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Quixotic: Spain leads Europe in meaningless bureaucracy for small biz

                          Courtesy of Civismo      Spain is the country in which small businesses must spend the most hours dealing with bureaucracy. This is the takeaway from a new international comparison, Bureaucracy Index 2019, for which several European think tanks, including Civismo, calculated […]

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South Africa’s mining industry in danger

                    By Eustace Davie, courtesy Libre Afrique and Contrepoints     The South African Parliament needs to review the legislation and regulations governing the mining industry. Indeed, this legal framework does not respect the Constitution and is responsible for the uncertainty that hangs over the South […]

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U.S.-Japan trade deal is all about propping up American farmers

                    “Implications of the Japan – United States Mini Trade Agreement” By Sybrand Brekelmans and Uri Dadush, courtesy of the Bruegel Institute     On 25th of September,  President Trump and Prime Minister Abe concluded a partial trade-agreement whose main provisions are to reduce Japan’s tariffs on […]

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Argentina needs major structural reform to prosper

                Courtesy of Libertad y Progreso, via Xinhua     Argentina needs to carry out a series of structural reforms, including in labor and tax matters, to return to the path of economic growth, according to an Argentine economist interviewed on Wednesday.     Natalia Motyl, an analyst […]

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California’s AB5 will kill gig economy

                        New regulation, higher costs, more taxes — that’s how you foster innovation and encourage economic growth, right? Oh right, that’s how you do that other, “killing it off” thing. Well, California’s legislators have embraced the first view, and in their wisdom passed AB5, […]

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Deja vu, all over again

      By Emilio Ocampo, Board Member, Libertad y Progreso (original) Déjà vu, groundhog day, a nagging feeling that you have already experienced the present. These are expressions everybody seems to be using these days to describe the current Argentine crisis. Below is some confirmatory evidence that Yogi Berra’s most quoted aphorism is always applicable in […]

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Carbon Taxes Will Never Be Enough

                  By Hayden Ludwig, Capital Research Center     There’s a pervasive myth among “eco-cons”—conservatives who accept the theory of global warming—that we can tax our way out of a climate crisis. The myth goes like this: the Earth is getting dangerously warm and humanity is to […]

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Greater price transparency will reduce medical costs

                    Price transparency is an obvious driver of effective market dynamics: the more buyers and sellers know about the actual cost factors underlying the prices of competing products and services, the better equipped they will be to compare their relative value (or lack thereof) and make […]

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SE Asian countries need to focus on knowledge economy

                        A global crossroads boasting young, tech-savvy populations and far-flung trade connections, Southeast Asia is well positioned to become an economic hub. But to do this national governments must first lay the groundwork by embracing policies designed to foster innovation and the knowledge economy, […]