Tax & Finance

Getting a Grip on Eyepopping Waste in Federal Pandemic Spending

    By William Yeatman, Cato Institute   All told, Congress has authorized about $5.9 trillion in spending to address the social and economic fallout from the pandemic, of which $4.1 trillion has been disbursed or committed through the present, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s “COVID Money Tracker.” By now, more than […]

Tech

Why waiving intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines is wrong

    By Philip Stevens, Geneva Network   Last week the United States unexpectedly announced that it would join India, South Africa and others in supporting a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines.   In theory, this would free up other companies to make copies of proprietary vaccines […]

Society

Zooming to class? Experimental study provides evidence on college students’ online learning during COVID-19

By The Institute of Labor Economics   During the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools and universities had to pivot to online learning.  However, there is little research on the causal effects of online learning compared to in-person instruction because most colleges and school districts choose to go either all in-person or online, or a hybrid for […]

Health

CDC Should Collect More Data, Not Less

  By Erik Sass   Combating any disease requires accurate and consistent epidemiologic data to guide the public health and medical community. For most conditions affecting Americans – heart disease, cancer, diabetes, HIV, hepatitis, infant and maternal mortality – we carefully measure case rates, hospitalizations, deaths, and disease trends to guide clinical and public health […]

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Washington Beyond the Headlines: Incompetence Alert

  By Andy Blom, TES Correspondent   Who would have guessed the Biden Administration would be more fraught with drama than the Trump Admin? But the border is in chaos, the pandemic in indecision, inflation running amok (try to buy lumber), lines at the gas pump as prices rise and Congress caught in overreach roadblock. […]

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Minimum Wage in a Complex Scenario

By LyD (Libertad y Desarrollo, Chile) The Chilean labor market has been deeply impacted by the pandemic and the quarantines decreed, which has led to a combined rate of unemployment and potential workforce (SU3) of 21.3% in the quarter January-March of this year. Added to this substantial imbalance is that 26.7% of those employed are […]

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Housing Bubble Stems from Exorbitant Deficits: Feds Need to Attract Investment, Not Debt

  By Paz Gomez, Frontier Centre For Public Policy   The macro effects of government stimuli to address COVID-19 lockdowns are starting to emerge. In Canada, they have taken the form of an overheating housing market. With mortgage rates plunging to historic lows, the demand for residential real estate is driving prices through the roof.    […]

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Waiving TRIPS Will Not Solve Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccine

    By Edward Longe, American Consumer Institute     The COVID-19 pandemic has, among other things, highlighted the need for global cooperation during a public health crisis. Recognizing this need, 100 developing countries, led by South Africa and India, requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) waive provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property […]

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A joint declaration on the importance of IPRs to Covid vaccine manufacturing scale-up and future pandemic preparedness

      From the Geneva Network   We are an informal coalition of civil society organisations that believes that continued collaboration between governments, international organisations, the private sector, and civil society is the fastest way to end the Covid-19 pandemic and kickstart stalled economic growth. Respect for intellectual property rights is key and will […]

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An Appalling Theft

  By Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute   The Biden administration made “the single worst presidential economic decision since Nixon’s wage-and-price controls,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in a lead editorial last week. And we agree.   U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. would agree to “waive” intellectual property rights to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and encourage other […]