September 28, 2012
Ohio voters once again enjoy the opportunity to make a huge policy change through this year’s Issue 2 on the general election ballot. In the last general election, Issue 2 was a nationally watched referendum repealing a controversial law passed by the General Assembly that made changes in Ohio’s collective bargaining laws for government employees. [...]
September 28, 2012
Our friends at the Consumer Federation of America have issued yet another shocking new study. This one shows something that’s truly nefarious: that auto insurers use things like credit score, employment, and coverage history in determining rates. Furthermore, the CFA’s crack researchers also determined that consumers preferred that auto insurers not use these factors. The [...]
September 25, 2012
The above video includes R Street Associate Fellow Peter Cramton, professor of economics at the University of Maryland and one of the nation’s foremost experts in auction theory, testifying before a Sept. 11 hearing of the U.S. House Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Healthcare and Technology on “Medicare’s Durable Medical Equipment Competitive Bidding Program: How [...]
September 21, 2012
When I was engaged full-time in law enforcement, I was once searching a house pursuant to a federal warrant. While I was looking for evidence of the federal crime we had probable cause to believe had been committed, I came across a child’s school essay entitled “Responsibility.” I had an immediate strong sensation that a [...]
September 20, 2012
Government overreach into the broadband market has recently become increasingly popular in the Sunshine State. According to a recent report from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), cities, counties and states around the country have poured millions of dollars into government-owned broadband networks (GONs), which not only are often a waste of taxpayer money but also [...]
September 20, 2012
The battle lines are being drawn in Austin over public pensions in anticipation of a budgetary fight during Texas’ next legislative session. At last week’s hearing of the House Pensions and Investments Committee, lawmakers debated the effect of shifting public workers’ benefits from a guaranteed monthly plan to a 401(k) type system. The Teacher Retirement [...]
September 14, 2012
“Proposals’ goal: avoid insolvency” was the kicker under the headline last week in the Columbus Dispatch reporting that representatives of all five of Ohio’s public pension systems had signed off on reforms passed this week by the Ohio General Assembly. Our state Senate had passed the reform package before the summer break, sponsored by the [...]
September 14, 2012
During the first hearing of Texas’ Joint Seacoast Territory Insurance Committee earlier this week, three different insurance-related agencies unequivocally told lawmakers the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association was not actuarially sound. While this was not news to anyone in the room, it was noteworthy to see the utter frustration of officials in determining how best to [...]
September 13, 2012
The video features the Sept. 12 seminar on small business access to capital hosted by The Hill, and featuring talks by Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., as well as a panel discussion of a paper authored by Eli Lehrer and published this week jointly by R Street and the Small Business [...]
September 13, 2012
A few days back, Florida’s troubled Citizens Property Insurance Corp. announced a plan to “depopulate” its book of business through a program of loans to well-capitalized insurers. On its surface, this idea has a few merits. Depopulation of a residual market is intrinsically useful. Among other things, its easy for Florida’s Legislature, insurance commissioner and [...]
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