Inflation
Agriculture
Preventionitis: American Health Care’s Chronic Utopian Delusion
Chronic illness is often identified as a culprit responsible for high health costs. By chronic illness, we usually mean diabetes, heart disease, etc. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis”. This is the utopian delusion that investment in “prevention” – eating better, exercising more, quitting smoking, ...
John R. Graham
November 3, 2008
California
California Governor Plans to Wield Veto Pen
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), November 1, 2008 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is expected to veto several bills passed by the state legislature, even though the measures are similar to a sweeping health care plan he proposed but failed to get through the General Assembly earlier this year (“California ...
Katie Flanigan
November 1, 2008
Commentary
Grading Obama
Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in California studies and the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, is the co-author of the book “Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice.” (Full biography.) The federal No Child Left ...
Lance T. izumi
October 31, 2008
Commentary
Costing Out California’s Global Warming Solutions Act
On Sept. 17, the California Air Resources Board released an economic analysis of their own implementation scheme for AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The analysis said, “not only will the economy grow by a similar amount as we move toward 2020, but it will grow at ...
Thomas Tanton
October 16, 2008
Commentary
Obama health plan would worsen flaws
Obama’s plan would put an even larger slice of health services under price controls – which inevitably lead to shortages Barack Obama recently announced a two-pronged plan to help small businesses cope with the rising cost of health insurance. First, his proposal would institute a refundable tax credit to offset ...
Sally C. Pipes
October 13, 2008
Business & Economics
Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears
JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
Pacific Research Institute
October 7, 2008
Blackouts
The Credit Crunch is a Network Failure
Dr. John Rutledge Blog, September 30, 2008 My friend Sonia Arrison, the technology wizard at Pacific Research Institute, asked me to give her my current thinking about how to analyze the current credit crunch as a cascading network failure, a subject I wrote about in Chapters 6 and 7 of ...
John Rutledge
September 30, 2008
Commentary
Skelton previews the crock that he, the gov and Dems will push relentlessly in next budget fight
This has been a breakthrough week when it comes to math and reality at the Sacramento bureau of the L.A. Times. Evan Halper actually wrote a story that noted the compromise budget slightly increased spending instead of continuing his career-long, grossly misleading practice of describing a cut in a projected ...
Chris Reed
September 18, 2008
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 ...
Robert P. Murphy
September 17, 2008
Commentary
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...
Lance T. izumi
August 31, 2008
Preventionitis: American Health Care’s Chronic Utopian Delusion
Chronic illness is often identified as a culprit responsible for high health costs. By chronic illness, we usually mean diabetes, heart disease, etc. It’s time to add another chronic ailment to the list: “preventionitis”. This is the utopian delusion that investment in “prevention” – eating better, exercising more, quitting smoking, ...
California Governor Plans to Wield Veto Pen
Health Care News (Heartland Institute), November 1, 2008 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is expected to veto several bills passed by the state legislature, even though the measures are similar to a sweeping health care plan he proposed but failed to get through the General Assembly earlier this year (“California ...
Grading Obama
Lance T. Izumi, a senior fellow in California studies and the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, is the co-author of the book “Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice.” (Full biography.) The federal No Child Left ...
Costing Out California’s Global Warming Solutions Act
On Sept. 17, the California Air Resources Board released an economic analysis of their own implementation scheme for AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. The analysis said, “not only will the economy grow by a similar amount as we move toward 2020, but it will grow at ...
Obama health plan would worsen flaws
Obama’s plan would put an even larger slice of health services under price controls – which inevitably lead to shortages Barack Obama recently announced a two-pronged plan to help small businesses cope with the rising cost of health insurance. First, his proposal would institute a refundable tax credit to offset ...
Federal Reserve Employs Tools to Ease Credit Fears
JIM LEHRER: This day in the financial crisis began with the Federal Reserve. It took the unprecedented move to buy short-term debt to thaw out frozen credit markets. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out just how bad those conditions are during a speech today. BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve Chairman: Even ...
The Credit Crunch is a Network Failure
Dr. John Rutledge Blog, September 30, 2008 My friend Sonia Arrison, the technology wizard at Pacific Research Institute, asked me to give her my current thinking about how to analyze the current credit crunch as a cascading network failure, a subject I wrote about in Chapters 6 and 7 of ...
Skelton previews the crock that he, the gov and Dems will push relentlessly in next budget fight
This has been a breakthrough week when it comes to math and reality at the Sacramento bureau of the L.A. Times. Evan Halper actually wrote a story that noted the compromise budget slightly increased spending instead of continuing his career-long, grossly misleading practice of describing a cut in a projected ...
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 ...
Prop 13 and the education-funding blame game
North County Times (Escondido, CA), August 31, 2008 Sacramento Union, September 17, 2008 Under today’s complicated system: schools with poor results rewarded more than those with good results Earlier this summer California marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 13, the historic ballot measure to limit property taxes. ...