To back up a bit, it recently emerged that over a period of four years a DMV key data operator slept at her desk for extended periods instead of working. This unnamed DMV drone duly kept her job. While she …
Dozy DMV Wants More Dollars
In the state capital of Sacramento, a man named Tyré Nichols went online, secured all his paperwork, and arrived promptly at the Department of Motor Vehicles expecting to be in and out in two hours. Despite his preparation and punctuality, …
Paying at the Pump
On a recent road trip, this writer learned that in Oregon it is “against the law to pump your own gasoline,” as the designated pumper put it. What penalty a motorist would incur for daring to pump her or his …
Open Up Off-Label Drug Communication and Let the Market Work!
The Food and Drug Administration determines which drugs can be prescribed in the United States. However, the FDA does not tell physicians how to prescribe drugs. When physicians prescribe drugs for uses other than their FDA-approved use, they engage in …
Time to Stop Taxpayer Funding for Sports Stadiums
Barry Ritholtz is a bottom-line kind of guy. Best known as an influential blogger whose popularity earned him a slot writing articles at Bloomberg, the investment adviser recently weighed in on a topic near and dear to me: the sheer …
How to Better Control the Growth of Medicare Spending
With the looming retirement of America’s baby boom generation, the growth of spending needed to support the Medicare spending program is set to explode over the next 30 years. In its 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook, the Congressional Budget Office projected …
Political Capitalism
I’ve just published a book, Political Capitalism: How Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained, with Cambridge University Press. The book, aimed primarily at an academic audience, lays out a theoretical foundation for understanding why cronyism and corruption are …
Won’t You Be My Neighbor Chronicles the Life of One of the Good Guys
Fred Rogers (1928 – 2003) became an iconic symbol of the “do-good” vision of PBS during his long run as creator, star, and producer of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. For many critics, the show was simplistic and naive, whitewashing harsh realities …
Two Worlds—Politics and Everything Else
I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Even after I’d earned my Ph.D. degree, my dad used to look at me with a twinkle in his eye and tell me, “Son, the trouble with you is that you don’t …
Three Reasons To Be Optimistic about Pharmaceutical Policy
To say the U.S. pharmaceutical market is highly regulated is an understatement. According to the RegData database developed by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing industry as of 2014 had approximately 10,000 more restrictions …
California Parents Need Educational Choices, Not Court Battles
California fancies itself as a progressive paradise for the disadvantaged and the downtrodden. In reality, it’s more like Dante’s eighth circle of hell, based on a recent lawsuit filed on behalf of several public school students and taxpayers. The lawsuit, Ella …
Do California’s Homeless Need a New Cabinet-Level Position?
For all but the willfully blind, the homeless problem is out of control across California, particularly in San Francisco. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor and current candidate for governor, has a plan to fix it. Newsom …
