Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Spam subject lineHeartlesslibertarian Infomation you wanted
Posted by Chip on May 12, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Thursday, April 22, 2004
The good thing about online shoppingLow prices? Yeah, but that's a good thing not the good thing.
It's more choices. Virginia Postrel has the scoop.
Posted by Chip on April 22, 2004 [Link] [1 Comment]
It looks like price-control imports are coming
It's just a matter of time.
From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON, April 21 — A bipartisan group of senators announced Wednesday that they had reached agreement on a bill to allow imports of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada and some other countries.
The agreement adds momentum to the push for legislation this year. The measure faces a tough battle in Congress. But lawmakers said the question was no longer whether to ease the rules on drug imports, but how to ensure the safety of such products and how to prevent drug manufacturers from restricting the supply of medicines available for re-shipment to the United States.
If I read this correctly, the drug industry's current strategy of retricting exports would be verboten.
The bill would give the government sweeping new power to punish drug companies that hinder or thwart imports of prescription drugs. Such practices would be defined as violations of antitrust law.
For example, the bill says, a manufacturer could not charge higher prices or restrict the supply of drugs to a registered American importer.
This whole situation brings to mind a quote by Mencken:
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
UPDATE: I hope that TM Lutas is correct.
Posted by Chip on April 22, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Monday, April 19, 2004
End of the world -- notRemember how the world was going to end if Alabama didn't get it's huge tax increase?
Well, get a load of this:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Slow tax growth, a stagnant economy, staggering budget shortfalls - none of these conditions has kept governments from hiring at a steady clip in Alabama.
An Associated Press review of federal labor statistics shows the number of state and local government workers in Alabama has risen in 12 of the last 13 years, to a high of 308,400 employees last year.
Meanwhile, the total number of private, nonagricultural jobs in the state last year reached its lowest point since 1996.
...
The vast majority of the growth has come in city and county governments, whose employment rolls have grown nine straight years even though the state has assumed responsibility for paying thousands of teachers who once were locally funded.
Not counting education workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows city and county governments have added 9,400 employees since 2000, a 9.4 percent increase. In 2003, local governments accounted for two-thirds of the government jobs in Alabama.
The executive director of the Alabama League of Municipalities says that cities aren't hurting like the state government.
But I'm not sure the state is really ailing.
Even with those financial troubles, state government has managed to hire workers at a faster pace than revenue has grown.
While the state reports revenue growth of only 1.2 percent since 2000, it has added about 1,700 workers during that span, a 6 percent increase. Much of that rise comes from the teachers the state now pays for, but the number of noneducation workers also has grown - more than three times faster than revenue.
This situation kind of reminds me of this.
Posted by Chip on April 19, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
So, how do you prove you're 65?
From the Clarion-Ledger:
Mississippians who are 65 and older would be exempt from a new voter identification bill the House approved Tuesday.
Posted by Chip on April 19, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Everything not required is prohibitedI know you've already seen this, but I'm linking it anyway.
ARKANSAS CITY, Kansas, April 14 — It isn't losing the Japanese market for filet mignon that bothers Bill Fielding most. It's losing the market for tongue.
Until a case of mad cow disease was found in the United States on Dec. 23, a tongue from his premium cattle fetched $17 in Japan. American wholesalers pay $3.50.
Asian buyers also paid more for the company's prime beef, but the real money was in the spare parts, said Mr. Fielding, chief operating officer at Creekstone Farms, a high-end beef producer with an ultramodern plant here in the flat Kansas corn belt. Mexico snapped up his stomachs and Russians paid 30 cents a pound for liver that goes for 8 cents domestically.
But after Dec. 23, foreign countries shut their doors. Creekstone lost 25 percent of its sales, laid off 45 of its 750 workers and idled its plant one to two days a week.
Japanese buyers assured Mr. Fielding that they would buy again if he tested his beef for the disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
In response, he built a laboratory five feet from the overhead chain that carries skinned heads through the plant. His staff was trained in testing for mad cow, using a machine that gives results in seven hours, while the carcasses are still in the cooler.
But on April 9, the United States Department of Agriculture forbade Creekstone to test its cattle, saying there was "no scientific justification" for testing young steers like those Creekstone sells. Certifying some beef for Japan as disease-free, the department said, might confuse American consumers into thinking that untested beef was not safe.
Calling those arguments "ludicrous," Mr. Fielding has threatened to sue. He says he only wants the freedom to please a big, fussy customer, and he accuses the department of bending to the will of the big meat companies that control 80 percent of the industry.
Posted by Chip on April 18, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Friday, April 16, 2004
Just when you think you've seen it all...Kilt-Wearing Marine Plays Bagpipes in Iraq
Posted by Chip on April 16, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Monday, April 12, 2004
Influence over government
In a Washington Post column, Jeffrey Birnbaum explains why it is so hard to restrict who "lobbys" the government:
Thomas A. Scully didn't waste much time going into the influence game after he left the federal government.
He resigned as administrator of the Medicare program in December. By February he had signed up to assist the American Association for Homecare. One of the association's top priorities: reversing a restriction on subsidies for wheelchairs that the Medicare agency issued while Scully was still in charge.
That's as complete a spin through the revolving door as you're likely to see!
While such a turnabout may be unseemly, it isn't illegal. Scully is careful not to knock on the doors at any of his former stomping grounds; federal law prohibits former officials from direct lobbying for a year after leaving government. Scully stays one step removed -- offering guidance rather than personal intervention.
His method is a prime example of why it will be so hard to make lobbying laws tougher than they already are.
There all kinds of ways to influence government, most of which do not involve talking to policymakers directly. But only the direct contact is covered by lobbyist regulations.
That is why it is difficult impossible to limit the influence that certain people have on the government.
That is why, in my opinion, we need to limit the influence that government has on people.
Posted by Chip on April 12, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Always low pricesKevin Brancato of Truck and Barter has started a new blog, Always Low Prices, "devoted to the controversy surrounding the world's largest corporation."
He's looking for co-bloggers; details here.
Posted by Chip on April 10, 2004 [Link] [No Comments]
