Publications

In a few weeks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will hold a town hall meeting to examine the public policy issues involved in “online behavioral advertising.

No, but it does need to be better understood.

For the fourth time in nine years Congress is again struggling with whether taxes that discriminate against electronic commerce should be allowed.

Congress is back and you know what that means: Time once again for the Democrats to push to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) — a little over $80,000 a year for a family of four.

There has been some complaining lately about the business models of the wireless companies—mostly driven by those who want to own an Apple iPhone, but who don’t want to be tied to AT&T as a service provider.

Back in California, things are heating up between the big-spending Republican governor, who wants a massive new health care program that will cost taxpayers an estimated $12 billion to get “universal health care,” and the big-spending Democrat-controlled legislature that wants to require employers to spend at least 7.

Reed Hundt never got around to smothering the wireless industry with regulations while he was chairman of the FCC, and the wireless industry thrived as a result.

We’re hearing a lot about “moral hazard” in the news these days.

What’s the harm of a little college fun? All-night cross-country drives for Spring Break, campus pranks, Saturdays spent dressed in college garb cheering on the team, and rampant theft of music via illegal downloading…where’s the harm? Few seem to stop and consider the moral dimension of illegally downloading (stealing) music and often rationalize their behavior believing that “no one gets hurt.

“Piracy” of recorded music costs the U.S. sound recording industries billions of dollars in lost revenue and profits. These losses, however, represent only a fraction of the impact of recorded music piracy on the U.S. economy as a whole. Combining the latest data on worldwide piracy of recorded music with multipliers from a well established U.S. government model, this study concludes that recorded music piracy costs American workers significant losses in jobs and earnings, and governments substantial lost tax revenue.