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Think Tanking
Rick Santorum: More trouble in Tehran
- As U.S. and Iraqi officials released new evidence this week of Iran’s training, funding and arming of terrorists in Iraq, Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami said in a Friday prayer broadcast on state radio: “If maniacs in Washington or Tel Aviv seek to take [military] action, the Iranian nation will slap them so hard they will not get off the floor.”
Ben Lieberman: High gas prices: Fuel for thought
- When it comes to soaring gasoline prices, we need a federal government that does less. Less contributing to the problem, that is. As lawmakers and presidential candidates offer a number of proposals to lower pump prices, they should keep in mind that past laws and regulations have made matters worse. Washington ought to eliminate these mistakes rather than repeat them. We need fewer restrictions on domestic oil drilling. America remains the only oil-producing nation on Earth that has placed off-limits a substantial amount of its energy potential. ... We also need less regulatory red tape affecting refineries and gasoline supplies. Though the jump in oil prices is far and away the biggest culprit in the recent price rise, tight refinery capacity doesn’t help. It would be worthwhile to streamline the regulations that make it all but impossible to build a new refinery and more difficult and time-consuming to expand an existing one. Simplifying or eliminating the federal requirements that dictate the recipe (actually a dozen different recipes) for fuel also would help. ...
Robert McMahon: Americans not asked to make energy sacrifices
- Each uptick in prices at U.S. gasoline pumps seems to heighten the importance of energy as an election-year issue. Polls reflect widespread concerns about hardship caused by rising gas prices. On a broader scale, a new report by the Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index found surging worries about the implications of the cost of energy for foreign policy. ...
Will Marshall: Take feds’ big entitlement programs off of autopilot
- The U.S. Treasury recently reported that the federal deficit will hit a record high of $311 billion for the first half of the fiscal year, thanks in part to plunging corporate profits and revenues. The report was greeted with stifled yawns by official Washington.
Tom Whalen, Dennis Carlton, Ken Heyer, Oliver Richard: A solution for airport delays
- In brief, we advocate a market-based approach to the allocation of scarce takeoff and landing rights at airports where the demand for those rights at a zero price exceeds the ability of the airport to handle that many takeoffs and landings during some time period. … Our preferred method to allocate scarce airport capacity is to auction slots for landings and takeoffs by time of day and to convey upon their purchasers well-defined property rights. Unlike access pricing, which may require the airport authority to continuously adjust prices, slot auctions require only that the airport authority set at the outset the total number of takeoffs and landings the airport can accommodate in each time period under normal weather conditions. This approach plays to the strengths of airport authorities and the FAA, who have far greater expertise in determining an airport’s capacity than they do at setting prices. The slots should then be auctioned off through a market-based bidding process where each airline decides how much it would be willing to pay for each slot. The prices obtained for slots would reflect the degree of scarcity of capacity. The price could be close to zero at times of the day when capacity is great relative to demand. Price will be highest during periods when demand is at its greatest. Property rights would be awarded to the highest bidders, as long as acquisitions do not anti-competitively enhance market power. Prohibiting airlines from scheduling flights at times
Steven A. Morrison and Clifford Winston: Allowing foreign airliner would benefit everyone
- This fall the United States will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 — and the nation does have reason to celebrate because airline deregulation has benefited both travelers and carriers. Among the most important benefits: Fares have fallen significantly, flight frequency has increased and carriers have become more efficient. Moreover, these benefits have been realized while air travel safety continues to improve. However, it would be misleading to conclude that the industry’s adjustment to deregulation — and the extent of deregulation — is complete. Airline industry earnings have fluctuated greatly since deregulation and the industry has yet to earn a normal rate of return on invested capital on a consistent basis. …
J. Brian Atwood: Get rid of unbalanced war powers
- In my opinion, the War Powers Resolution enacted in 1973 has failed to re-create balance in our system. I share the view of many legal scholars that the resolution’s design is contrary to the intent of the Constitution in that it concedes that presidents may initiate a war without prior congressional approval.
Ruy Teixeira: Middle-class Americans have fear of falling
- Americans are notably sour about the economy today.
Michelle Bussenius
- With no end to the war in sight, Iraq has become a major issue in the U.S. presidential race.
Iain Murray: Abandoning use of fossil fuel would cripple U.S. economy
- Calls for America to become “energy independent” come from across the political spectrum. Among the most important energy-security advocates are conservatives concerned about national security. To make America less “dependent” on energy purchases from unstable regimes, they have proposed a variety of measures aimed at reducing the use of oil.
Lee Hudson Teslik
- For consumers and businesses in the United States and Europe, bubbling inflation and rising oil prices bring varying degrees of hardship. ... Elsewhere in the world, these factors threaten more existential consequences.
Douglas Elmendorf: Tackling the mortgage mess
- Designing effective policy responses to the housing and mortgage problems is not easy. In particular, it is neither feasible nor appropriate for the government to ensure that all homeowners, regardless of their mortgages or overall financial situations, are able to stay in their homes.
Lee Hollaar: Intellectual property needs safeguards
- The latest version of H.R. 1201, ill-fittingly named the “Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship” (FAIR USE) Act, is Rep. Rick Boucher’s (D-Va.) newest attempt to unravel the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Supreme Court’s unanimous Grokster decision and recent U.S. trade treaties in a single piece of legislation, says a new publication released today by the Institute for Policy Innovation.