Weekly Update

TES Weekly Brief: Oh what a lovely mess!

Editor’s Note: Completely bizarre is the new normal   After centuries of mostly sensible democratic self-government, with only the occasional beheading or religious purge, the UK is flailing into uncharted territory following last week’s Parliamentary rebellion against Prime Minister Boris Johnson over his plans to take the country into a “no-deal” Brexit.   Before being […]

Top Page Links

Don’t freak out over vaping, say UK docs

                    While U.S. regulators and public health officials have declared war on vaping, seemingly unmoved by its potential utility for harm reduction as an alternative to smoking, their British counterparts are considerably more sanguine, judging by their response to panicked reports of a handful of deaths […]

Top Page Links

She’s baaaack: Vestager returns, more powerful than ever

                      Executives at Facebook, Google, Apple and other Big Tech firms would probably be happy to never again hear the name of Margrethe Vestager, the Danish competition supremo at the European Commission, who won fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view) as the […]

Top Page Links

Rolling back EPA methane leak rules rewards bad actors

                        The Trump administration’s move to roll back Obama-era regulations on methane leakage will not only harm the environment — they will do nothing to boost American energy production and will produce negligible savings for industry, while rewarding companies that defied the rules, according […]

Top Page Links

WASHINGTON BEYOND THE HEADLINES: Pig Book Roots Out Govt Waste

  By Andy Blom, TES Contributor     The Media is breathlessly watching for war with Iran, the President announces his campaign for re-election, Joe Biden goes unapologetically racist and Congress continues to be ineffective. Meanwhile, free market conservatives continue to work on legislation, policy initiatives and practical approaches. Here’s a roundup of this week’s […]

Top Page Links

Bringing science back to environmental protection

Unlike the fever swamp of politics, science has a nice way of looping in things like facts and evidence on occasion, which is great because it makes it easier for people to analyze and understand what is going on, maybe sometimes at least. On that note the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken a big […]

Top Page Links

Swiss on wrong track with early retirement

    Like many developed countries, Switzerland is facing a long-term demographic crunch that threatens to contract the labor market and undermine social pension funding. So it’s a little surprising that the Swiss Federal Council is considering a proposal that would effectively allow older workers to retire seven years earlier than currently, at the age […]

Top Page Links

Current UK prudential regulation “bound to fail”

    Tired of talking about Brexit? Don’t worry, we can talk about the “rot at the heart of the banking system” instead! The Adam Smith Institute has a new white paper outlining the continuing vulnerabilities of the British financial system, which are due in large part to misguided and counterproductive financial regulations, and suggesting […]

Top Page Links

Approve tax treaties to fight double taxation

    Simmer down kids! “Pool rules,” as some readers may remember from the halcyon summer days of childhood, are the basic safety protocols everyone has to follow in order to allow everyone to enjoy the pool: no running, no diving, and especially no horseplay. As governments around the world clamp down on tax avoidance […]