Landslide! STOCK Act More Popular than Hepatitis
In what has been called a “legislative speed record,” the STOCK Act has been passed in both the Senate and House with 96-3 and 417-2 voting “yay” respectively after just two-and-a-half months of...
View ArticleProtesting the Cancellation of Freedom Watch?
I am a HUGE fan of Freedom Watch and Judge Napolitano's journalism and commentary. So I am bitterly disappointed that Fox Business chose to cancel it. My colleague Matt shares my disappointment.I have...
View ArticleFloridas Privatization Proposal Could Drive Innovation, Performance in...
As Florida grapples with a potential $2 billion budget shortfall, the debate over prison privatization shows just how hard it can be to reform government.The Senate is proposing to privatize most...
View ArticleFight Over Film Tax Credits Renewed in Colorado
This week the ongoing fight over film tax credits (or movie production incentives) was renewed in Colorado.State Reps. Nancy Todd (D-Aurora) and Tom Massey (R-Poncha Springs) sponsored House Joint...
View ArticlePortland Area City Does Unthinkable: Adapt to Market
Events in Beaverton City near Portland, Oregon would be unremarkable in most cities in the U.S.: Faced with property that has been undeveloped for 15 years, the city has approved rezoning that will...
View ArticleLA Times Misreports the Mortgage Settlement Story
The Los Angeles Times wrote a story last Thursday about the mortgage settlement. And it is seriously off base. We'll have a column on the settlement later this week, but first, let's clear up a few...
View ArticleGovernment Bureaucracy Is Sinking Port Deepening Projects
Most ports along the Eastern United States are seeking federal funds to permanently deepen their harbors so they can take advantage of the Panama Canal expansion that will double its capacity. Bigger...
View ArticleFollow the Swedes to Market-Based Taxi Deregulation
One of the most common objections I run into with respect to taxi deregulation is the concern that taxi drivers might have the audacity to charge different prices for different trips and customers. I...
View ArticlePicture This: Film Tax Credits Demonstrably Wasteful, Ineffective
Colorado Peak Politics Journalists assigned to the capitol beat must feel like they’re stuck in the film Groundhog Day. Many important political battles take years before they’re resolved. Sadly this...
View ArticleFederal Bureaucracy is Sinking Port Deepening Projects
When the deepening of the Panama Canal is complete in 2014, ships from Asia will be able to unload their cargo at Atlantic Ocean ports. Currently, electronics, clothing, and other products shipped from...
View ArticleWhat Happens When You Diss Your Biggest Energy Importer?
They send their product to China instead.Last November, Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper called approval of the Keystone pipeline a "no brainer." Much to his chagrin, President Obama chose to deny...
View ArticleReforming Local Government in Colorado Springs
After the Great Recession gut checked federal, state and local government budgets across the United States, many policymakers realized how vulnerable their budgets were to economic uncertainty....
View ArticleInnovators in ActionReforming Local Government in Colorado Springs
As is often documented here on Reason Foundation's Out of Control Policy blog, the Great Recession gut checked federal, state and local government budgets across the United States. Overspending finally...
View ArticleStates Spurning Film Tax Credits, CO Pursuing Them
Last week I wrote about how the fight over film tax credits resumed in Colorado in the form of House Bill 12-1286 sponsored by state Reps. Tom Massey (R-Poncha Springs) and Mark Ferrandino (D-Denver)....
View ArticlePresident's Transportation Budget Proposal in a Nutshell: Nuts.
It is pretty obvious that President Obama's team allocated about 10 minutes of thought, and that by a campaign staffer, on the transportation section of his budget proposal. Ken Orski, who writes at...
View ArticleOccupy the SEC
So as not to be remembered as mace-enticing defilers of public property, the more productive members of the “Occupy” movement have collaborated to produce the most comprehensive, coherent, and...
View ArticleMore on the President's 2013 Transportation Budget--Totally Politics and...
The Office of Management and Budget released the President’s 2013 budget for the Department of Transportation. Due to new agreements for Aviation and the President’s desire to adopt the Senate...
View ArticleThe Facts Behind the EPAs Latest Proposal
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put a regulation on the books that will cost $10 billion a year and will do almost nothing to accomplish its aim of improving public health. It is...
View ArticleA Robo-Signing Deal That Has Almost Nothing to Do with Robo-Signing
The landmark mortgage settlement signed last week is being framed as restitution for homeowners victimized by "robo-signing" bankers who contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. But out of the $26...
View ArticleCongress Reaches Compromise on Spectrum Auction
Congress has given the Federal Communcations Commission approval to auction television airwave licenses to wireless service providers, at last opening the way toward relief of growing congestion on...
View ArticleCrony Governmentism: Energy Edition
Not so sure this is crony capitalism as much as it is just straight up cronyism:Overall, the [Washington] Post found that $3.9 billion in federal grants and financing flowed to 21 companies backed by...
View ArticleAmicus Brief Filed With Supreme Court: Department of Health and Human...
This amicus brief was filed filed on behalf of Reason Foundation, the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Judicial Education Project, The Individual Rights Foundation, The Heritage Foundation,...
View ArticleMortgage Settlement Misses All the Points
Last week's landmark mortgage settlement signed last week is being framed as restitution for homeowners victimized by "robo-signing" bankers who contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. There are a...
View ArticleWhich is the "Do Nothing" Party?
Recently before Congress Treasury Secretary Geithner responded to a question from Rep. Paul Ryan saying, "You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say 'we have a definitive solution to...
View ArticleGovernment Workers vs. Taxpayers
President Obama's proposed 2013 budget includes plans to add 2,400 new federal government workers. This, on the heels of the more than 200,000 government workers added during the Great Recession. Once...
View ArticleConverting HOV Lanes to Managed Lanes Decreases Travel Time and Increases...
Converting high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV) lanes to managed lanes decreases commute times and increases the quality of transit service. This cost-effective transportation solution has proven...
View ArticleEPA's Fuzzy Math
In my opinion piece yesterday I argued that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is using fuzzy math to justify massive regulations:MATS claims to target one pollutant but draws all of its...
View ArticleSome Perspective on the Path Mini Technopanic
"Normal People Don't Care." That's how blogger Matt Roseff at Business Insider rather accurately sizes up the flap over the news that the Path smartphone social network app uploads address book...
View ArticlePrison Privatization Failure in Florida Shows Clout of Union
The failure of a signature privatization effort for Florida Gov. Rick Scott earlier this week was a telling sign of the continued clout of unions in the policy marking process. Gov. Scott and his...
View ArticleSome Clarity on the Spectrum Crunch
CNN Money began a weeklong series today about the reality and implications of the growing demand for wireless spectrum.Congress took a big step toward addressing the issue last week when it authorized...
View ArticleHow Does HUD Secretary Donovan Misunderstand So Much About Housing?
“Does this $26 billion deal move the needle on the struggling U.S. housing market at all?” This was the question asked by Ali Velshi to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan last week in an interview last week...
View ArticleEntitling Professional Sports Through Taxpayer Subsidies
The Sacramento Kings owners are apparently relenting to political pressure and agreeing to "significantly contribute" to the financing of the new sports arena the city is planning to build for them....
View ArticleBernanke and You: Charting His Control
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke is largely responsible for the 1 percent interest rates under Greenspan in 2003-2004 that contributed to the housing bubble, and Bernanke is absolutely...
View ArticleThe Coming Greek Default
Over at Reason.com this afternoon, I have a new column on the Greek debt crisis. Last year we looked at the numbers on the blog and came to the conclusion that no matter what happens, Greece is going...
View ArticleHow Justice Broke Down in the Mortgage Settlement
Following on the commentary we published last week calling out the politically oriented nature of the mortgage settlement between state attorneys general and the top five mortgage servicers, I had an...
View ArticleChina's Highway Network Now Larger than U.S. Interstate System
Most of the media coverage of China’s infrastructure has focused on the country’s aggressive high-speed rail expansion plans. However, it is in highways where China is making the biggest news. As first...
View ArticleWhen Greece Defaults
Reason.com The second round bailout of Greek debt is just delaying the inevitable—Greece is going to default.As details have emerged on the European Central Bank, European Financial Stability Facility,...
View ArticlePoll Finds Americans Want Keystone Pipeline
A new poll by Pew Research found that for people who have heard about the Keystone pipeline, 66% want the government to approve it, with only 23% saying it should not.Republicans were more likely to...
View ArticleThe Concise Case for a Consumption Tax
John Tamny’s RealClearMarkets column yesterday looked at questions regarding the American tax code, the reasons for our high deficit, and the nature of the income tax. He concludes:But as history has...
View ArticleShould We Double Down on Clean Energy?
In his State of the Union address, President Obama promised to "double down on a clean energy industry that's never been more promising." This was made all the more clear last week when the President...
View ArticleCompetition Could Lower Costs of Prison Healthcare in Arizona
The Republic's coverage of the current correctional healthcare privatization effort offered an incomplete and unbalanced view of this marketplace ("Arizona prisons in health-care quandary," 2/17)....
View ArticleWhy is Europe So Delusional on Greece?
Earlier this week I noted that Europe was trying to buy time with this bailout package offer. Here are a couple of more clarifying explanations for why the EU’s economic ministers are lying to us about...
View ArticleUS Department of Transportation Secretary Should Know Something About...
In 2009, President Obama shocked the transportation world by choosing Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation. President Obama chose the Republican House member from Illinois for his Washington...
View ArticleToll Road Forecasts Come Under Scrutiny in Virginia
An important discussion is taking place in Northern Viriginia over the veracity of traffic and revenue forecasts for the Dulles Tollroad. The forecasts are critical for this corridor because higher...
View ArticleA Highly Unjust Mortgage Settlement
RealClearMarkets It's a tale of political extortion Hollywood couldn't write and one your neighborhood association wouldn't believe: Three families buy identical homes all on the same block in the...
View ArticleMore Details on Bank's Limited Contribution to the $26 Billion Settlement
It has been more than two weeks since the robo-signing settlement was reached and there still is no detailed document of the agreement available for review or any paperwork filed with a court. That has...
View ArticleFlawed Fed Predictions
We will, admittedly, put this one in the “not saying anything new” category, but Ben Steil’s WSJ op-ed from last weak bears highlighting. It features the sentence of the year so far: "In short, the...
View ArticleCalifornia is Barking Up the Wrong Tree with Pet Groomer Licensing Bill
Earlier this month, I wrote about a proposed bill in California to require state licensing for pet groomers. The legislation, SB 969, would impose fees on would-be groomers, require applicants to pass...
View ArticleFHFA Puts the U.S. Rental Market in Crosshairs
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has decided to go forward with a pilot program for turning government owned homes into rental properties. The program announced today was widely anticipated, but is...
View ArticleFlorida Correctional Healthcare Reform in Jeopardy
There’s widespread agreement that the American criminal justice system is broken. While organizations across the political spectrum advocate for reforms to reduce correctional spending and recidivism,...
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