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Suits hurt consumers
Bakersfield Californian - Letter to the Editor
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D
4.30.2009
Making it easier to sue drug and medical-device manufacturers won't help patients, contrary to what Milton Younger claims in a recent Community Voices article ("Put FDA back to work for consumers," April 21). Instead, such federal legislation would unleash a torrent of meritless state lawsuits to the detriment of public health.
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Obama, Crisis, and the State
The Enterprise Blog
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
4.30.2009
How should we take the long view after 100 days of Obamamania? In the course of completing my long book about the Reagan presidency and what conclusions we should draw from that experience more than 20 years later, I have been pondering two books from the time. One was Arthur Schlesinger’s The Cycles of American History, published in 1986.
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Bandwidth Fines Bad, But Not Net Neutrality Issue
Slashdot.com News Clipping
4.29.2009
Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes with his take on the recent Time Warner Cable fiasco: "Net Neutrality crusaders at FreePress.net recently called attention to Time Warner's plan (later rescinded) to impose fines on users for going over bandwidth limits. I agree generally, but I think this is easily confused with the reasoning in favor of Net Neutrality, and it's important to keep the arguments separate." Read on for the rest of Bennett's thoughts.
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Our Obama opportunity
National Post News Clipping
By: William Watson
4.29.2009
In his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama favoured us with a visit, said very gracious things about us, made supporting our Afghan mission politically respectable again, offered to help out our economy by buying maple leaf cookies for his daughters and hit approval ratings not seen since Trudeaumania.
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Obama's Credibility Chasm
Freedem Politics Op-Ed
By: Lance T. Izumi, J.D.
4.29.2009
Barack Obama's stubborn refusal to re-think his opposition to the school-choice voucher program in Washington, DC is further evidence, as if we need any more, that the centrist-talking candidate of 2008 was a smokescreen for the ideologically liberal now president who's unafraid to show his true colors.
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Tort Laws that Save Americans the Most Money
PRI Press Release
4.28.2009
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most.
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Mandatory Health Insurance is Not Universal Choice
KQED: Healthy Ideas
By: John R. Graham
4.28.2009
“Covering the uninsured” through more government power is a misplaced priority. It gives politicians, instead of patients, control of health-care dollars. Nevertheless, many Americans understandably view the fact that the U.S. is the only developed country that does not have so-called “universal” coverage as a national disgrace.
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Don’t Know Much About Capitalism
Taki's Magazine News Clipping
By: Thomas E. Woods Jr.
4.28.2009
After eight years of watching conservatives blow trillions of dollars and comport themselves like anti-intellectual, jingoistic blockheads, I found myself ashamed to admit that the Left seemed to have all the genuine intellectuals—people who seemed to possess real curiosity, who refused to accept whatever official line the government was shelling out, and who sought genuine understanding instead of name-calling and pointless vitriol... With the Left now in power, though, they’ve by and large reverted to form.
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Canada's advantage
National Post (Canada) Op=Ed
By: Jason Clemens, Niels Veldhuis
4.28.2009
As Canada’s experience in the 1990s showed, the path to economic growth lies in shrinking government, not growing it.
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The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates
Ludwig von Mises Institute
4.27.2009
In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw's article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today's economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who can develop interesting models that spit out policy recommendations that would destroy the economy.
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Environmental Progress Continues
Power Line Blog
By: Scott Johnson
4.26.2009
Steven Hayward is not only the author of the forthcoming "The Age of Reagan, 1980-1989: The Conservative Counterrevolution. He is also the author of the fourteenth annual edition of the Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, just published to coincide with Earth day and Lenin's birthday.
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The Legal Problems Facing Florida Demand Attention From Our Legislators
News Blaze (CA) News Clipping
By: Carlos Muhletaler
4.24.2009
Florida's legal system is in shamble as indicated by three national rankings. Several months ago the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) ranked South Florida as the No. 2 "judicial hellhole" in the nation. A few months later the Pacific Research Institute ranked Florida's entire legal system the dubious distinction of being dead last in the nation because of lawsuit abuse.
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How curious... GOPers in "target" seats endorse massive tax increases...
The Flash Report
By: Jon Fleischman
4.24.2009
I am scratching my head a bit this morning, as I caught up with the news that two GOP Assemblymen from the Central Valley, Tom Berryhill and Danny Gilmore, have endorsed Proposition 1A. Other than the three infamous Republican Assemblymembers (Adams, Niello and Villines) who voted to tie $16 billion in taxes to the passage of 1A, Berryhill and Gilmore are the only two GOP Assemblymembers to endorse 1A.
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The Annual Green Orgy: Earth Day
Canada Free Press
By: Alan Caruba
4.22.2009
On Earth Day we will have been engulfed by the avalanche of “Green” propaganda that preceded it, fills the day, and then continues relentlessly thereafter.
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Has California finally hit the wall?
Napa County Register News Clipping
By: Michael Haley
4.22.2009
In a recent interview with Jason Clemens, Economist and Director of Research for the Pacific Research Institute, he explained that California’s budget problems are not really about taxes or the costs of illegal immigration. PRI is near completion of a large detailed study on California’s prosperity, or the lack thereof, and one of the main conclusions is that the state is broke because the economy is deteriorating and has been for some time.
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Earth Day Update: Green Without Government
Heritage Foundation - The Foundry
4.22.2009
It’s the day of the year that the world celebrates being green and there’s certainly a lot to be “green” about today. The Pacific Research Institute and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published their yearly Index of Leading Environmental Indicators showing major progress in cleaner air and safe drinking water. Despite the apparent “sky is falling” mentality of many environmentalists and Members of Congress, there are good things going on outside of government-directed environmental progress.
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The Killers & Kooks of Earth Day
Rush Limbaugh Radio Show
By: Rush Limbaugh
4.22.2009
RUSH: Now, we've just honored some great people on Earth Day, but here is a story from some newspaper called The Bulletin. It is an American paper, I guess it's Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Bulletin. "Today is Earth Day, a holiday created to honor the planet and to raise the consciousness of man's effect on the environment. Philadelphia has a very strong tie to this day. One of its native sons, Ira Einhorn, was a co-founder of the environmentalist jubilee.
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Happy Earth Day
National Review Online
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
4.22.2009
Normally I'd post this on Planet Gore, but since today is Earth Day (and also Lenin's birthday — coincidence?), how about a rousing shout-out for environmental progress, as I document in the 14th edition of my Index of Leading Environmental Indicators.
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Will New Fed “Tools” Avert Hyperinflation?
The Daily Reckoning Op-Ed
4.22.2009
People often accuse me of making “irresponsible” forecasts of massive price inflation. Even though they know that history is replete with examples of central banks ruining their currencies, these critics are sure that “it can’t happen here.” So in the present article I’d like to make the brief case for why we should all be very alarmed about the prospects for the U.S. dollar.
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Save Capitalism
Investor's Business Daily Editorial
4.21.2009
Buried beneath all the badgering and fear-mongering about lavish Western lifestyles is a reality that the stuck-on-green left won't talk about and the average American isn't aware of: The world, especially in developed nations, is a cleaner — and greener — place than it was when the environmental movement began.
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Prop. 1A's passage would open doors to more taxation
Sacramento Bee News Clipping
By: Margaret A. Bengs
4.21.2009
In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian gave California taxpayers a $1.1 billion rebate. Due to the Gann spending limit enacted in 1979, named after Proposition 13 co-author Paul Gann, the state had a budget surplus, making the rebate mandatory. Subsequent ballot measures, however, rendered the limit meaningless.
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Curing Medicine of Government
Freedom Politics Op-Ed
By: John R. Graham
4.20.2009
The Benjamin Rush Society is modeled on the Federalist Society, which resists "a form of orthodox liberal ideology which advocates a centralized and uniform society" in law schools. The BRS, named after an American Founding Father who was also a physician, does the same in medical schools. It's sad to think that such an organization needs to exist - but it does.
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The Real Lessons of the Great Depression
Lew Rockwell.com Op-Ed
4.20.2009
Since late 2007, more and more commentators have drawn parallels between our current financial crisis and the Great Depression. Nobel laureates and presidential advisors confidently proclaim that it was Herbert Hoover's laissez-faire penny pinching that exacerbated the Depression, and that the American economy was saved only when FDR boldly ran up enormous deficits to fight the Nazis. But as I document in my new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, this official history is utterly false.
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Nationalizing the Banks
CNBC News Video - Larry Kudlow Show
4.20.2009
Discussing the "backdoor" government takeover of banks, with Lee Hoskins, Pacific Research Institute; Robert Albertson, Sandler O'Neill & Partners; Noam Scheiber, The New Republic; and CNBC's Larry Kudlow.
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Paying for Cancer Therapies
National Center for Policy Analysis Op-Ed
By: John R. Graham
4.17.2009
While health insurers pay for diagnosis, surgery, and intravenous chemotherapy for cancer patients, they balk at paying for oral anticancer pills dispensed by pharmacies, according to a New York Times story. Although the new drugs are expensive, the journalist figures that they are surely cheaper conventional alternatives. So here's the obvious question: "If the retail drugs are better and cost less than the office-based therapies, why wouldn't profit-maximizing insurers pay for them?"
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Robert Murphy to the Rescue
Ludwig von Mises Institute Blog
By: Jeffrey Tucker
4.17.2009
Myths about the Great Depression were once a mere annoyance. Now they have become a source for tyranny. The Bush-Obama response to the meltdown proves that one thing is certain: until we get the history of the 1930s right, liberty will be under threat of those trying to repeat the drama.
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Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution
TechNewsWorld Op-Ed
4.17.2009
Earth Day is fast approaching, yet despite the awareness this day brings, most people are powering their computers with electricity from coal-burning power plants, delivered by "dumb" networks. Change is long overdue, and it's not a difficult matter.
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Energy freedom is crux of solution to economic woes
Capital Weekly Op-Ed
By: Thomas Tanton
4.16.2009
The maxim states that the simplest solution is usually the correct one. And America’s financial crisis is no exception to the rule. Overwhelmed by bailout plans and other convoluted proposals, many of our nation’s leaders are missing the obvious answer to our economic woes: energy freedom.
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Patent system exploited
San Francisco Chronicle Op-Ed
By: Daniel R. Ballon, Ph.D
4.16.2009
A federal agency on Friday barred the second-largest supplier of high-definition televisions in North America from selling its products in the United States. This action reveals a patent system badly in need of reform.
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2009 Environmental Index Marks Key Anniversaries in Environmental History
PRI Press Release
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
4.16.2009
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) today released the 2009 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, an annual report highlighting the significant environmental developments and milestones in the United States and worldwide. The 2009 edition marks the anniversary of key moments in environmental history, including the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker disaster, the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, and perhaps the most iconic event in environmental history -- the Cuyahoga River fire of June 1969.
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The Sizzle Of Economic Freedom And The Fizzle Of Minnesota
True North - Pointing Minnesota in the Right Direction
By: Craig Westover
4.16.2009
Most Minnesotans don't realize what restrictions on their economic freedom are costing them. If they realized the benefits that would flow to them with more economic freedom, they would be beating down the doors of the legislature demanding not just a stop to proposed government curtailment of their right to economic liberty, they would be demanding back the freedoms that have been taxed and regulated from them.
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California's 'Spending Limit' Is A Sham
Investor's Business Daily Op-Ed
By: Benjamin Zycher
4.14.2009
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices.
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Obama's radical economic remake promises gloomy future
The Detroit News Op-Ed
By: Jason Clemens
4.14.2009
President Barack Obama's budget plan illustrates the degree to which he wants to reconstruct the U.S. economy. So radical are the changes of Obamanomics, and so at odds with historical experience, that the next few months may very well decide the economic future of the United States for a generation.
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Must Read: WSJ's Steve Moore On Proposition 1A "Not So Golden"
The Flash Report
By: John Fleishman
4.14.2009
A key component of the budget deal that California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger struck with the Democrats earlier this year was a ballot initiative to limit state spending in the future. This spending limitation was supposed to be a big victory for taxpayers. But lo and behold, taxpayer groups throughout the state are fighting against Proposition 1A.
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Benjamin Rush Society Debate: Is More Government the Right Rx?
Heritage Foundation - The Foundry
By: Jason Fodeman
4.13.2009
Last week the Columbia University chapter of the newly formed Benjamin Rush Society – a group of medical students and doctors who believe in the freedom to practice medicine without government interference and the freedom for patients to access the health care of their own choosing–hosted a debate on the federal government’s role in health care.
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Seven Ways to Make Health Care in America Better
Herman Cain Website
By: Herman Cain
4.13.2009
My most recent column highlighted the massive ignorance about the U.S. health care system. Too many people want to fix the leaks in our health care roof by blowing up the building. Here’s a novel idea, let’s just fix the leaks in the roof, and here are seven solutions by Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute.
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Will ObamaNomics work? A debate between a liberal and a Libertarian
National Public Radio - San Francisco
4.12.2009
Robert P. Murphy, Senior Fellow in Business and Economic Studies, debates Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC., in this NPR radio show "Work with Marty Nemko" hosted by Marty Nemko. The topic: Will ObamaNomics work?
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Obama Misreads His Mandate
The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
By: Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D
4.11.2009
President Barack Obama's honeymoon period seems to have ended quickly. That's because Mr. Obama doesn't grasp the essentials of presidential leadership. Rather than making a compelling case for his economic policies, he has resorted to curt rebuffs, such as telling House Republican whip Eric Cantor, "I won."
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California commission considers tax changes
Sacramento Bee News Clipping
By: Kevin Yamamura
4.10.2009
It seemed appropriate that a panel examining ways to overhaul the state's tax structure met Thursday in the academic confines of UC Davis rather than the politically charged Capitol.
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Feel the Momentum
National Review Online Op-Ed
By: John R. Graham
4.8.2009
At yesterday’s White House–sponsored Regional Health Forum in Los Angeles, everyone from California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz called for immediate action on health-care reform. President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council director, Melody Barnes, said that she could “feel the momentum” for health reform this year.
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Rush Job
National Review Online News Clipping
By: JOHN J. MILLER
4.7.2009
Tonight in New York City, the Benjamin Rush Society will host its inaugural event: a debate on health care before a gathering of medical students and doctors. Under the leadership of Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and a longtime writer and researcher on health-care issues, the group hopes to organize medical practitioners and students much as the Federalist Society began organizing law students a generation ago. Pipes recently took questions from NRO’s John J. Miller.
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Two ways to look at health care
The Herald (New Britain, CT) News Clipping
By: Scott Whipple
4.6.2009
U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, had a captive audience Monday. During a meeting with New Britain business leaders, Peter Knaus, a builder in the city, wanted to understand why the Obama Administration believes we can’t get the economy back on track without first fixing the health-care system.
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For the Love of the Game
National Review Symposium
4.3.2009
The 2009 Major League Baseball season starts on Sunday night, when the Atlanta Braves visit the Philadelphia Phillies. On Monday, 13 more clubs will host their Opening Day games. We asked a distinguished group of fans — one for each of MLB’s 30 teams — to account for their passion.
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'Sexting': Zooming Out to See the Bigger Picture
TechNewsWorld Op-Ed
4.3.2009
This week, a federal judge blocked a prosecutor from filing child pornography charges against three teenage girls in northeastern Pennsylvania over risque cell phone pictures they took of themselves. This respite from the bizarre "sexting" scandal allows time for a national dialogue on an issue that goes deeper than simple changes in technology.
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Putting Drug Research in Legal Jeopardy
City Journal (NY) Op-Ed
By: Lawrence J. McQuillan, Ph.D
4.3.2009
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Wyeth v. Levine—holding that drug manufacturers are not free of liability under state law, even when the drug in question has secured federal regulatory approval—has worried pharmaceutical manufacturers, who can now face crippling state tort lawsuits despite being in regulatory compliance.
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Is All "Fair" With the Obama Agenda?
Townhall.com Op-Ed
By: Jason Clemens
4.2.2009
President Obama and congressional Democrats are avidly pursuing a sweeping agenda they claim is justified by the need for greater "fairness." This invites scrutiny of the various programs to verify if they do, in fact, promote fairness.
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Conservative Alliance Outlines 6 Deal-Killers for National Health Reform
Hertiage Foundation News Clipping
4.2.2009
Medical costs are rising too fast, the quality of service is uneven and too many people have difficulty getting or keeping insurance coverage. Both left and right agree on the need to reform the American health care system. But not all agree on the best way to address these problems.
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Comcast VoIP Actions Draw New FCC Scrutiny
Info Tech & Telecom News (Heartland Institute) News Clipping
By: Phil Britt
4.1.2009
The Federal Communications Commission, which has sanctioned Comcast for impeding peer-to-peer traffic on its servers, has sent a letter to the cable and Internet service company demanding an explanation why it appears to favor its own digital telephone services over its competitors’.
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National Safety Council Seeks Ban on Calling While Driving
Info Tech & Telecom News (Heartland Institute) News Clipping
By: Aricka Flowers
4.1.2009
The National Safety Council is calling for a nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving, claiming 6 percent of all automobile crashes are due to cell phone use, costing Americans $43 billion a year.
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Montana Considers School Choice Bill
School Reform News (Heartland Institute)
4.1.2009
Montana families may soon have more than just government-mandated public schools to choose from.
On February 5 the state Senate Tax Committee heard SB 342, sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Essman (R-Billings). At press time the bill was pending another hearing in April.
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Private Firm Solves U.S. DTV Coupon Woes
Info Tech & Telecom News (Heartland Institute) News Clipping
By: Phil Britt
4.1.2009
The transition to digital broadcast television has been delayed until June, causing confusion because some broadcasters already switched as scheduled on February 17.
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Education Achievement Has Declined Radically Since World War II
School Reform News (Heartland Institute) Book Review
By: Evelyn B. Stacey
4.1.2009
John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction is an articulate, compelling description of the state of U.S. education, in which the author details the unnecessary and in fact harmful aspects of public education that have developed since the end of World War II.
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Indiana Legislators Consider Tax Credit Measure
School Reform News (Heartland Institute) News Clipping
By: Thomas Cheplick
4.1.2009
The Indiana state legislature is considering a bill to establish a tax credit scholarship program for families to send their children to private K-12 schools.
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The ‘credit crunch’: another Great Depression?
The Spiked Review of Books News Clipping
By: Sean Collins
4.1.2009
Last month Christina Romer, chair of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, began a speech by saying: ‘In the last few months, I have found myself uttering the words “worst since the Great Depression” far too often’ (1). Romer is clearly not the only one: in almost any discussion of the current economic crisis, it does not take long before someone mentions the 1930s.
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