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Government Regulations Are Killing Middle Class Opportunity
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2012 Comment (1)Steve Zelnak is a member of the Job Creators Alliance, a nonprofit committed to the defense of the free enterprise system. He is also the chairman of the Board of Directors and former CEO of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., and chairman and majority owner of ZP Enterprises.
When things happen gradually, we tend not to notice. Just 12,300 years ago, Niagara Falls was about seven miles further downstream. It has slowly eroded and no one noticed along the way.
It's the same with our free enterprise system.
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The Apple E-Book Lawsuit and Amazon’s $9.99 Problem
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2012 Comment (1)Robert G. Hansen is senior associate dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
On April 11, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Apple and several book publishers, claiming that the companies conspired to limit price competition in e-books, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Justice Department claims that the agreements between Apple and the book publishers to enter into an "agency" distribution model with a "most favored nation" clause had the direct impact of raising the price of e-books to consumers.
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How Cell Phones Are Boosting Kenya's Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 12, 2012 Comment (1)Robert Hahn is director of economics at Oxford's Smith School, chief economist at the Legatum Institute, and a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. Peter Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica and the editor of its quarterly economic policy journal, The Milken Institute Review. They co-founded Regulation2point0.org, a web portal on economic regulation.
Can you guess which countries' citizens have the greatest access to cell phones? It's an odd list. The United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, and Italy are near the top—no surprise, since they're all rich. But middle-income countries Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Brazil are all in the first 20, ahead of the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Japan, France, Canada, and South Korea. Meanwhile, some countries with truly anemic living standards—Guatemala, Ukraine, Ecuador—can all boast more than one phone per person.
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What Obama's, Ryan's Tax Plans Are Really About
Tweet Share on Facebook April 12, 2012 Comment (3)David 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.
In order to understand the current debate between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress you should understand that it has nothing to do with deficit reduction. If either party cared about deficit reduction, the proposals offered by the Simpson-Bowles commission would have already been adopted. Simply put the Democrats want to tax and spend more and the Republicans want to tax and spend less, but neither party has within them the courage to come up with the necessary combination of tax increases and spending cuts that over time would eliminate our current trillion dollar plus annual deficit.
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How the 'Buffett Rule' Helps the Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook April 11, 2012 Comment (14)David Brodwin is a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council.
This coming week Congress debates the "Buffett Rule" which would require Americans earning more than a million dollars per year to pay tax rates of at least 30 percent. Opponents claim that any tax increase undermines economic growth. Supporters stress equity and the impact on the federal deficit. Truth again lies buried under the polarized rhetoric. Far from discouraging investment, the Buffett Rule—and similar measures—will boost productivity and strengthen the economy.
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The Misconceptions About Where Our Tax Dollars Go
Tweet Share on Facebook April 11, 2012 CommentChad Stone is chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
With tax day fast approaching, it's worth remembering why we collect taxes. It's to pay for things we want government to do.
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The Wrong Debate Being Had Over Healthcare
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2012 Comment (1)Matthew Mitchell is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
As Supreme Court justices peppered lawyers with questions during the oral arguments last month, health industry stocks seemed to move with every Supreme utterance. They were down on Tuesday when it appeared that moderate justices might not allow the government to force people to buy insurance. But they were back up on Wednesday when it appeared that these same justices might overturn the entire law, saving insurance companies a number of other costs. These fluctuations make it clear that it isn't just political capital riding on the case. A lot of private capital is at stake too.
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Low-Wage Jobs to Blame for Slow Economic Recovery
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2012 Comment (1)Eileen Appelbaum is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Slower-than-expected employment growth in March 2012 has brought the halting pace of economic recovery into sharp focus again. Nearly three years since the recession officially ended in June of 2009, 12.7 million people are still out of work and unable to find a job—a figure that rises to 22.8 million if workers who have given up looking but still want to work and those employed part-time because of the poor economy are included. Demand for goods and services has been slow to recover—consumer spending has been hampered by a loss of housing wealth, continued high unemployment, and economic insecurity while government spending has been hamstrung by political infighting in Washington. The job growth that has occurred has been largely concentrated in very low wage occupations. Economic theory—and common sense—tells us that high unemployment will persist until demand picks up. Businesses are not going to increase the pace at which they hire workers until the pace of spending increases.
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Is the U.S. Economy in Recovery?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2012 Comment (4)Joseph Mason is the Moyse/LBA Chair of Banking at the Ourso School of Business at Louisiana State University and a senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Minutes of the most recent Federal Reserve meetings released last week revealed a growing bias toward reducing or eliminating stimulus; yet, job numbers released the same week were all over the map. The market declined on the news. And as corporate earnings season begins, results are expected to be weak.
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How to Bring Back American Prosperity
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2012 Comment (7)Robert Luddy is a member of the North Carolina Leadership Team for the Job Creators Alliance, a nonprofit committed to the defense of the free enterprise system. He is also president and founder of CaptiveAire Systems, Inc.
America is an exceptional country because it was established as the freest country in the history of the world with a Constitution, Bill of Rights, and respect for the rule of law. Our traditions developed from this founding included hard work and a can-do attitude, which allowed America to become the most prosperous country in the world by barely 65 years after its founding.
