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May 2007
Number 4.21
May 31, 2007
“Piddle twiddle and resolve, not one darn thing do we solve” said John Adams of Congress in the Broadway musical “1776”. And while this may be true of broadband policy in Congress, not so in the state legislatures.
The list of states acting for consumer choice and robust competition in video is getting longer all the time.
- Missouri’s SB 284 sponsored by Senator John Greisheimer and signed on March 22nd by Governor Matt Blunt . . .
- Florida’s HB 529 sponsored by Representative Trey Traviesa and signed on May 18th by Governor Charlie Crist . . .
- Iowa’s SF 554 sponsored by Senator Roger Stewart and signed on May 29th by Governor Chet Culver . . . Read More...
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"Let the multinationals go . . . . We will supply whatever drugs the Thai or other governments may want." Cipla CEO Yusuf Hamied, Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2007
Cipla, the Indian generic manufacturer, has earned a reputation as the drug company with a heart of gold, dedicated to the plight of poor HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. As is often the case, the truth is more complicated:
- Cipla sells drugs to make money - - it is not a charity. Cipla’s deals, most recently with the William J. Clinton Foundation, guarantee the company large captive markets and comfortable profit margins.
Read More...
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In last Wednesday's IPI SoundBytes, "Why Are Some Mexican Children Getting A Good U.S. Education?" Merrill Matthews is really asking quite a different, and much more pertinent question: Why can't American kids have the same choice of where they go to school as Mexican kids (many of them illegal) have when they are allowed to cross the border unimpeded (in some cases actually government assisted) to attend American government schools?
Well, of course, the answer is contained within the question itself -- it's all about GOVERNMENT ("public") schools run by BUREAUCRATS ("public servants"). Ya'all come; the more the merrier and the bigger the budget. Pay no attention to that American taxpayer cringing in the corner; his wallet is the government's wallet. Read More...
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Guess what? No one in Europe wants the ‘special’ version of Microsoft Vista (the one without a browser, by order of EU competition authorities), just as they didn’t want the browser-free Windows offered before. EU bureaucrats can order a browser-free party, but they can’t force anyone to show up.
Another example of how Europe’s economic policies, very successful in promoting the Euro as a standard of value and producing (and exporting) quality products, nevertheless are still running on twentieth-century fumes. The European Commission’s endless Microsoft prosecution seems set on a multi-decade trajectory, while the actual market for software products and services—even in Europe—has long ago left that station.
Read More...
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Our nation faces an entitlements crisis. For over 50 years now, Federal spending has been stable at around 20% of GDP. But the Congressional Budget Office now projects that spending will soar over the next 40 years to close to 40% of GDP. That is caused primarily by soaring costs for the big entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
What is the Democrats response to this problem? They are proposing legislation to expand entitlement spending even faster.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) have introduced legislation to expand Medicaid by another $55 -- $60 billion over the next 5 years. Their proposal focuses on the portion of Medicaid known as the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. That program was adopted in 1997 to provide health insurance coverage to children from low income families that are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.
Read More...
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Thailand’s health hinister, Mongkol Na Songkhla—he of compulsory licensing fame—was in Washington DC this week explaining why he needed to steal Abbott Laboratories’ patent on Kaletra, an AIDS drug.
According to a Washington Post story, the minister and his traveling companions stopped by the paper to meet with editorial writers and explain his case. However, as it turns out Thailand has its on intellectual property rights complaint:
Indonesia and Thailand, on the front line of the bird flu epidemic, say they never gave their permission for the virus samples to be used commercially and refused to send any more to the WHO until their interests are protected. Thailand wants all countries to be guaranteed a minimum supply of vaccine. Read More...
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By nine votes earlier this month, the U.S. Senate put the breaks on what appeared to be a run-away effort to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs without adequate safety certification. While they were at it, unfortunately, Senators neglected to remove a poison pill from the bill that could be just as deadly—the "forced sale" provision—which represents one of the most audacious and pernicious government interventions into free markets since the heyday of the New Deal.
This poison pill is a time-release capsule too. When the Senate adopted the Cochran safety-certification amendment to the drug re-importation legislation, it effectively put a moratorium on re-importation pending certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services that it can be done so safely, something that is not likely to happen under the current administration. Read More...
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Picking up on the narrative (and theme) of our May 14 post, Eli Lehrer of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes in the May 18 Tampa Tribune that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist may have created an untenable situation by bulking up the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. (He and the legislature also have put an artificial cap on premiums that will compound the financial pressure on insurers, private and public.) Lehrer suggests federal intervention (the legislative kind) could be the only way to fix the problem.
Read More...
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The Treasury Department’s tax collection data for April puts the Federal deficit over the 12 month period ending April 30 at $144.7 billion. This leaves the deficit at about 1% of GDP, and declining, which is not a significant economic problem.
The decline is due to surging tax revenues from a booming economy. The deficit is down about $120 billion, or 45%, since last April. It has declined by $309 billion, or 68 percent, over the last three years from the peak of $455 billion in April, 2004. This experience shows that combining pro-growth tax cuts with just moderate spending restraint can sharply reduce, and, indeed, eliminate the deficit.
The deficit has declined now for 26 consecutive months and will continue to do so over the next 5 months until the end of the fiscal year. The deficit will consequently soon be well below 1% of GDP. Read More...
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Thanks to George Will for sparking an idea in this feeble brain.
Will points out that where so-called gasoline "price gouging" is concerned, it is really politicians, not oil companies who are "gouging" the public:
"While oil companies make about 13 cents on a gallon of gasoline, the federal government makes 18.4 cents (the federal tax) and California's various governments make 40.2 cents (the nation's third highest gasoline tax). . . San Francisco collects a local sales tax of 8.5 percent."
My idea? It's time for tax-limitation laws and/or constitutional provisions severely restricting governments' ability to set tax rates higher than profit margins.
Read More...
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I just attended the Cable Show (http://www.thecableshow.com/), and touring the floor, having the future described to me by one small business after another it occurred to me that many of these businesses would simply cease to exist under virtually any "net neutrality" regime. Many of the demonstrators were companies with technologies to improve advertising or broadband infrastructure providers including many utilizing compression technology.
The long and short of it -- many of these companies exist because they have invented ways or sell products to help networks become more efficient in the delivery of a variety of products at the same time. In other words, these products are designed to preference some material over other material -- a function that we all use without knowing it everyday that would be made illegal by those who want to bring massive government regulation to the Internet. Read More...
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There is little doubt that Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, sincerely cares about the high cost and inconsistent coverage of insurance plans that protect Floridians against huge losses from hurricane and flood damage. To express that concern he's pushed through legislation to control insurance rates more stringently, expand Florida's government-run 'fail safe' back-up plan (Citizens Property Insurance), and boost public and industry subsidies for the state's guarantees. As a consequence, some insurers are considering pulling out of Florida because given the magnitude of storm risk Florida property owners confront these companies don't believe they can provide adequate levels of insurance coverage at the rates Florida regulations will now allow.
The Governor summed up his feelings this way: "When these insurance companies threaten us with this 'We're going to leave your state stuff,' we say, 'Go ahead.' We don't need that kind of business in Florida." Read More...
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I hope you all enjoy the current crop of AIDS treatments, because I fear you aren't going to get many new ones.
Any company would be nuts to continue to pour millions of dollars into research on AIDS drugs when they know major, industrialized nations like Brazil are going to steal the formula and make them on their own.
Brazil is the world's 12th largest economy. Brazil has enormous human and natural resources. Brazil builds high-tech jets. Brazil even has a space program.
And now Brazil has decided that it, too, is going to help itself to the patent on Merck's AIDS drug efavirenz Read More...
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From the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI)
Number 4.17
May 3, 2007
A Crisis in Food Safety, but What about Drug Safety?
Congress can learn something from the growing crisis over the safety of pet food—if it only will.
Chinese companies have been adding an industrial chemical to animal food known as melamine, which can apparently break down into a toxin that forms crystals in the kidneys and kill animals.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, who are charged with maintaining food safety, are saying the agency simply does not have enough resources to closely monitor all of the foreign food and supplements entering the U.S.
Read More...
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Author: TechBytes || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA