The FDA is getting into the business of mixing drinks. Employing a dangerously questionable array of regulatory powers, the agency is trying to determine if the the combination of caffeine and alcohol is a tempting and harmful brew for underage drinkers. Rather than do any investigative work of their own, they are giving producers of these drinks 30 days to prove that the alcoholic energy drinks are safe.
What makes them think these drinks are not safe? As difficult as this is…
Kahlua contains 20% alcohol in 49 states. But in Ohio, it is 21.5%. Weird, huh?
Turns out regulations are the reason. My friend Jacob Grier pointed me to an article showing that Ohio groups alcoholic beverages into two categories: wine/beer and spirits. Any beverage below 20% alcohol is in the wine/beer category and can be sold in grocery stores. Anything above 20% is classed as a spirit and can only be sold in state-run liquor stores.
Drinkers often mix Kahlua with spirits such as…
Interesting lectures are a great thing. Good cocktails are a very good thing. But when the two are combined into a single presentation, the effect is just plain fun, which is how I describe the event I attended last night.
Garrett Peck, author of The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet, walked an audience through the history of Americans’ conflicted relationship with alcoholic beverages (at Jackie’s Restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland). Moving along in time, the lecture…
Sin taxes are often justified by claiming that the item/behavior taxes costs the taxpayer money. By applying a tax, the government claims it can pay for the public services that the behavior produces a need for as well as increasing the cost of the behavior thereby discouraging continuation. The most obvious example is the cigarette tax. Increased prices supposedly incentivize smokers to quit or at least temper their addiction, while revenues from the tax can pay for health services.
But what…
As I blogged about earlier many states in the US, facing budget shortcomings of their own making are looking at beer and wine tax increases as a way to make some cash. One of my assertions, beside the fundamental stupidity of penalizing production and wealth creation, is that such tax increases will hurt employees and pubs hardest. To back that up we can take the UK as an example—they are experiencing the roosting chickens of Chancellor Darling’s 2008 beer tax in the…
Oregonian brewers looking for a new home may want to consider moving to Michigan where a state authority may just understand the principle that fewer regulatory burdens on businesses actually increases economic growth!
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) provides tax credits to businesses that move or expand operations in the state.
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA), the state’s response to interstate competition for company expansions and relocations, may provide a refundable tax credit against the Single Business Tax (SBT) to companies expanding…
Why legislators think it is a good idea to put their heels on the neck of the most productive industries is beyond me. Perhaps following the lead of California (in and of itself a good reason to take a closer look at the proposal) Oregon Reps. Ben Cannon and Michael Dembrow, Senators Jackie Dingfelder, Diane Rosenbaum, and William Morrisette are hoping to make budget ends meet by tapping into the profits of local brewers.
“House Bill 2461, would impose a $49.61 tax…
The beer industry is cheering a recently introduced bill that would roll back the excise tax on brewers in the Washington, DC area to pre-1991 levels. The industry sees the bill as a wise measure to relieve the economic pressures on small and large brewers alike. H.R. 836 the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief (BEER) Act was introduced by the bipartisan duo of Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Tom Latham (R-IA). And given that the prices of ingredients for beer are…
February 1st 2009 is the day that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s per-drink tax increase will go into effect throughout the state. The tax hike will be a seemingly small 5 cent increase on beer, wine, and spirits in an attempt to in an attempt to shrink the state’s budget deficit of $40 billion.
Is this a wise idea? Well, “sin taxes” like those applied to drinking and smoking are, generally, intended as deterrents against an activity some government agent believes is harmful…
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