05 | February | 2013

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Image Credit: Congressional Budget Office; AEI

Pethokoukis, Economics, Taxes and Spending

The CBO, the national debt, and Edmund Burke

James Pethokoukis | February 5, 2013, 6:15 pm

Looking at the new 10-year budget forecast from the Congressional Budget Office brought to mind this quote from Edmund Burke: “Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and … read more >

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Burma. Image Credit: State.gov

Foreign and Defense Policy

Around the world with Hillary Clinton

Danielle Pletka | February 5, 2013, 4:21 pm

Last week, my phone rang off the hook with reporters calling to populate their thumb-sucking Hillary legacy stories with insta-quotes. Most of the calls started out with the requisite sigh, and followed with this question: “So, what did Hillary Clinton … read more >

Photo credit: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)/Flickr

Foreign and Defense Policy, International Organizations

Regulatory failures undermine tuberculosis treatments

Julissa Milligan | February 5, 2013, 2:37 pm

Will regulatory failures in the developing world make current tuberculosis treatments ineffective? In a New York Times op-ed, Roger Bate reveals the results of our study assessing the quality of anti-tuberculosis drugs from 17 low- and middle-income countries – and … read more >

Carpe Diem

Interactive chart of the day: Case-Shiller Home Price Index

Mark J. Perry | February 5, 2013, 2:28 pm

Learn About Tableau This interactive Tableau chart by Tim Ellis of Seattle Bubble shows how home prices have fared in major U.S. cities through November 2012. Select a city name to add a new market, and use the year slider … read more >

Carpe Diem

Don’t buy into the 21st century Luddite fear of robots

Mark J. Perry | February 5, 2013, 2:10 pm

“Some experts now believe that computers and robots will take over much of the work performed by humans, raising critical concerns about the future of jobs,” frets MLive business writer Rick Haglund, in his article titled ”Will we live in a world ruled by robots … read more >

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Society and Culture, Education

The DC Opportunity Scholarship Program had a 162% rate of return on investment

Michael McShane | February 5, 2013, 2:09 pm

Dr. Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas and I recently published a cost-benefit analysis of the DC opportunity scholarship in the peer-reviewed journal Education Finance and Policy. The takeaway, as we noted in the National Review Online: The District … read more >

Foreign and Defense Policy

BRICS want to fight tuberculosis

Roger Bate | February 5, 2013, 1:20 pm

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Geeta Anand and Betsy Mckay explained how the health authorities in the rapidly developing BRICS nations have agreed to work together to fight tuberculosis. The BRICS–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa–account for about 60% … read more >

Image Credit: Brave New Films (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Foreign and Defense Policy, Latin America

Kerry pledges to press for democracy and anti-drug cooperation from Venezuela

Roger Noriega | February 5, 2013, 12:54 pm

Secretary of State John Kerry has told the US Senate that the United States will insist that “any new elections [in Venezuela] should be democratic, constitutional, peaceful, and transparent and must respect the universal human rights of the Venezuelan people.” … read more >

Carpe Diem

Peak oil? Shale oil and gas proved the optimists to be correct

Mark J. Perry | February 5, 2013, 12:08 pm

Some excerpts from an editorial in today’s New York Times by Christof Ruhl, chief economist of BP: Only two or three years ago, consensus was building among pundits that we had reached peak oil, that the fossil fuel industry was … read more >

Image Credit: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Economics, Pethokoukis

Does the US economy really need supersized megabanks?

James Pethokoukis | February 5, 2013, 11:58 am

The bipartisan movement to break up America’s biggest banks and end the Too Big To Fail phenomenon has slowly, glacially gained momentum. Financial reform represents a classic public choice issue where the benefits of the status quo are concentrated and … read more >