New York State has suffered one of the worst COVID outcomes in the country, with roughly 53,000 officially recorded deaths, thousands of businesses shuttered, and millions newly unemployed. But new reporting reveals that Governor Andrew Cuomo pocketed more than $5 million during this time of crisis. “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s publisher is scheduled to … Continue reading How Andrew Cuomo Pocketed $5 Million Off the COVID Crisis
I testified before the Senate on hospital consolidation. As my co‐panelist and Carnegie‐Mellon health economist Martin Gaynor testified, “the majority of hospital markets are highly concentrated, and many areas of the country are dominated by one or two large hospital systems with no close competitors.” According to one study, “90 percent of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) were highly … Continue reading Testimony: Excessive Government Reduces Competition in Health Care Markets
Lumber prices have gone through the roof over the past year—up 370%. The lumber needed to build a new home now costs nearly $36,000 more than just 12 months ago. The reasons include lower production levels at U.S. sawmills when the pandemic was raging, high demand for new homes as millennials enter the peak homebuying age group, and … Continue reading Tariffs on Canadian Softwood Lumber Hitting US Homebuyers Hard
One dysfunctional federal welfare program is contributing to a national labor shortage. Now, we can add Texas to the increasingly long list of states opting out. The program in question is the federal government’s pandemic expansion of unemployment benefits. At the start of the crisis, Congress expanded benefits to new categories of workers and added … Continue reading Texas Just Became the Latest State to Opt Out of a Broken Federal Welfare Scheme
Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on May 5 struck down the nationwide ban on evictions from rental properties put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine days later, though, after negative media coverage, she decided to leave the CDC’s … Continue reading Judge Rightly Finds COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Unlawful, Then Stays Ruling Anyway
Laura Smalarz, Arizona State University On the strength of six eyewitnesses’ lineup identifications, Lydell Grant was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the murder of a young Texas man, Aaron Scheerhoorn, who was stabbed to death outside a Houston nightclub in 2010. All six of those eyewitnesses were wrong. Thanks to the work … Continue reading 6 eyewitnesses misidentified a murderer – here’s what went wrong in the lineup
A couple months ago, in arguing that “The Fed should give everyone a bank account,” journalist Matt Yglesias cited what he took to be an instructive precedent: “Once upon a time, governments didn’t issue paper currency, and instead banknotes were printed privately by banks. But over time, we came to see this as a worthwhile public service.” His first sentence … Continue reading How U.S. Government Paper Currency Began, and How Private Banknotes Ended
A group of scammers in New York City allegedly ripped off millions from the state’s super-charged pandemic welfare system. They were busted after (rather foolishly) posting pictures of themselves with massive money stacks on social media and now face prosecution. “A group of young men is accused of ripping off $2 million in COVID-19 relief … Continue reading NYC Suspects Busted in Multi-Million-Dollar COVID Welfare Scam After Posing with Money Stacks on Social Media
If Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., continue to have their way, families across the U.S. will pay more in taxes so that millionaires in California can write off a new Tesla. Sound fair? Team Biden thinks so. Included within the White House’s $2.3 trillion “infrastructure” plan—which is dense … Continue reading So-Called Infrastructure Plan Would Federalize California’s Climate Mandates
In 2015, Hawaii made history, becoming the first US state to mandate a full transition to renewable energy. The legislation, signed into law by Gov. David Ige, mandated that state utilities generate 100 percent of electricity sales from renewable fuels by 2045. Green energy publications noted that the move positioned Hawaii as “a pioneer in … Continue reading Hawaii Is Replacing Its Last Coal Plant With a ‘Giant Battery’—Powered by Oil
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