By Andrew Lautz, National Taxpayers Union Last month, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a “Principles for Drug Pricing Reform” document that outlines how the Senator, who chairs one of the most powerful committees in Congress, would like to address prescription drug costs this year. While the document is sparse on details, […]
By Steve Pociask, American Consumer Institute To retitle the familiar song by Prince, it now appears the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is going to “party like it’s 1914.” The well-known consumer welfare standard – the principle that has focused antitrust enforcement onto whether consumers are harmed – is getting shelved by the […]
By Caroline Wang, American Consumer Institute President Biden has focused his efforts on making broadband internet access more affordable to Americans. It is a part of the American Jobs Plan he announced late March, a wide-ranging stimulus plan that forms a key component of the Administration’s post-Covid recovery efforts. The plan, […]
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 […]
By Will Yepez, National Taxpayers Union Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Angus King (I-ME) recently introduced the Broadband Reform and Investment to Drive Growth in the Economy (BRIDGE) Act of 2021 (S. 2071). This well-intentioned legislation would provide $40 billion in funding to states, Tribal governments, U.S. territories, and […]
By Selena Zito, Heartland John F. Kerry, the special presidential envoy for climate, said only months ago that those losing fossil fuel jobs in coal and hydraulic fracturing will find they have a better choice of jobs either in the solar industry or as wind turbine technicians. That was then. Now, a wind […]
By Eben McDonald, Contrepoints As Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland show, it is not necessarily social spending and redistribution that raises the level of the poorest. The Social Democrats often praise the Nordic countries as examples of the success of progressive taxes, generous welfare states and powerful unions. Free trade advocates […]
By Edward Longe, American Consumer Institute In an era of deep political divisions, no issue unifies Republicans and Democrats quite like punishing big tech. In the last twelve months, Senate Democrats and Republicans have released their own punitive proposals to reform America’s antitrust law. Additionally, Democrats in the House of Representatives just published […]
By Will Yepez, National Taxpayers Union House Democrats are planning to introduce five pieces of antitrust legislation in the coming days. One such proposal is a radical “Glass-Steagall” style legislation aimed at forcing structural separation policies that would harm consumers and disrupt the economy. Contrary to its mission, the proposed legislation would have […]
By Ryan Bourne, Cato Institute In both his Cato paper and then an article for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, UC San Diego economist Jeff Clemens delineated the full range of ways any business might adjust to a minimum wage hike. Most empirical research has focused on whether firms cut jobs or […]