Publications

Don’t look now, but common sense is breaking out all over Capitol Hill.

This PDF contains a new addendum to the original score of the IPI/Ferrara Progressive Personal Account Plan for Social Security reform, detailing the transition financing costs. This score was performed by Stephen Goss, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration.

If ever a market or an industry has undergone a revolution in ten years time, it is telecommunications. If ever a legislature should consider dramatically deregulating an industry, this is the time in telecommuncations. As the states have opportunity to revisit the missions of their respective Public Utility Commissions, they should seriously consider restricting the ability of the Commissions to regulate telecommunications.

Legislators need to be prudent stewards of taxpayer dollars, but they must also ensure that vulnerable populations receive appropriate care. This Desktop Reference will help state legislators identify effective actions that may save the state money without reducing access to needed medicines.

El código de fuente abierta no es necesariamente la mejor forma de desarrollar software. Aunque puede tener una función muy importante en los ambientes especializados de computación, no aplica al mercado masivo de software. Los proponentes del código de fuente abierta son derechos adquiridos que han sustituido el mito por la realidad. Las personas que dictan la política no deberían asumir de una manera equivocada que este proceso esencialmente derivado es un sustituto para la innovación.

Open source is not necessarily the best way to develop software. While it may fill a useful role in specialized computing environments, open source does not translate to the mass market for software. Proponents of open source are vested interests who have substituted myth for reality. Policy makers should not mistakenly assume that this essentially derivative process is any substitute for innovation.

A fonte aberta não é necessariamente a melhor forma de desenvolvimento de software. Embora possa ter um papel útil em ambientes de computação especializada, não tem aplicação no mercado de massa de software. Os proponentes da fonte aberta, obedecendo interesses próprios, substituíram a realidade pelo mito. Os responsáveis pelo estabelecimento de políticas não devem assumir de modo errôneo que esse processo, essencialmente derivado, possa ser um substituto da inovação.

Thanks to Sen. Lamar Alexander and a group of former Governors in the Senate, the states now have power to tax your access to the Internet. Sen. Alexander’s blocking move prevented the Senate from extending the Internet Tax Moratorium that has been standard public policy under both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

By asserting state primacy over telecommunications policy and e-commerce, Alexander and his allies are substituting their own twisted constitutional construction for the wisdom of the Founders.

In the past three years, the federal budget has exploded by more than one-half trillion dollars, under a Republican Congress and a Republican president. This paper presents a specific strategy for cutting programs and streamlining government. The benefits of a reduction in government size and modernization of government mission would be enormous—a windfall that would lower the tax burden and fund new, critical policy initiatives.

Some suggest that proposals for Social Security reform should be judged by the degree to which they require general revenue financing. But this flawed yardstick is biased against personal account plans, because it doesn't accurately measure transition costs, and doesn't account for the dramatically increased benefits of personal accounts. The only way to evaluate reform plans is to weigh all of the costs against all of the benefits.