Credit Card Lending to Sub-Prime Customers Climbs 41 Percent in One Year

Credit card issuers are once again aggressively pursuing sub-prime customers. The National Consumer...
Insurance

Ag Bill Would Create Another Crop Insurance Entitlement

The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved a five-year, $480 billion farm bill that creates a...
Insurance
| R.J. Lehmann

Credit Ratings in Capital Regulation—Are They Really Going Away?

Almost two years ago, on the heels of—if not still amidst—the worst financial crisis since the...
Insurance

Student Loan Debt Tops $1 Trillion; Some Want Loan Forgiveness

As Congress debates whether to extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate on federal student...
Insurance
| Steve Stanek

The Cost of Radical ‘Densification’ in California Housing

My April 9 commentary in The Wall Street Journal (“California Declares War on Suburbia”) outlined...
Insurance
| Wendell Cox

Moral Hazard Worries Delay Mortgage Write-Down Decision

Probably few mortgage borrowers know who Ed DeMarco is, yet millions of them collectively could...
Insurance
| Steve Stanek
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Education

Wednesday's School Reform News Roundup

A Missouri bill expanding charter schools goes to the governor. Michigan school districts need legislative relief from exorbitant retiree costs and benefits, editorializes the Detroit News. University of Oregon Dean of Education Yong Zhao calls Common Core the new No Child Left Behind, saying it will narrow the curriculum and waste billions. Time Magazine on the new prospects for vocational ed....

Fiscal

Michigan Law Ends Stealth Unionization of Home Caregivers

Michigan’s 60,000 home health care aides are no longer deemed government employees—meaning they cannot be forced into a government employee union and have dues withheld—as a result of legislation signed in April by Gov. Rick Snyder (R). The next step is for the Michigan Department of Community Health to stop the collecting dues from Medicaid payments intended to assist developmentally disabled...

California Voters to Have Say Over Cigarette Tax Hike Measure

California citizens will soon vote on whether to raise the state’s cigarette tax from 87 cents to $1.87 a pack, with supporters saying the money would fund cancer research and opponents saying there’s no guarantee how the money would be used, or where. The June 5 ballot measure known as Proposition 29 and more formally as the California Cancer Research Act has retailers and taxpayer advocates...

Georgia Simplifies Business Sales Taxes, Sees More Investment

Georgia is already seeing benefits from a tax reform bill Gov. Nathan Deal (R) signed into law in April. The new law provides a comprehensive modernization and streamlining of sales tax exemptions for businesses, particularly the mining, manufacturing, and agricultural industries. Deal said two big investments in Georgia can be attributed to this rationalization of sales taxes on business inputs...

Health

Bobby Jindal on Repeal and Replace

Once the United States Supreme Court reminds our constitutional lawyer professor-turned-President of the existence of the Tenth Amendment and the limits of the Commerce Clause, thereby repealing Obamacare, the natural question becomes, what’s next?  All of the problems that existed before President Obama, then-Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid forced through a bill to...

After Obamacare, What Does the Future Hold for Massachusetts’ Health Care Law?

Given the continuing unpopularity of the Affordable Care Act and the possibility of the Supreme Court ruling it unconstitutional later this year, some see an opportunity to do away with the health care reform legislation in Massachusetts that inspired the ACA. Given the state’s politics, though, such an effort will be much more difficult than the campaign to undermine the ACA. In 2006, Republican...

Consumer Power Report: How Much Can Consumer Directed Plans Save?

How much could shifting to consumer directed health plans save? A great deal, according to this new study by RAND researchers, published in Health Affairs: Enrollment is increasing in consumer-directed health insurance plans, which feature high deductibles and a personal health care savings account. We project that an increase in market share of these plans--from the current level of 13 percent...

Tech

Industry Groups Testify on HD Must-Carry Rules

The American Cable Association and the National Association of Broadcasters are asking the Federal Communications Commission to reexamine the agency’s rules regarding broadcast carriage and retransmission rules for high-definition telecasts. Both organizations testified before the FCC in March. The ACA urged the FCC to continue the agency’s “must-carry” mandate that requires cable operators to...

Michigan Legislature Lifts Caps on Cyber-Schools

In the fall of 2011 the state of Michigan opened its first two cyber charter schools—the only ones allowed by state law. In less than a year the waiting list had grown to 10,000 applicants because of limits on enrollment. Now some of those waiting students may get their chance. Senate Bill 619, “Repeal Restrictions on Public ‘Cyber-Schools,’” passed in the state Senate and was approved by the...

Finance & Insurance

Credit Card Lending to Sub-Prime Customers Climbs 41 Percent in One Year

Credit card issuers are once again aggressively pursuing sub-prime customers. The National Consumer Credit Trends Report from credit-reporting firm Equifax shows that lending to sub-prime borrowers rose 41 percent in 2011 compared to year-ago levels. In addition, 1.1 million new bank cards were issued last year to sub-prime borrowers, a four-year high. The growth in the sub-prime category was...

Ag Bill Would Create Another Crop Insurance Entitlement

The Senate Agriculture Committee has approved a five-year, $480 billion farm bill that creates a new entitlement for federal insurance to cover farmers’ “shallow” losses of revenue. The current farm bill expires in September. The new bill would repeal direct payments to farmers, ACRE (average crop revenue election) payments, and countercyclical payments. Overall, the Congressional Budget Office...

Credit Ratings in Capital Regulation—Are They Really Going Away?

Almost two years ago, on the heels of—if not still amidst—the worst financial crisis since the early 1930s, President Barack Obama signed the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010” (Dodd-Frank) into law. Given the long-repeated chain of failed legislative and regulatory responses to previous crises, one might well wonder whether this massive 848-page piece of legislation helps...

Environment

Media Claims Antarctic Ice Crisis, Yet Ice Continues to Grow

Reuters and other media outlets are publishing claims this morning that global warming is threatening Antarctic ice shelves. The rash of media stories perfectly illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of each side in the global warming debate. Computer models, programmed by global warming alarmists to assume that carbon dioxide causes substantial global warming, keep predicting rapidly warming...

Climate Change Weekly: New York Times Misrepresents Global Warming Surveys

The New York Times on April 30 published a news article that leads off with the assertion, “polls say 97 percent of working climate scientists now see global warming as a serious risk.” No such poll exists, but don’t expect the New York Times to make a correction any time soon. The only poll that resembles the Times’ assertion was an online survey in which only 79 respondents listed themselves as...

Alaska Attorney General Stands Up Against EPA

Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty has written a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promising the state will employ “all available legal options” if the federal agency blocks development of Pebble Mine, a gold and copper mine opposed by environmental activist groups.  Activists claim the mine will diminish water quality in nearby Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska....