Marketplace of Ideas

Marketplace of Ideas

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The environment minister of Northern Ireland ‘has banned British government TV ads on climate change and denounced their energy-saving message as “insidious propaganda”’…Columbia Business School economist Charles Calomiris argues that ‘the main story of the subprime crisis…is one of government “errors of commission”’…Democratic Senator John Kerry says that ‘our NATO allies have to shoulder a bigger burden’ in Afghanistan…Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik ‘has emerged as a secret investor in Setanta, the pay-television company’…Will the new bank bailout plan work?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Insurance giant UnitedHealth ‘is testing a new model of healthcare that many policy experts say holds great promise but has yet to prove itself’…The Irish economy ‘has been hit by the global credit crunch, a burst property bubble, and collapsing tax revenues’…What will the Obama administration’s new initiative really mean for executive pay? Iraq’s recent provincial elections ‘were an enormous success’…Sweden is rethinking nuclear power…

Monday, February 9, 2009

World Bank senior economist David McKenzie says that ‘microfinance is not targeting the microentrepreneurs with the highest returns’…Troubled insurance giant AIG may not renew its sponsorship deal with English soccer powerhouse Manchester United…Harvard economist Ed Glaeser criticizes the GOP’s mortgage plan…Will the District of Columbia become a de facto 51st state? Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation beggars belief …

Friday, February 6, 2009

Timothy Garton Ash argues that ‘the key to a benign long-term evolution in a divided Moscow lies in a change of policy in Berlin’…The European Union is upset about the ‘Buy American’ plank in the economic stimulus package…Tom Daschle’s recent tax transgressions ‘fit into a larger pattern of behavior’…Bruce Springsteen is mad at Ticketmaster…What is medical tourism?

Thursday, February 5, 2009

‘It is hard to believe that we will have more efficient outcomes if Congress starts dictating rules for executive pay, putting limits on compensation and eliminating bonus plans,’ argues economist Thomas Cooley, dean of NYU’s Stern School of Business…The Democrats’ stimulus plan ‘is about politics and power, not sound economics,’ says former GOP House majority leader Dick Armey…The United States may lose an important air base in Central Asia…Economic protectionism is counterproductive…What is ‘the meaning of Sarah Palin’?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

According to a new financial risk model created by The Banker magazine of London, ‘Moldova, Chile, Bolivia and Peru are less likely to be affected by the current financial crisis than the U.S., U.K. or Japan’…Harvard economist Martin Feldstein makes ‘the case for a fiscal stimulus’…Somali piracy ‘is a cause of falls in tuna catches in the Indian Ocean’…What is the connection between DNA and political beliefs? Turkey is disillusioned with the West…

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The founder and CEO of computer giant Dell ‘also controls ValleyCrest, the largest landscape design, construction and maintenance company in the United States’…Economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian argue that ‘New Deal labor and industrial policies prolonged the Depression by seven years’…The economic stimulus package passed by House Democrats would mark a setback for free trade…Andrew Rosenfield outlines ‘5 steps to fix the banks’…What is ‘the optimum size of government’?

Monday, February 2, 2009

Con Coughlin notes that ‘China’s financial muscle has become an important factor in the West’s attempts to bring a degree of stability to the turbulent financial markets’. . . When it comes to foreign aid, ‘America should stop pouring billions into bureaucracies’ and instead focus on ‘bottom-up entrepreneurship’ . . . The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting against the ‘Buy American’ provision of the Democrats’ economic stimulus plan. . . IQ tests do not tell us everything about mental ability. . . New York City is facing a massive budget gap. . .

Friday, January 30, 2009

Former Labor Department chief economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth says that ‘SCHIP is the first congressional skirmish in what will no doubt be a multiyear ideological war over the government’s role in health care’…Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald argues that ‘American generosity is under fire’…Massive street protests in France are ‘causing disruption to rail and air services’…The government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continues to grow…How should we judge the economic policies of U.S. presidents?

Thursday, January 29, 2009

In a setback to anti-malaria efforts, ‘the parasite that causes the deadliest form of malaria is showing the first signs of resistance to the best new drug against it’…Economist Arnold Kling says that the Democrats’ stimulus plan ‘is an enormous Galbraithian transfer from the private sector to the public sector’…Prior to the financial crash, Iceland had become ‘a gigantic hedge fund sitting in the middle of the North Atlantic’…A weak U.S. dollar tends to be associated with weak presidents…Are we headed for high inflation?