Research

Free Press is asking the FCC to consider a number of changes to the NPRM Net Neutrality regulations which they claim will “promote investment”. But once we examine their proposal in detail, we find that it will produce just the opposite and devastate the U.S. economy. Not only would Free Press preclude broadband providers from innovative new business models and economic opportunities, they would substantially undermine their existing business models and revenue streams (more)

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released its Quarterly Banking Profile (QBP) for year-end 2009. Things have never been worse for the banking system: bad loans (loans that are 90 days or more past due) account for 5.37% of all loans and leases, an all-time record; net charge-offs (NCOs) – losses taken on bad loans – totaled $53.0 billion, or 2.89% (annualized), in the fourth quarter which is also the highest rate ever recorded in (more)

Impose and enforce the strongest sanctions. The U.S. should push other concerned countries to enforce targeted sanctions on the Iranian regime and its internal security organs; ban all foreign investment, loans and credits, subsidized trade, and refined petroleum exports to Iran; and deny visas to its officials (more)

Across the United States, policymakers are increasingly adopting education policies that give families the power to choose their children’s schools. Nonetheless, the idea of providing school vouchers to allow children to attend private schools remains controversial (more)

Eminent domain jumped to the fore of America’s political consciousness on June 23, 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the City of New London, Connecticut’s decision to condemn several parcels of privately held property using eminent domain. At issue in Kelo v. City of New London was a comprehensive redevelopment plan designed to support a new research facility of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. (more)

NTIA reports that this paper confirms that a sizable portion of Americans are still using Internet connections classified as narrowband (less than 200 kilobits per second) or do not have any access to the Internet (more)

In 2004, the congressionally mandated Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack released an unclassified executive report on its broader study of the U.S.’s vulnerability to EMP weapons strikes (more)

From the beginning of the national health care debate, President Obama made major Medicaid expansion–already a rapidly growing entitlement–a core element of his health policy agenda. Fortunately, results of this approach already exist from the state of Tennessee (more)

Over the past three decades, collaborative arrangements between academic biomedical researchers and private industry have grown dramatically, resulting in medical innovations that have benefited society greatly. However, a growing chorus of criticism directed at private companies that sponsor and conduct biomedical research casts doubt on the very ethos of science (more)

CNet’s Marguerite Reardon reports that the FCC is citing cost as a major barrier to broadband adoption, and Wall Street Journal’s Amy Schatz reports something similar (FCC report here). The FCC is citing the $41/month average broadband cost as an obstacle, but broadband plans start as low as $15/month (more)

Last week, President Obama celebrated the one-year anniversary of the signing of the stimulus bill with a ceremony in the Executive Office Building. He acknowledged that implementation of the stimulus had not been “perfect” but took particular pride in the efficiency of the stimulus spending given “the scope, the magnitude of this thing” (more)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on a tour of Latin America with the intention of shoring up flagging ties with U.S. partners in the region. During her five-day, six-nation trip, the Secretary should enlist key players–notably Brazil–in a campaign to convince Iran’s leaders to abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions (more)

The debate surrounding the massive health care system overhaul that has been raging in Washington leaves one thing clear: Redesigning roughly one-seventh of the economy is no simple task. The massive 2,000 page health care reform bills recently passed by both houses of Congress—currently languishing in Scott Brown limbo—represent an ambitious effort to reorder the [...] (more)

If a country like Greece is allowed to default, how could a similar fate be avoided in Spain, Portugal, or even Ireland given their budget deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios (more)

The Federal Reserve’s actions to stabilize financial markets and the U.S. economy during the recent credit crisis created a mountain of excess reserves owned by banks and held at the Fed. If released into the economy too quickly, these excess reserves would trigger a burst of inflation forcing the Fed to raise the Fed funds rate quickly and likely triggering yet another recession (more)

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act could be considered an excellent piece of legislation–if, that is, the goal of the legislation was to ensure massive Social Security deficits without creating a single new job. Yet another attempt by the federal government to coerce companies into hiring more workers, the HIRE Act also signals two fundamental and likely permanent shifts to the Social Security system (more)

Hoping to revive his increasingly unpopular health care overhaul, President Obama has invited Republicans to a bipartisan summit this Thursday and plans to introduce a new reform blueprint in advance of the summit. On Sunday, the White House announced that a key feature of that blueprint will be premium caps, a form of government price control that helped kill the Clinton health plan when even New Democrats rejected it. (more)

Abstinence education is back in the headlines, prompted by a new study that shows such intervention can reduce teen sexual activity in the long term. (more)

Given the role played by the financial sector in the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the case for reform of the financial sector is strong. The Obama Administration has proposed that a key element of reform should be the creation of a new and independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  (more)