EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing on February 7, 2023, titled Unleashing American Energy, Lowering Energy Costs, and Strengthening Supply Chains. During this hearing, the committee discussed 17 proposed bills. Several bills aim to remediate shortages and high prices by addressing the importance of American energy by creating waivers to … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Regulation
Trump’s Overtime Protection Rule: A Smart Rule for Workers
The Trump Administration’s Overtime Protection Rule In March of 2019, the Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to update and extended eligibility for overtime pay for employees that do not perform managerial, executive, or administrative taks. The proposed rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees, mandates … Continue reading
Economic Freedom Series: Why Do I need a Prescription for Contact Lenses?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Drug Administration (FDA) have infringed upon my economic liberties. Collectively, these government bodies created an inefficient marketplace that burdens contact lens retailers and consumers. In hopes of curtailing market power granted to contact lens prescribers by FDA regulation, the FTC designed the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumer Act … Continue reading
Economic Freedom Series: Why Economic Freedom is Important
Economic freedom gives individuals the ability to pursue self-wants in the most efficient way possible—via the market. Many laws and regulations, in the name of consumer protections or marketplace fairness, take away our fundamental right of economic freedom. Continue reading
The FCC’s Disregard for Property Rights
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has seemed to make its mission of late to trample over property rights in the name of “public interest.” Nowhere is this propensity more clear than in its recent moves on net neutrality and the blocking of Wi-Fi by private entities. In the coming days, the FCC will probably designate … Continue reading
Can Oil and Gas, Government, and Environmentalists Work Together?
It must be frustrating for President Obama when his policies make no one happy. Recently the administration announced plans to regulate methane emissions, and while the oil and gas industry grumbled about new regulations and added costs, environmental groups complained the new measures don’t go far enough. Is it possible for policymakers to appease environmental … Continue reading
Economy / Regulation / Tax / Taxes
U.S. Businesses Dodging Taxes? IRS Pulls Reins Tighter
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a Notice (Notice 2014-52) last Monday that would further their efforts to prevent U.S. companies from using an increasingly prevalent tactic known as inversion to lower their tax bill. Conventionally, an inversion is a negotiation in which a U.S. multinational company restructures with a foreign … Continue reading
The Hazards of Increased Fuel Standards
Attempts to increase fuel efficiency could end up being a greater burden than benefit for the majority of car owners. A major policy objective for the Obama administration is increased fuel efficiency, and in the past five years, several ambitious regulations have been approved which require that car manufactures produce vehicles with greater fuel efficiency. An American … Continue reading
Volcker and The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Enforcing Ineffective Regulation Since 2013?
One fundamental principle of financial markets is the relationship between risk and return. This tenet is reflected in the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the workhorse of security pricing, where the return required by investors is measured by adding the risk free rate (such as a treasury bond) to a market risk premium, adjusted for … Continue reading
HUD’s Latest Proposal Brings Moral Hazard into Rental Housing
The 2008 Financial crisis was a costly lesson in the dangers that come with subsidizing risk. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are well recognized as the principal creators of moral hazard by reimbursing investors that held mortgage-backed securities when homeowners failed to make payments on their mortgages. Yet only five years after the worst of … Continue reading
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