Commentary

Business & Economics

Choices hint at move to middle

Many conservative pundits have predicted a radical shift in U.S. economic policy and serious, prolonged economic stagnation under the incoming Obama administration. In many ways their analysis is correct, but things could turn out quite differently if President Obama pulls a Clinton – meaning he shifts quickly to pragmatic, workable ...
Agriculture

Exposed: Activists’ Attacks on Meat Production Intensify

Advocates for Agriculture, December 19, 2008 By: Alan Caruba In 2006 the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” that was so full of absurd claims, dressed up to look like science, that I made a mental note to revisit the issue. An ominous ...
California

California Republican Legislators Find Some Health Dollars

As California continues to teeter on insolvency, Republican legislators have proposed a budget amendment that transfers some funds from two health-care programs that are in surplus! Surplus? How the heck did that happen? The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development (health and education). They are ...
Business & Economics

Assessing Obama’s Economic Team

Conservatives are understandably depressed these days, but they now have something to smile about in President-elect Obama’s picks for key economic posts, such as Tim Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Geithner, currently president of the New York Federal Reserve, boasts an intimate knowledge of international economics. During his ...
Business & Economics

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and keep its taxes high”

When I was a kid, the jingle went: “I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and keep it company; I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…” Apparently, the composers were motivated by a group of stranded travellers at the airport in Shannon Airport, Ireland, hanging ...
Business & Economics

Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis

Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Commentary

Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson

The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
Commentary

Why Water Markets Should be Part of the “Vision” for the Delta, and All of California

SACRAMENTO – Before the end of 2008, the Delta Vision Committee will send Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), “one of the most ambitious infrastructure and habitat restoration projects ever proposed in America,” according to news reports, to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a prime source of drinking ...
Business & Economics

Inadequate labeling or human error?

Re: Nov. 28 commentary “Court takes up pre-emption doctrine.” It’s hard to see how “inadequate labeling,” not human error, resulted in the amputation of Diana Levine’s arm, as Thomas O. McGarity claims. The FDA-approved label on the anti-nausea drug Phenergan contained prominent warnings: “extreme care should be exercised to avoid ...
Commentary

Six Fixes For Healthcare Costs

The financial crisis will most likely leave Congress unable to pursue the wholesale healthcare reforms that many desire. Fortunately, there are several ways to lower healthcare costs and improve care without massive government outlays. Here are six fixes that lawmakers should consider: Build on the success of laser eye surgery ...
Business & Economics

Choices hint at move to middle

Many conservative pundits have predicted a radical shift in U.S. economic policy and serious, prolonged economic stagnation under the incoming Obama administration. In many ways their analysis is correct, but things could turn out quite differently if President Obama pulls a Clinton – meaning he shifts quickly to pragmatic, workable ...
Agriculture

Exposed: Activists’ Attacks on Meat Production Intensify

Advocates for Agriculture, December 19, 2008 By: Alan Caruba In 2006 the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” that was so full of absurd claims, dressed up to look like science, that I made a mental note to revisit the issue. An ominous ...
California

California Republican Legislators Find Some Health Dollars

As California continues to teeter on insolvency, Republican legislators have proposed a budget amendment that transfers some funds from two health-care programs that are in surplus! Surplus? How the heck did that happen? The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development (health and education). They are ...
Business & Economics

Assessing Obama’s Economic Team

Conservatives are understandably depressed these days, but they now have something to smile about in President-elect Obama’s picks for key economic posts, such as Tim Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Geithner, currently president of the New York Federal Reserve, boasts an intimate knowledge of international economics. During his ...
Business & Economics

“I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and keep its taxes high”

When I was a kid, the jingle went: “I’d like to buy the world a Coke, and keep it company; I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…” Apparently, the composers were motivated by a group of stranded travellers at the airport in Shannon Airport, Ireland, hanging ...
Business & Economics

Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis

Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Commentary

Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson

The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
Commentary

Why Water Markets Should be Part of the “Vision” for the Delta, and All of California

SACRAMENTO – Before the end of 2008, the Delta Vision Committee will send Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), “one of the most ambitious infrastructure and habitat restoration projects ever proposed in America,” according to news reports, to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a prime source of drinking ...
Business & Economics

Inadequate labeling or human error?

Re: Nov. 28 commentary “Court takes up pre-emption doctrine.” It’s hard to see how “inadequate labeling,” not human error, resulted in the amputation of Diana Levine’s arm, as Thomas O. McGarity claims. The FDA-approved label on the anti-nausea drug Phenergan contained prominent warnings: “extreme care should be exercised to avoid ...
Commentary

Six Fixes For Healthcare Costs

The financial crisis will most likely leave Congress unable to pursue the wholesale healthcare reforms that many desire. Fortunately, there are several ways to lower healthcare costs and improve care without massive government outlays. Here are six fixes that lawmakers should consider: Build on the success of laser eye surgery ...
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