The Return of Big Tobacco
by Dan Croak
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco. However, it will not help "prevent smoking" nor it will "control tobacco" favorably for public health. Phillip Morris strongly supports the legislation and the head of the FDA opposes it. Something is wrong here.
Articles
Criminalising the consumer
by Dan Croak
04.30.07 | It is trivial to download music and videos from iTunes and then transfer it to your iPod. Digital Rights Management is easy to manuever around and ineffective. How will copyright owners protect their intellectual property in coming years now that DRM has been proven to be more a hindrance than a help?
Saudi Terror Attacks Foiled
by Anna O'Leary
04.30.07 | The Saudi Arabian authorities have announced the arrest of 172 people accused of plotting to attack a range of targets in the kingdom, including oil facilities and military bases inside and outside Saudi Arabia. The latest swoop against presumed al-Qaida-affiliated militants comes just over a year after an attempt to blow up the Abqaiq crude processing facility, which supplies almost 10% of the world's oil, was foiled on February 24th 2006.
Time to Double Down on Online Gambling
by Anna O'Leary
04.30.07 | If market expectations are any guide, the United States will likely end up allowing its citizens to gamble online. In the hours after a recent WTO ruling was announced, stocks in online gaming companies lifted. Investors clearly see the writing on the wall, even if the U.S. government does not.
Bring Climate Idealism Down to Earth
by Dan Croak
04.29.07 | The global cap and trade approach directed at achieving the rapid emissions reductions enshrined in the Kyoto protocol could be ineffective or even counterpoductive by substituting for more realistic approaches to the problem.
China's New Economic Model
by Anna O'Leary
04.29.07 | As China invests more of its vast savings in a myriad of domestic projects, the economics of relationships with other countries will begin to change. There will be less calls of "unfair competition" and positive effects on prices and incentives, for economics is really a positive-sum game.
Rent Extraction
by Dan Croak
04.28.07 | Politicians often introduce legislation designed to scare wealthy industries into contributing to their campaigns. The process is called "rent extraction" and the bills introduced are alternatively called "milkers," "fetchers," or "cash cows."
Farm Subsidies: The Dirty Truth
by Dan Croak
04.27.07 | Economists regularly argue against the heavy subsidies given to American farmers. However, the American public support the subsidies by a wide margin.
Grey Tuesday in America
by Dean Howarth
03.05.07 | On February 27th, world economic markets took their biggest losses in recent memory. Trying to unravel the causes is like trying to un-do the Gordian knot, but Dean Howarth breaks it down. He may not be Alexander the Great, but his analysis cuts as cleanly as the ancient Greek commander's sword.
Jobs Are Always About the Money
by Devin Lavelle
12.11.06 | It's not about the money? It's a job, of course it is. Yet for some reason, in the annual dance of millionaire baseball players and billionaire owners, fans across the country expect players to walk away from far more generous offers to stay with out favorite teams.
The Business of Baseball
by Devin Lavelle
12.08.06 | I cannot say that I recall when I stopped believing in Santa Claus. To this day, though, I still hang my stocking and, happily, it seems to have little trouble finding itself filled come Christmas morning. Thanks Mom and Dad.
The Right to Work
by Dan Croak
04.29.07 | How are 17 states, 276 cities and towns (including the District of Columbia) and 433 companies of the Fortune 500 more advanced - daresay, more civilized - than the federal government? They all prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's about time Congress allowed the nation to catch up - and maybe it will, now that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been reintroduced in the House.
Markets
What is this?The price of oil will be greater than $70