Business & Economics

Business & Economics

Protecting The Medicines Of Tomorrow

Government solutions often come with a price. For the America Invents Act (AIA), this price was an unintended impediment to medical innovation. Proposed legislation known as the Hatch-Waxman Integrity Act can reduce these costs, if Congress takes advantage of the opportunity. The problem of patent trolls plaguing Silicon Valley was ...
Blog

Proxy Advisory Firms Are Worsening CalPERS and CalSTRS ESG Problem

My last blog post discussed the risks that ESG investing creates for CalPERS and CalSTRS. If not addressed, then both taxpayers and public employees will bear unnecessary costs and risks. Unfortunately, SEC rules are making this problem even worse. The SEC requires all institutional investors, such as CalPERS and CalSTRS, ...
Blog

Trouble in Paradise: Hawaii’s Hotel Strike

I just returned from my annual Thanksgiving family trip to Hawaii where it was Day 40-something of a hotel workers’ strike at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  I had a hunch something was amiss when our Uber driver pulled into the driveway and a lone young woman who weighed about 100 ...
Business & Economics

New Study Shows California/New York Approach to Fighting Global Warming Hurts Working Class and Minority Communities

Legislating Energy Poverty Shows Market-Based Policies More Effective in Cutting Emissions The big government approach to fighting ‘global warming’ taken by California and New York hits working class and minority communities the hardest, a new report released today by the California-based free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute, concludes. “Overzealous ...
Blog

The ESG Threat to California’s Pensions

California’s public pensions are in trouble. While the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that California’s current unfunded liabilities are nearly $170 billion, as I recently reported in my chartbook on California’s pension crisis, the crisis is much worse. Valuing the liabilities using a more realistic market rate, the total pension debt ...
Blog

Taking a Long-Term View to Evaluate Trade, Market Policy

As I write this article in late November of 2018, the stock market has fallen significantly from its recent highs.  These losses, which have erased nearly all the gains made thus far in 2018 push us toward official correction territory for both the DOW and NASDAQ for the year. These ...
Business & Economics

Redefining Presidential Failure As Success

While success still has many fathers, failure is no longer an orphan. President Obama’s recent speeches and rallies demonstrate that, now, failure is simply redefined as success. The costs from this revisionism is high. Creating false narratives encourage policies that will harm economic prosperity and impose large economic hardships on ...
Business & Economics

Latest report cites need for reform of job-killing occupational licensing regulations

By Bethany Blankley The latest report calling for occupational licensing reforms joins others in saying that strict licensing requirements cost millions of jobs, billions of dollars in economic costs, and reduced overall GDP . . . “All too often, the licensing requirements are an obstacle for qualified professionals to compete ...
Blog

Meat the Next Sin Tax

If your holiday meals include filet mignon, rack of lamb, roast pork, or even charcuterie, you might want to reach for a second helping while you can still afford it. That’s because Oxford University researchers are proposing a tax on meat.  Their goal is to “save you” from cancer, heart ...
Business & Economics

The Bizarre World of Drug Pricing

There is no shortage of bad ideas when it comes to the pharmaceutical market. One such proposal would allow drugs to be imported directly from other countries, such as Canada. Then there is the Trump Administration’s proposal that would effectively adopt foreign price controls on Medicare Part B drugs by ...
Business & Economics

Protecting The Medicines Of Tomorrow

Government solutions often come with a price. For the America Invents Act (AIA), this price was an unintended impediment to medical innovation. Proposed legislation known as the Hatch-Waxman Integrity Act can reduce these costs, if Congress takes advantage of the opportunity. The problem of patent trolls plaguing Silicon Valley was ...
Blog

Proxy Advisory Firms Are Worsening CalPERS and CalSTRS ESG Problem

My last blog post discussed the risks that ESG investing creates for CalPERS and CalSTRS. If not addressed, then both taxpayers and public employees will bear unnecessary costs and risks. Unfortunately, SEC rules are making this problem even worse. The SEC requires all institutional investors, such as CalPERS and CalSTRS, ...
Blog

Trouble in Paradise: Hawaii’s Hotel Strike

I just returned from my annual Thanksgiving family trip to Hawaii where it was Day 40-something of a hotel workers’ strike at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  I had a hunch something was amiss when our Uber driver pulled into the driveway and a lone young woman who weighed about 100 ...
Business & Economics

New Study Shows California/New York Approach to Fighting Global Warming Hurts Working Class and Minority Communities

Legislating Energy Poverty Shows Market-Based Policies More Effective in Cutting Emissions The big government approach to fighting ‘global warming’ taken by California and New York hits working class and minority communities the hardest, a new report released today by the California-based free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute, concludes. “Overzealous ...
Blog

The ESG Threat to California’s Pensions

California’s public pensions are in trouble. While the Pew Charitable Trusts reports that California’s current unfunded liabilities are nearly $170 billion, as I recently reported in my chartbook on California’s pension crisis, the crisis is much worse. Valuing the liabilities using a more realistic market rate, the total pension debt ...
Blog

Taking a Long-Term View to Evaluate Trade, Market Policy

As I write this article in late November of 2018, the stock market has fallen significantly from its recent highs.  These losses, which have erased nearly all the gains made thus far in 2018 push us toward official correction territory for both the DOW and NASDAQ for the year. These ...
Business & Economics

Redefining Presidential Failure As Success

While success still has many fathers, failure is no longer an orphan. President Obama’s recent speeches and rallies demonstrate that, now, failure is simply redefined as success. The costs from this revisionism is high. Creating false narratives encourage policies that will harm economic prosperity and impose large economic hardships on ...
Business & Economics

Latest report cites need for reform of job-killing occupational licensing regulations

By Bethany Blankley The latest report calling for occupational licensing reforms joins others in saying that strict licensing requirements cost millions of jobs, billions of dollars in economic costs, and reduced overall GDP . . . “All too often, the licensing requirements are an obstacle for qualified professionals to compete ...
Blog

Meat the Next Sin Tax

If your holiday meals include filet mignon, rack of lamb, roast pork, or even charcuterie, you might want to reach for a second helping while you can still afford it. That’s because Oxford University researchers are proposing a tax on meat.  Their goal is to “save you” from cancer, heart ...
Business & Economics

The Bizarre World of Drug Pricing

There is no shortage of bad ideas when it comes to the pharmaceutical market. One such proposal would allow drugs to be imported directly from other countries, such as Canada. Then there is the Trump Administration’s proposal that would effectively adopt foreign price controls on Medicare Part B drugs by ...
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