Anthony Velasquez
Blog
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Andrew Gruel on the Cost of Regulations for California Restaurants
The challenge is not a single overwhelming regulation, it is accumulation. California layers rule upon rule, each one defensible on its own. Over time, those requirements reshape how restaurants hire, price, expand (or not), and compete. What appears manageable on paper becomes costly in practice. Restaurants are high-transaction, high-labor businesses. ...
Blog
Healthcare Reform Should Take Aim at Hidden Prices
Effective healthcare reform should address the persistent problem of a system that hides prices, shields middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers and insurers from accountability, and leaves patients with little real leverage. Reforms can lower healthcare costs by increasing transparency, expanding competition, and reducing the influence of middlemen whose practices operate ...
Blog
Energy Markets Still Punish Policy Weakness
Venezuela illustrates how quickly political dysfunction can translate into market risk. Once one of the world’s largest oil producers, the country has spent years constrained by mismanagement, corruption, and chronic instability. The consequence is not just lower output. It is persistent uncertainty that markets price in long before any formal ...
Blog
Treating Drug Trafficking Like a Security Threat Matters at Home
For decades, the United States has responded to drug trafficking primarily through domestic law enforcement and public health frameworks. Those approaches matter, but they hit a wall when drug supply chains are protected by political power abroad. At that point, local enforcement is reacting to the problem, not shaping it. ...
Death by a Thousand Cuts: Andrew Gruel on the Cost of Regulations for California Restaurants
The challenge is not a single overwhelming regulation, it is accumulation. California layers rule upon rule, each one defensible on its own. Over time, those requirements reshape how restaurants hire, price, expand (or not), and compete. What appears manageable on paper becomes costly in practice. Restaurants are high-transaction, high-labor businesses. ...
Healthcare Reform Should Take Aim at Hidden Prices
Effective healthcare reform should address the persistent problem of a system that hides prices, shields middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers and insurers from accountability, and leaves patients with little real leverage. Reforms can lower healthcare costs by increasing transparency, expanding competition, and reducing the influence of middlemen whose practices operate ...
Energy Markets Still Punish Policy Weakness
Venezuela illustrates how quickly political dysfunction can translate into market risk. Once one of the world’s largest oil producers, the country has spent years constrained by mismanagement, corruption, and chronic instability. The consequence is not just lower output. It is persistent uncertainty that markets price in long before any formal ...
Treating Drug Trafficking Like a Security Threat Matters at Home
For decades, the United States has responded to drug trafficking primarily through domestic law enforcement and public health frameworks. Those approaches matter, but they hit a wall when drug supply chains are protected by political power abroad. At that point, local enforcement is reacting to the problem, not shaping it. ...
