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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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