Commentary
Business & Economics
Building a digital bridge to nowhere
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Task Force concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultrafast connections to the state’s most desolate locales. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks first in ...
Commentary
Over Regulating Health Insurance & The Law of Unintended Consequences
I have written quite a few times about California’s regulatory adventurism that has made it impossible for health insurers to assess and price health risks in the market for individual health insurance, despite the fact that it is legal to do so. (Although, the recently defeated California Health Care Deforminator, ...
Commentary
What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas
Even at the glacial pace of take-over activities in the post-credit meltdown deal economy, merger arbitrageurs speculating on the UnitedHealth-Sierra Health Services spread might be forgiven for dozing off at their trading terminals. Almost a year ago, on March 12, UnitedHealth Group (headquartered in Minneapolis), announced a friendly take-over of ...
Commentary
1 bad health plan dies; another looms
A real alternative to government control would be a system driven by consumer choice The state Senate Health Committee voted overwhelmingly last month to trash the universal health care plan promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Supporters of the plan, known as ABX1 1, murmured about ...
Commentary
Think-tank forum weighs merits of health-care solutions
Tallahassee Democrat, February 8, 2008 Ideas about fixing the American health-care system, including market-based answers for providing services, were the focus Thursday at a forum on the campus of Florida State University. Sponsored by The James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank, the event attracted speakers from across the country. ...
Business & Economics
Big Brother eyes racial makeup of foundations, nonprofits
In January, the Assembly Judicial Committee held a hearing on AB 624, a measure billed as an aid to philanthropy. It’s actually a hindrance. The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Joe Coto, a San Jose Democrat, wants all private foundations in California with assets of more than $250 million to collect ...
Business & Economics
Body 2.0: Changing the Nature of Genetic Data
The next generation of parents is set to embrace genetic testing of kids for diseases that may occur later in life, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. This is big news given that many medical professionals oppose the practice and there is a movement ...
Agriculture
I’m fat, you’re fat and your kids probably are, too
If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink. Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. ...
Commentary
Massachusetts Health Reform: Rewriting History
On January 31, Shikha Dahlia of the Reason Foundation wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “Saying No to Coercive Care”. It was great to see someone from Reason Foundation have a swing at the piñata: after all, it was back in November 2004 that Ronald Bailey wrote a ...
Business & Economics
California’s Broadband Bridge to Nowhere
The California Broadband Task Force, convened by Governor Schwarzenegger, concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultra-fast connections to the state’s most desolate reaches. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks ...
Building a digital bridge to nowhere
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Task Force concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultrafast connections to the state’s most desolate locales. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks first in ...
Over Regulating Health Insurance & The Law of Unintended Consequences
I have written quite a few times about California’s regulatory adventurism that has made it impossible for health insurers to assess and price health risks in the market for individual health insurance, despite the fact that it is legal to do so. (Although, the recently defeated California Health Care Deforminator, ...
What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas
Even at the glacial pace of take-over activities in the post-credit meltdown deal economy, merger arbitrageurs speculating on the UnitedHealth-Sierra Health Services spread might be forgiven for dozing off at their trading terminals. Almost a year ago, on March 12, UnitedHealth Group (headquartered in Minneapolis), announced a friendly take-over of ...
1 bad health plan dies; another looms
A real alternative to government control would be a system driven by consumer choice The state Senate Health Committee voted overwhelmingly last month to trash the universal health care plan promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. Supporters of the plan, known as ABX1 1, murmured about ...
Think-tank forum weighs merits of health-care solutions
Tallahassee Democrat, February 8, 2008 Ideas about fixing the American health-care system, including market-based answers for providing services, were the focus Thursday at a forum on the campus of Florida State University. Sponsored by The James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank, the event attracted speakers from across the country. ...
Big Brother eyes racial makeup of foundations, nonprofits
In January, the Assembly Judicial Committee held a hearing on AB 624, a measure billed as an aid to philanthropy. It’s actually a hindrance. The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Joe Coto, a San Jose Democrat, wants all private foundations in California with assets of more than $250 million to collect ...
Body 2.0: Changing the Nature of Genetic Data
The next generation of parents is set to embrace genetic testing of kids for diseases that may occur later in life, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. This is big news given that many medical professionals oppose the practice and there is a movement ...
I’m fat, you’re fat and your kids probably are, too
If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink. Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. ...
Massachusetts Health Reform: Rewriting History
On January 31, Shikha Dahlia of the Reason Foundation wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, “Saying No to Coercive Care”. It was great to see someone from Reason Foundation have a swing at the piñata: after all, it was back in November 2004 that Ronald Bailey wrote a ...
California’s Broadband Bridge to Nowhere
The California Broadband Task Force, convened by Governor Schwarzenegger, concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultra-fast connections to the state’s most desolate reaches. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks ...
