Health insurance: employers want to attract healthy employees, avoid sick
With the current regulations … a rational employer has strong incentives to find every legal way possible to attract employees who are healthy and avoid those who are sick Continue reading
What Is Middle Class?
A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Proctor & Gamble was no longer marketing to the middle class but instead has a two-tier marketing strategy (if you don’t have a subscription, you can get the gist of the article here). This has led to all kinds of discussion by the chattering […]
Fordham’s Checker Finn: School Districts Ready to Go the Way of Horse & Buggy
Fordham Institute president Checker Finn asks the provocative question: Are local school district boards and the 19th century governance structure they represent about ready to wither away and disappear? The Education Policy Center has raised the issue before, saying we need more local control by students and parents. Could such a change be in Colorado’s future?
It’s Here!!! “The Original Constitution: What it Actually Said and Meant” — All New 2nd Edition!
My book, The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant is—believe it or not—the first book EVER to explain the legal force of the entire U.S. Constitution as it stood in December, 1791, right after adoption of the Bill of Rights. There have been many books surveying parts of the Constitution, or purporting to […]
Abound Solar's connections to $400 million
This column appeared originally on Townhall Finance. Crony capitalism Abound: anatomy of a taxpayer-guaranteed loan By Amy Oliver Cooke By now it’s obvious that the Solyndra scandal never should have happened. It’s not even a case of Monday morning quarterbacking. A number of people involved could see the disaster coming. There is a larger principle […]
Former Education Policy Center Intern Makes Splash on School Choice Week Blog
Little Eddie finally has a run for his money. What do I mean? In lieu of diving into another deep topic on a Friday, instead let’s take a look at the school reform blogging debut of a recent Education Policy Center intern, Devan Crean. Writing on the School Choice Week blog, she asks the ever-important […]
Misusing the Post Office and Necessary and Proper Clauses to Justify the Federal Monster State
One way apologists for the modern federal monster state attempt to justify it constitutionally is to argue that the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18) is an “elastic clause” conferring vast “implied” power on Congress. Actually, as Constitution’s advocates during the ratification battles made clear, the Necessary and Proper Clause grants […]
Boulder's ballot measures won't stop global warming
Bummer for Boulder — the city’s ballot measures likely won’t have any impact on global warming. Supporters of 2B and 2C hope that they can reduce the city’s carbon emissions and thus help save the planet by establishing a municipal utility that generates power from a combination of renewables and natural gas. But these efforts […]
High-Speed Rail Is Still Dead (and Let’s Keep It That Way)
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend a token $100 million on high-speed rail after its own transportation subcommittee had zeroed out funding for the program. The purpose, said a rail advocate with US PIRG, is “to keep things on life support until Congress comes to its senses.” The only way Congress will “come to […]
Is It Really Time to Re-think Education Reform Focus on The Achievement Gap?
What’s going on in the world of education reform? Every once in awhile, even a precocious 5-year-old like myself can benefit from stepping back to try to get a better look at the big picture. With a penetrating eye and a nuanced approach, the prolific Rick Hess takes on one of K-12 reformers’ sacred cows–the […]
Boulder's Utopian Utility Effect
Utopian Utility Effect (UUE): a romanticized perception that a group, such as a municipality, can provide reliable, reasonably priced, global warming-friendly electricity more efficiently than its current power provider. Specifically for supporters of 2B and 2C, Boulder’s ballot measures to form its own utility, UUE seems to mean, “a local energy utility can reduce our carbon […]
Here We Go Again
Density is good. That’s the message from Ryan Avent, a writer for The Economist, whose new ebook, The Gated City, received a boost from a promotional op ed in the New York Times. Density, according to Avent, makes people wealthier, happier, and more productive. The data he uses to support these ideas, however, are suspect. […]
