Commentary
Business & Economics
Satellite radio held hostage
THE $4 BILLION merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM continues to languish in the hands of government regulators, despite hopes that the 10-month antitrust investigation wouldn’t drag into 2008. An otherwise clear-cut approval process has been hijacked by competitors seeking to prevent consumers from receiving better service, more ...
Agriculture
Ethanol craze boosts food prices, world hunger
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), February 15, 2008 Press Dakotan, February 15, 2008 Billings Gazette (MT), February 12, 2008 Investor’s Business Daily, February 11, 2008 WASHINGTON – The red-hot congressional love affair with the alternative fuel ethanol is starting to leave many supermarket customers feeling mighty blue these days as they pay ...
California
Lessons for Arnold from Milton Friedman
Sacramento Union, February 15, 2008 SACRAMENTO – Jan. 29 was Milton Friedman Day, which may have escaped Californians’ notice. I wonder: Could Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gain inspiration from the ideas of the late Nobel laureate and lauded economist? One in three California public school students is now in a public ...
Commentary
Commentary: Vicki Murray
Forbes.com, February 15, 2008 That steep mortgage may not buy your kids a decent education. A growing number of middle-income families are in homes they can barely afford to keep and cannot afford to sell at a loss–all so that their children can go to “good” suburban public schools. But ...
Commentary
NY’s “Cuomortician” Strikes Again! Attorney General to “Fix” Prices
It’s been a couple of months since New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, scourge of the health insurers, has caused me to address the sorry state of the Empire State’s political direction on health reform. Last time, I expressed concern (and perhaps a little contrition) that I was too hard ...
Business & Economics
Who Can Own the Air? FCC Gives, Can Take Away
“Purblind Auction” (Review & Outlook, Feb. 7) incorrectly describes wireless spectrum as “real estate.” The government may be selling these choice airwaves to the highest bidder, but who really owns them? Certainly not the auction winner. Not only do the FCC’s rules dictate how the new “owner” can use his ...
California
What Now for California Health Care?
Last month the Senate health committee dumped the Schwarzenegger/Núñez Model ABX1 1, California’s trend-setting gadget for health-care repair. Senator Sheila Kuehl, who chairs that committee, tossed it for more personal reasons, other than the obvious $14-billion price tag and state budget deficit of similar size. Senator Kuehl wants to bring ...
Business & Economics
State-subsidized broadband a bad idea
There are some in government intent on improving what already works just fine, often to the detriment of nearly everyone. The latest unnecessary fix of what’s not broken is a preposterous, counter-productive, exorbitantly expensive proposal to use state-issued bonds to bring ultra-fast Internet connections to every remote California nook and ...
Business & Economics
Building a digital bridge to nowhere
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Task Force concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultrafast connections to the state’s most desolate locales. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks first in ...
Commentary
Over Regulating Health Insurance & The Law of Unintended Consequences
I have written quite a few times about California’s regulatory adventurism that has made it impossible for health insurers to assess and price health risks in the market for individual health insurance, despite the fact that it is legal to do so. (Although, the recently defeated California Health Care Deforminator, ...
Satellite radio held hostage
THE $4 BILLION merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM continues to languish in the hands of government regulators, despite hopes that the 10-month antitrust investigation wouldn’t drag into 2008. An otherwise clear-cut approval process has been hijacked by competitors seeking to prevent consumers from receiving better service, more ...
Ethanol craze boosts food prices, world hunger
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), February 15, 2008 Press Dakotan, February 15, 2008 Billings Gazette (MT), February 12, 2008 Investor’s Business Daily, February 11, 2008 WASHINGTON – The red-hot congressional love affair with the alternative fuel ethanol is starting to leave many supermarket customers feeling mighty blue these days as they pay ...
Lessons for Arnold from Milton Friedman
Sacramento Union, February 15, 2008 SACRAMENTO – Jan. 29 was Milton Friedman Day, which may have escaped Californians’ notice. I wonder: Could Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gain inspiration from the ideas of the late Nobel laureate and lauded economist? One in three California public school students is now in a public ...
Commentary: Vicki Murray
Forbes.com, February 15, 2008 That steep mortgage may not buy your kids a decent education. A growing number of middle-income families are in homes they can barely afford to keep and cannot afford to sell at a loss–all so that their children can go to “good” suburban public schools. But ...
NY’s “Cuomortician” Strikes Again! Attorney General to “Fix” Prices
It’s been a couple of months since New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, scourge of the health insurers, has caused me to address the sorry state of the Empire State’s political direction on health reform. Last time, I expressed concern (and perhaps a little contrition) that I was too hard ...
Who Can Own the Air? FCC Gives, Can Take Away
“Purblind Auction” (Review & Outlook, Feb. 7) incorrectly describes wireless spectrum as “real estate.” The government may be selling these choice airwaves to the highest bidder, but who really owns them? Certainly not the auction winner. Not only do the FCC’s rules dictate how the new “owner” can use his ...
What Now for California Health Care?
Last month the Senate health committee dumped the Schwarzenegger/Núñez Model ABX1 1, California’s trend-setting gadget for health-care repair. Senator Sheila Kuehl, who chairs that committee, tossed it for more personal reasons, other than the obvious $14-billion price tag and state budget deficit of similar size. Senator Kuehl wants to bring ...
State-subsidized broadband a bad idea
There are some in government intent on improving what already works just fine, often to the detriment of nearly everyone. The latest unnecessary fix of what’s not broken is a preposterous, counter-productive, exorbitantly expensive proposal to use state-issued bonds to bring ultra-fast Internet connections to every remote California nook and ...
Building a digital bridge to nowhere
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Broadband Task Force concluded last month that high-speed Internet access should be a public investment, much like roads and power lines. The CBTF proposes “state-issued broadband bonds” to bring ultrafast connections to the state’s most desolate locales. Without public subsidies, however, California already ranks first in ...
Over Regulating Health Insurance & The Law of Unintended Consequences
I have written quite a few times about California’s regulatory adventurism that has made it impossible for health insurers to assess and price health risks in the market for individual health insurance, despite the fact that it is legal to do so. (Although, the recently defeated California Health Care Deforminator, ...
