Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Lessons from the $388-Million Hyatt Case: How current tax policy hurts California, and how the state can fix its revenue problem
California’s financial problems may have gotten worse by $388 million, according to an August 16 Nevada trial verdict in favor of an inventor mistreated by California’s Franchise Tax Board. The unprecedented case highlights California’s enforcement tactics and points to the solution for state revenue instability. Gilbert P. Hyatt, an electrical ...
Business & Economics
The Candidates’ Record on Legal Reform
ShopFloor.org (NAM), September 17, 2008 The Examiner newspaper editorializes today on the tort reform records of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, asking a question of great interest to the business community: “Will either party’s presidential ticket keep a lid on the lawyers’ greed?” The editorial uses NAM’s “Key Vote” ...
Business & Economics
TIPS Have Underforecasted Inflation
Back in 2003, the Treasury began selling 5-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS. (Longer maturities were available starting in 1997.) What happens is that the government pays a fixed coupon rate, but the principal is adjusted based on increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Thus, TIPS yields are ...
Commentary
Questions on healthcare reform
Healthcare reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many times ...
Business & Economics
New Report Reveals Which States Have Most Economic Freedom
South Dakota is most free, New York most economically oppressed San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today 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 ...
Business & Economics
The Canadianization of America
Here comes ‘no-vote’ unionism In Canada, worrying about being Americanized is a national pastime, particularly in political and media circles. It seldom occurred to me the United States could become Canadianized until I moved here, in an election year, no less, and found Americans obsessed with many Canadian ideas at ...
Business & Economics
Future of Fannie and Freddie remains unclear
The federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently could create the opening many have long hoped for – to alter, diminish or eliminate the roles of the government-sponsored mortgage giants. Some industry observers worry that a world in which the companies have less influence will mean more expensive ...
Business & Economics
Let the markets find their own recovery
The takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet another expansion in government intervention from the Bush administration, could end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars and in the long run will only make the U.S. financial crisis worse. The costs of the takeover are scary. By ...
Business & Economics
California Health Insurance Rescissions: Trial Lawyers Lose Out?
I’ve written a lot about the political gyrations around California health plans “rescinding” policies of individual policyholders. (Most recent post in the thread here.) A refresher: regulators, legislators, and the media piled onto the plans for “post-claims underwriting”. That is, plans asked overly complicated questions on the applications, wrote the ...
Business & Economics
Card-check depends on union arm twists
Now that the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate is official, a little-known bill that he co-sponsored and running mate Joe Biden vigorously supported is rightly gaining more attention. The Orwellian-named “Employee Free Choice Act,” which passed the House in 2007 but stalled in the Senate, ...
Lessons from the $388-Million Hyatt Case: How current tax policy hurts California, and how the state can fix its revenue problem
California’s financial problems may have gotten worse by $388 million, according to an August 16 Nevada trial verdict in favor of an inventor mistreated by California’s Franchise Tax Board. The unprecedented case highlights California’s enforcement tactics and points to the solution for state revenue instability. Gilbert P. Hyatt, an electrical ...
The Candidates’ Record on Legal Reform
ShopFloor.org (NAM), September 17, 2008 The Examiner newspaper editorializes today on the tort reform records of the presidential and vice presidential candidates, asking a question of great interest to the business community: “Will either party’s presidential ticket keep a lid on the lawyers’ greed?” The editorial uses NAM’s “Key Vote” ...
TIPS Have Underforecasted Inflation
Back in 2003, the Treasury began selling 5-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS. (Longer maturities were available starting in 1997.) What happens is that the government pays a fixed coupon rate, but the principal is adjusted based on increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Thus, TIPS yields are ...
Questions on healthcare reform
Healthcare reform will be front-and-center in the presidential debates. It’s a topic that’s full of complicated issues, so it can be hard to cut through all the rhetoric and figure out exactly what each candidate is proposing. So here’s the skinny on five questions that you’ll likely hear many times ...
New Report Reveals Which States Have Most Economic Freedom
South Dakota is most free, New York most economically oppressed San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today 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 ...
The Canadianization of America
Here comes ‘no-vote’ unionism In Canada, worrying about being Americanized is a national pastime, particularly in political and media circles. It seldom occurred to me the United States could become Canadianized until I moved here, in an election year, no less, and found Americans obsessed with many Canadian ideas at ...
Future of Fannie and Freddie remains unclear
The federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently could create the opening many have long hoped for – to alter, diminish or eliminate the roles of the government-sponsored mortgage giants. Some industry observers worry that a world in which the companies have less influence will mean more expensive ...
Let the markets find their own recovery
The takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, yet another expansion in government intervention from the Bush administration, could end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars and in the long run will only make the U.S. financial crisis worse. The costs of the takeover are scary. By ...
California Health Insurance Rescissions: Trial Lawyers Lose Out?
I’ve written a lot about the political gyrations around California health plans “rescinding” policies of individual policyholders. (Most recent post in the thread here.) A refresher: regulators, legislators, and the media piled onto the plans for “post-claims underwriting”. That is, plans asked overly complicated questions on the applications, wrote the ...
Card-check depends on union arm twists
Now that the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate is official, a little-known bill that he co-sponsored and running mate Joe Biden vigorously supported is rightly gaining more attention. The Orwellian-named “Employee Free Choice Act,” which passed the House in 2007 but stalled in the Senate, ...
