-
Immigrants Could See Lower Remittance Fees With New British Start-Up
Tweet Share on Facebook January 31, 2013 CommentPeter Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, the editor of the Milken Institute Review, and a consultant to the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index project.
If you live in a big city in America or Europe (or the Persian Gulf), chances are you've seen immigrants lining up at neighborhood stores to send money back home to Mexico or India or the Philippines. But unless you have personal experience in this little corner of the global money market, the chances are even greater that you aren't aware of how big a deal these electronic transfers have become—or that the (usually poor) customers are usually ripped off in the process. Hence the potential importance of an Internet startup called Transferwise, which has the promise of making a ton of money, even as it transforms the business of transferring small amounts of cash across borders for very small fees.
-
Alex Rodriguez Follows Lance Armstrong's Example of Denial
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2013 CommentPaul Argenti is a professor of corporate communication at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Today's news once again has an athlete (this time it's A-Rod) denying a newspaper report that he was ever treated by a supplier of performance enhancing drugs, despite credible evidence to the contrary. Worse than the less-than-credible denial is the fact that he had his PR firm, Sitrick and Company, release the statement rather than man-up and deny it himself, a la Lance Armstrong. At least have the guts to tell your own lies!
-
Farm Bill's Corporate Welfare Is Unacceptable
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2013 CommentRyan Alexander is the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
One of the lesser discussed components of the recent fiscal cliff deal was a nine month extension of the farm bill, a trillion dollar piece of legislation that provides federal support for everything from nutrition assistance to lucrative subsidies that allow American agribusinesses to rake in huge profits regardless of market conditions.
-
More Government Spending Won't Reduce Poverty
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2013 CommentKeith Hall is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite unprecedented levels of government spending to help low-income Americans, a record 46 million people in the United States are living in poverty. In 2011, two thirds of the working-age poor were unemployed for the entire year. Some will argue that more public sector intervention is necessary to reduce poverty. But as we continue to slowly recover from the Great Recession, history shows us that only job gains from stronger economic growth can solve the problem.
-
Obama’s Inaugural Silence on Job Creation Was Deafening
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2013 CommentJohn Kane is a Job Creators Alliance member and chairman and CEO of Kane Realty Corporation, a leading East Coast property development company.
This past week was an important one in the life of our nation—the presidential inauguration. Just the 57th in our nation’s history, it is still a political event unrivaled in the world and truly a remarkable tradition that celebrates the best of our American democracy. This week’s inauguration had all the pomp and pageantry, and many media outlets noted President Obama’s second inaugural address and its fiery defense of political liberalism.
-
Obama's Liberal Vision Is Not Economically Viable
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2013 CommentDavid Shulman is a retired Wall Street executive who is now a senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast. He is also affiliated with Baruch College (CUNY) and the University of Wisconsin.
Aside from his full-throated endorsement of what he perceives to be 21st century liberalism, history will remember three themes from President Obama's inaugural address. Two were explicitly stated and one wasn't mentioned at all. Sometime what is not said is of greater importance than what was actually said, more that point later.
-
Congress's Debt Ceiling Extension Is a Game of Political Chicken
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2013 CommentRyan Alexander is the president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The proposal from the House of Representatives to push off the debt ceiling crisis for three months came with an ironic rhetorical frame: If the Senate will, in that time frame, pass a budget, we can start facing our long-term fiscal challenges instead of managing crisis to crisis. Oh, and if they don't pass a budget all lawmakers will stop drawing salaries.
-
Assessing the 'Vehicle Miles Traveled' Approach to Road Financing
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2013 CommentEileen Norcross is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She blogs on state and local economic policy at Neighborhood Effects.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell recently touched off a national debate over how to fund America's roads. His transportation plan includes a proposal to eliminate Virginia's 17.5 cents per gallon gas tax and replace it with an increase in the state's sales tax.
-
Shinzo Abe and Japan's Currency Wars
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2013 CommentPeter Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, the editor of the Milken Institute Review, and a consultant to the Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index project.
Shinzo Abe, Japan's newly elected prime minister who's probably best known for ignoring corruption in his first term and his ongoing insensitivity (euphemism intended) to Japanese war atrocities, is about to make history. He's on a tear about the need to inflate Japan out of its fifth recession in 15 years—to my mind, not a bad thing. And he's muscled the Bank of Japan into setting a 2 percent inflation target, an unprecedented move for the ultraconservative central bank. But lurking just under the surface is a more problematic goal that could have major implications for emerging markets in general and China in particular.
-
How Companies Today Can Anticipate the Technology of Tomorrow
Tweet Share on Facebook January 18, 2013 CommentAlejandro Crawford is a senior consultant at Acceleration Group, and he teaches growth and digital strategy at Baruch's Zicklin School of Business and the New School. Lisa Chau is the assistant director of Affiliated & Shared Interest Groups at Dartmouth College.
In 1985, Rodger Dowdell became CEO of American Power Conversion, a small manufacturer of solar power inverters. The company also sold power backup units, though these represented just 5 percent of its business. Hardly an industry player.
