. The economy is diving deeper into a recession seemingly by the day, forcing tough decisions on companies: Layoffs? Plant closings? Killing product lines? They’re also reassessing the business climate of the states where they ...
Washington Ranks 37th on New U.S. Economic Freedom Index
The Pacific Research Institute recently released its 2008 Economic Freedom Index. Here’s how they describe it: … a ranking of economic freedom in the 50 states. Published in association with Forbes, the Index scores states based on 143 variables, including regulatory and fiscal obstacles imposed on businesses and residents. This ...
Did the Fed, or Asian Saving, Cause the Housing Bubble?
Ludwig von Mises Institute, November 19, 2008 Just about the only good thing to come out of the housing bubble is that many financial analysts are coming to see the virtue of the Austrian theory of the business cycle. Specifically, though Greenspan did his best to blame deregulation and foreigners ...
Letter, Opinion Piece Address Supreme Court Case Regarding Drug Safety, Federal Pre-Emption
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard opening arguments in Wyeth v. Levine, a case that could determine whether patients have the ability to file product liability lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in state courts (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/4). Summaries of a letter to the editor and an opinion ...
