Commentary
Commentary
Paying for Cancer Therapies
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 ...
John R. Graham
April 17, 2009
Commentary
Business Groups & Health Reform: Conflicts of Interest?
I enjoy the research, news, and commentary produced by the Pacific Business Group on Health, with whose Executive Director for National Health Policy, Peter Lee, I’ve had the privilege of sharing a podium. PBGH represents fifty large, corporate purchasers of health care. have not yet met PBGH’s other executives, but ...
John R. Graham
April 17, 2009
Blackouts
Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution
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. The electricity grid’s basic structure hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison came ...
Sonia Arrison
April 17, 2009
Commentary
Energy freedom is crux of solution to economic woes
Washington. 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. For that reason, ...
Thomas Tanton
April 16, 2009
Business & Economics
Patent system exploited
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. The U.S. International Trade Commission punished Irvine’s Vizio for infringing on a competitor’s patent, even though ...
Daniel R. Ballon
April 16, 2009
Business & Economics
The Left’s pension dilemma
You know the pension tsunami is getting close to shore when the mainstream media are filled with hard-hitting stories about the coming crisis, such as the front-page article April 11 in the Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee, documenting the manner in which huge pension costs for retired public employees “threaten ...
Steven Greenhut
April 16, 2009
Commentary
Clean energy, overpopulation, black carbon, rising sea level, and other environmental news
Let’s take a quick look at a few of the environmental issues making news today, which include whether old coral formations in Mexico show a “catastrophic” rise in sea levels 12,000 years ago, and if so, what it might mean today. And more: Is consumption in industrialized nations more harmful ...
Judy Lowe
April 16, 2009
Commentary
2009 Environmental Index Marks Key Anniversaries in Environmental History
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 ...
Steven F. Hayward
April 16, 2009
Business & Economics
The Sizzle of Economic Freedom and the Fizzle of Minnesota
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 ...
Craig Westover
April 16, 2009
Commentary
Oil drilling will stimulate our state economy
On Thursday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will hold a public hearing in San Francisco on the future of expanded development of America’s vast energy resources. At stake will be whether continued, or expanded, offshore petroleum production will be allowed. While the topic can be made complex, it affords ...
Thomas Tanton
April 15, 2009
Paying for Cancer Therapies
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 ...
Business Groups & Health Reform: Conflicts of Interest?
I enjoy the research, news, and commentary produced by the Pacific Business Group on Health, with whose Executive Director for National Health Policy, Peter Lee, I’ve had the privilege of sharing a podium. PBGH represents fifty large, corporate purchasers of health care. have not yet met PBGH’s other executives, but ...
Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution
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. The electricity grid’s basic structure hasn’t changed much since Thomas Edison came ...
Energy freedom is crux of solution to economic woes
Washington. 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. For that reason, ...
Patent system exploited
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. The U.S. International Trade Commission punished Irvine’s Vizio for infringing on a competitor’s patent, even though ...
The Left’s pension dilemma
You know the pension tsunami is getting close to shore when the mainstream media are filled with hard-hitting stories about the coming crisis, such as the front-page article April 11 in the Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee, documenting the manner in which huge pension costs for retired public employees “threaten ...
Clean energy, overpopulation, black carbon, rising sea level, and other environmental news
Let’s take a quick look at a few of the environmental issues making news today, which include whether old coral formations in Mexico show a “catastrophic” rise in sea levels 12,000 years ago, and if so, what it might mean today. And more: Is consumption in industrialized nations more harmful ...
2009 Environmental Index Marks Key Anniversaries in Environmental History
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 ...
The Sizzle of Economic Freedom and the Fizzle of Minnesota
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 ...
Oil drilling will stimulate our state economy
On Thursday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will hold a public hearing in San Francisco on the future of expanded development of America’s vast energy resources. At stake will be whether continued, or expanded, offshore petroleum production will be allowed. While the topic can be made complex, it affords ...