Business & Economics
Business & Economics
Life: A Tech-Centric View
At this week’s Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Germany, renowned scientists Craig Venter, Ph.D., and Richard Dawkins wowed the audience with a conversation about genes and information technology. They discussed how evolution is becoming man-made, which brings up a number of interesting issues. “Genetics has become a branch of ...
Business & Economics
Going, Going, Gone! Spectrum Auction Starts Today
Who owns the airwaves? At the dawn of the broadcast age, the government assumed total control over radio frequencies in order to ensure that only one broadcaster could use a given frequency at a given place and time. This prevented interference, and was deemed by Congress to serve the public ...
Agriculture
No need for hormone labels
SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
Business & Economics
Big Brother Targets Foundations and Nonprofits
SACRAMENTO – Last Tuesday, the Assembly Judicial Committee held a hearing on AB 624, a measure billed as an aid to philanthropy. It’s actually a hindrance to philanthropy and is troublesome in many ways. The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Joe Coto, a San Jose Democrat, wants all private foundations in ...
Business & Economics
Fed Was `Premature’ to Cut Rates, Former Central Banker Says
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve was too quick to reduce interest rates today in an emergency move after global stock markets tumbled, a former Fed president said. “It strikes me as very premature,” Lee Hoskins, former president of the Cleveland Fed, said in an interview after the central ...
Business & Economics
Government lacks magic bullet to kill recessions
Those who study a country’s economic conditions, mostly macro-economists, track general trends – inflation, unemployment, productivity, comparative strength of the currency, et cetera. But the basics of all these are mostly local matters, all about what happens to you, me, our neighbors, all about what we decide to do with ...
California
New PRI Report Exposes True Cost of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Health Care Proposal
Proposal costs 2 ½ times more than planned, 50,000 to 100,000 jobs lost annually Introducing the California “Sick Tax” Calculator San Francisco — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $14 billion dollar health care plan would likely cost $36 billion in 2010 – 2.5 times more than budgeted – according to California ...
Commentary
Religious leaders make health care a moral issue
NEW BRITAIN — Religious leaders from all corners of New England converged on South Church Tuesday to urge establishment of universal health care. Despite the denominational mix of clergy, all seemed to agree the system is broken and needs to be repaired or replaced. Juan Figueroa, president of the Universal ...
Business & Economics
The Fed Painted Into a Keynesian Corner
Although one sympathizes with Ben Bernanke—after all, it wasn’t his fault that Greenspan handed him an economy rigged with ticking housing and mortgage bombs—the harsh reality is that the Federal Reserve can’t create prosperity. Strip away all the pomp and glamour of “open market operations” and the like, and we’re ...
Business & Economics
Private efforts result in better problem solving
Often when some unexpected challenge faces a person, someone asks, “What are you going to do about this?” The answer, frequently delivered with casual confidence, tends to be: “I’ll think of something.” No answer and attitude better characterizes how to think about problem solving in a free society. Unlike the ...
Life: A Tech-Centric View
At this week’s Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Germany, renowned scientists Craig Venter, Ph.D., and Richard Dawkins wowed the audience with a conversation about genes and information technology. They discussed how evolution is becoming man-made, which brings up a number of interesting issues. “Genetics has become a branch of ...
Going, Going, Gone! Spectrum Auction Starts Today
Who owns the airwaves? At the dawn of the broadcast age, the government assumed total control over radio frequencies in order to ensure that only one broadcaster could use a given frequency at a given place and time. This prevented interference, and was deemed by Congress to serve the public ...
No need for hormone labels
SAN FRANCISCO — After 14 years of widespread use, a safe and proven technology for increasing the availability of low-cost dairy products could disappear if government regulators place fears and rumors above sound science. The technology at issue is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST), a drug designed to increase milk production ...
Big Brother Targets Foundations and Nonprofits
SACRAMENTO – Last Tuesday, the Assembly Judicial Committee held a hearing on AB 624, a measure billed as an aid to philanthropy. It’s actually a hindrance to philanthropy and is troublesome in many ways. The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Joe Coto, a San Jose Democrat, wants all private foundations in ...
Fed Was `Premature’ to Cut Rates, Former Central Banker Says
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve was too quick to reduce interest rates today in an emergency move after global stock markets tumbled, a former Fed president said. “It strikes me as very premature,” Lee Hoskins, former president of the Cleveland Fed, said in an interview after the central ...
Government lacks magic bullet to kill recessions
Those who study a country’s economic conditions, mostly macro-economists, track general trends – inflation, unemployment, productivity, comparative strength of the currency, et cetera. But the basics of all these are mostly local matters, all about what happens to you, me, our neighbors, all about what we decide to do with ...
New PRI Report Exposes True Cost of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Health Care Proposal
Proposal costs 2 ½ times more than planned, 50,000 to 100,000 jobs lost annually Introducing the California “Sick Tax” Calculator San Francisco — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $14 billion dollar health care plan would likely cost $36 billion in 2010 – 2.5 times more than budgeted – according to California ...
Religious leaders make health care a moral issue
NEW BRITAIN — Religious leaders from all corners of New England converged on South Church Tuesday to urge establishment of universal health care. Despite the denominational mix of clergy, all seemed to agree the system is broken and needs to be repaired or replaced. Juan Figueroa, president of the Universal ...
The Fed Painted Into a Keynesian Corner
Although one sympathizes with Ben Bernanke—after all, it wasn’t his fault that Greenspan handed him an economy rigged with ticking housing and mortgage bombs—the harsh reality is that the Federal Reserve can’t create prosperity. Strip away all the pomp and glamour of “open market operations” and the like, and we’re ...
Private efforts result in better problem solving
Often when some unexpected challenge faces a person, someone asks, “What are you going to do about this?” The answer, frequently delivered with casual confidence, tends to be: “I’ll think of something.” No answer and attitude better characterizes how to think about problem solving in a free society. Unlike the ...
