http://www.openmarket.org The Competitive Enterprise Institute Blog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:48:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The healthcare bill is on the verge of passing the Senate, despite the fact that it has received a failing grade from healthcare experts like the Dean of Harvard Medical School, and the fact that it will increase taxes, deficits, and medical costs, while reducing lifesaving medical innovations. In a 60-to-39 ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/21/healthcare-bill-advances-in-senate-despite-receiving-failing-grade-from-health-experts-democrats-block-filibuster-in-party-line-vote/ “Swine flu has killed 540 kids, sickened 22 million Americans,” screamed USA Today’s page 1 headline, sub-headed “CDC: Cases, Deaths are Unprecedented.” “Swine flu cases in the U.S. are rising at the fastest pace for influenza in four decades,” breathlessly declares a Bloomberg News article lede. Another article’s title referred ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/flu-report-nov-21-and-my-piece-on-the-epidemic-peak-in-nro/ Earlier this week my colleague Ryan Young posted a blog about the FCC's proposal to increase access to and decrease the cost of broadband technology by charging consumers more for land-based telephone services. He makes some excellent points about the pointlessness of taxing telephone usage to subsidize broadband services and the ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/fcc-spectrum-gridlock/ With the Detroit auto industry floundering, the United Auto Workers is turning its attention to...day care provider. And to do so, the UAW partnering with the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, a union that organizes workers in the one sector where unionization is growing: government. That's because ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/legal-challenge-to-michigan-union-power-grab/ The Code of Federal Regulations has 28 sections on food containers. Metal, glass, plastic, flexible, rigid – if you can put food in it, there are rules for it. Recent innovations, such as easy-open tabs on cans, have prompted the Department of Agriculture to issue a 13-page update to its food ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/regulation-of-the-day-75-food-containers/ New Jersey residents pay the highest state and local taxes in the nation, notes the New Jersey Taxpayers' Association (NJTA). And what do they get for all that money? For most New Jerseyites, not much more than residents of other states, but for government employees, the benefits are great, according ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/government-employee-pensions-threat-to-new-jerseys-fiscal-health/ CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the Weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/20/cei-weekly-cei-starts-gore-debate-fundraiser/ In light of the news about stimulus job creation statistics not being as advertised -- complete with made-up Congressional districts -- I offer another surprisingly relevant insight from Mises' Human Action. Turns out there is a reason stimulus advocates are resorting to trickery: "If government spending for public works is financed ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/the-economic-way-of-thinking-about-stimulus-packages-part-ii/ The row between the UNITE-HERE hospitality and textile union and Workers United -- which broke away from UNITE-HERE earlier this year and joined the powerful and growing Service Employees International Union (SEIU) -- has taken a bizarre and ugly turn. According to The New York Times, several UNITE-HERE organizers have complained ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/cultlike-union-organizing-tactics/ Yesterday, Tower Investments filed a motion to dismiss the Nashville-chartered Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency's Petition for Condemnation of the company's 5.6-acre downtown property. MHDA is attempting to clear land for the proposed Music City Convention Center, the construction of which is currently projected to cost nearly $600 million. What makes ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/property-owner-fights-nashville-land-grab/ This morning I read with interest - and amazement - the above headline.  Does our president live in the same world that I inhabit?  He's worried about America's increasing indebtedness and is pushing for a massive expansion of health entitlements (aka wealth redistribution programs) and the cap-and-tax global warming initiatives ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/%e2%80%9cobama-warns-on-dangers-of-us-debt%e2%80%9d/ The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are seeking a preliminary injunction in federal court to stop ASU's plan to use Kindles in place of traditional textbooks. Their objection was based on the point that it is far from easy for a blind individual ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/%e2%80%9ci-can%e2%80%99t-see-the-objection%e2%80%9d/ As John Lott has so effectively demonstrated time and time again, widespread citizen gun possession is an effective way of increasing public safety. His policy suggestions have never been more relevant than in today's world where the military has disarmed its troops exposing them to the horrors recently experienced in ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/gun-control-laws-empower-pirates-and-terrorists/ More cash/Fewer Clunkers Via the Von Mises blog:  According to the consumer pricing index report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the price of used cars rose 3.4% in October thanks to the government's cash-for-clunkers that spirited away a large portion of the used-car inventory. So, for those ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/more-cash-fewer-clunkers/ The health care "reform" bill drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid adds new tax increases, and costs twice as much as its promised $849 billion price tag. The tax increases (in billions) include: 1. 40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,500 (individuals) / $23,000 (families). . . 2. Additional ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/reid-health-care-bill-adds-new-tax-increases-costs-twice-as-much-as-promised/ Robert Service's new biography of Trotsky is reviewed in today's Wall Street Journal. Having read Service's excellent biography of Lenin a few years ago, this seems like a book worth reading. Joshua Rubenstein's thoughtful review touches on some thoughts about socialism and socialists. Socialism had three major failings. The first is ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/new-trotsky-biography/ It's not exactly what Pogo meant when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." But it works out that way. The greatest threat to our national security isn't terrorist groups, rogue nations with nukes or China. It's an inability to stock our armed forces with top-quality ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/not-fit-for-combat-my-article-in-forbes/ There’s been much in the news lately about the brown pelican being delisted as an endangered species since its recovery from the effects of DDT. I happen to know people whose work I trust who disagree as to whether DDT actually thinned bird eggshells and thus led to declines in ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/19/not-sure-what-ddt-does-to-birds-but-i-know-how-it-helps-people/ The Dean of Harvard Medical School just gave the Obama health care plan a "failing grade," saying it will harm America's health and finances, and hamper the medical innovation needed to save patients' lives. Dean Jeffrey S. Flier writes, In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/18/harvard-medical-school-dean-opposes-obama-health-care-plan-gives-obamacare-a-failing-grade/ "[A] government can spend or invest only what it takes away from its citizens... its additional spending and investment curtails the citizens' spending and investment to the full extent of its quantity." -Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 4th ed., (Irvington-on-Hudson New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996 [1949], p. 744. http://www.openmarket.org/2009/11/18/the-economic-way-of-thinking-about-stimulus-packages/