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The Truth Behind the Fiscal Cliff Hysteria
Tweet Share on Facebook December 14, 2012 CommentDavid Brodwin is a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbrodwin.
The so-called “fiscal cliff” is less than 10 business days away, and it’s got everyone scared. Will President Obama and the House of Representatives make a deal before we go over the edge? Will the economy plunge into the abyss if a deal is not reached? The answer is no, and no.
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The Debt Ceiling, Not the Fiscal Cliff, Is the Danger to the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook December 13, 2012 CommentChad Stone is chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Here's the part of Washington's budget debate that I wish was getting more attention: the Republican threat to again take the country to the brink of default on the national debt. That, not the so-called "fiscal cliff," is the real danger to the economy.
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Businesses Are Spending on Lobbying Instead of Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook December 10, 2012 CommentJacob Feldman is a research analyst at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
It's well known that economic uncertainty slows growth, decreases investment, and destroys jobs. But a new study identifies an additional cost of uncertainty: businesses are diverting money away from expanding and hiring to lobbying Washington for preferential tax treatment. And with good reason. As tax increases loom over the fiscal cliff and beyond, many businesses may get more bang-for-the-buck hiring well-connected lobbyists than innovative engineers.
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Rating Business Rating Systems
Tweet Share on Facebook December 10, 2012 CommentDavid Brodwin is a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbrodwin.
Once upon a time, "corporate performance" meant growth in sales and profit, pure and simple. However, over the past two decades, pressure from customers, investors, and activists has aimed the spotlight at nonfinancial measures like environmental and labor practices and corporate governance. More than 100 new rating firms have sprung up to track performance in these areas. Executives have begun to pay attention.
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First, Small Businesses Want Washington To Do No Harm
Tweet Share on Facebook December 7, 2012 CommentFran Tarkenton is an NFL Hall-of-Famer, Job Creators Alliance member, and an entrepreneur who has launched more than 20 successful small businesses over the last 25 years, including OneMoreCustomer.com.
"Primum non nocere" is a Latin phrase, which translated, means: "first, do no harm." While Latin may be a dead language, the spirit of this phrase lives on today. It's commonly used in medical contexts, but maybe we should start applying it to the political arena as well.
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Google Foes Must Admit Defeat on Antitrust Case
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2012 CommentDavid Balto is a former policy director of the Federal Trade Commission, attorney-adviser to Chairman Robert Pitofsky, and antitrust lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice. He has been a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and has worked with the International Center on Law and Economics, both of which receive funding from many organizations including Google. Mr. Balto has also published research and authored scholarship for Google on technology policy topics.
The press is reporting that FairSearch and the other Google opponents have trotted down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division asking them to take over the antitrust investigation of search now that the FTC is poised to close its investigation.
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Keep Government Out of Internet Pricing
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2012 CommentEli Dourado is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. While he is a member of the U.S. delegation to he World Conference on International Telecommunications, the views expressed in this post are his own, not necessarily those of the U.S. government.
Today marks the start of the World Conference on International Telecommunications in Dubai. The conference is a U.N.-convened meeting where governments will update a treaty that sets rules for international public correspondence services, like telephones and telegraphs. Because the treaty was last revised in 1988, when government officials did not anticipate the importance of the Internet, the current text does not cover anything Internet-related.
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On Fiscal Cliff, Not All Businesses Oppose Raising Taxes
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2012 CommentDavid Brodwin is a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbrodwin.
As negotiations over debt and taxes continue in Washington, business groups have broken ranks. They now show an unusually wide range of positions on this crucial issue. This week, 15 owners and founders of small businesses were invited to meet with the president to discuss taxes and debt reduction. The diverse group included owners of a footwear company, an independent music retailer, a mushroom farmer, and an online gift shop. These entrepreneurs challenged the conventional thinking usually put forth by the trade associations that lobby on tax issues.
