Publications

For over two years, the federal government has been pursuing antitrust action against Microsoft. Much heated debate has surrounded the case, most of it revolving around legal issues. But the broader ramifications for risk assessment, investor confidence and the general economy have been largely ignored.

The cloud hanging over Microsoft has already done serious damage to the economy. This IPI Issue Brief attempts to quantify the extent of the economic damage already done to the economy by the government's action against Microsoft.

The information economy forces us to throw out some old, outdated ideas (such as the Phillips curve, antitrust regimes, etc.) and consider new ideas for public policy, according to economist Michael Cox of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, journalist James K. Glassman, and Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Dick Armey (R-TX). IPI Center for Technology Freedom Director Bartlett Cleland moderated the event.

The March 2000 issue of IPI's newsletter, IPI Insights. Articles include "A Balanced View of the Debt," by Jude Wanniski, "A Penny Saved is a Penny Taxed," by Stephen J. Entin, and "Entering a Digital Decision: The Old Economy Wrestles with the New," by Bartlett Cleland. Available at this time in Adobe Acrobat PDF format only.

Ronald Reagan characterized politicians’ natural predisposition as, “if it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; and if it stops moving, subsidize it.” The Reagan dictum still holds, it seems, even if “it” moves in data packets at the speed of light. Today politicians at virtually every level of government are looking for ways to tax the Internet.

The Internet has quickly become the defining element of the last decade of the 20th Cen-tury.
Whether the Internet continues to be the driving force behind the economy, educa-tion
and even culture in the next century depends to a large extent on what policies,
regulations and taxes —if any —Congress and the states impose on the new medium.

While deciding not to tax the Internet raises several problems, so does imposing a tax.
How will businesses ensure the privacy of purchasers? Would government keep a record
of those purchases? Would an Internet sales tax slow the growth in e-commerce, and
would e-tailers flee U.S. shores in order to avoid the tax?

IPI's quarterly review and commentary of economic data, this issue covering the 4th quarter of 1999. This issue focuses on comparing the current and now-longest economic expansion in history with the second-longest--the 1960s. The current recovery is compared with the 1960s by a number of criteria. The conclusion is that the current recovery, while longer, has still not packed the punch of the recovery of the 1960s. And the current tax burden, much higher than that of the 1960s, is one factor that could potentially sink this current economic expansion.

The December 1999 issue of IPI Insights. Special Education Issue. Articles by Lawrence Hunter, R.J. Smith, Dennis Avery. 800+ Kb

IPI's annual joint project with the Lexington Institute. This year's report on 10 of the worst regulations of the federal government features environmental and other regulations where the combination of bad science and big government results in regulatory madness that needlessly infringes on the freedom of American citizens and corporations. These regulations also place enormous financial burdens on the U.S. economy.

Economic analysis and commentary based on data from third quarter of 1999. Budget surpluses have again far exceeded the projections of government forecasters, and again, the federal government has failed to return even a portion of these excess taxes to the private sector, where productivity takes place. This issue also discusses revisions to the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA) that reclassify computer equipment and government pensions.

The September 1999 issue of IPI Insights. Special Education Issue. Articles by Stephen Moore, Georege Pieler, Michael J. Patrilli and Greg Vanourek.