Last week a United Nations conference convened in Monterrey, Mexico, to discuss the need to sharply increase foreign aid. However, more foreign aid may not be the answer. Indeed, says Bruce Bartlett of the National Centre for Policy Analysis, a strong case can be made that foreign aid has been
For some years, liberal groups in America like ACORN (Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now) have pushed hard to get so-called living wage laws enacted in cities and counties throughout the country. More than 60 jurisdictions have done so since the first in Baltimore in 1994.
Typically, living wage
Is the logjam of union power and labour inflexibility breaking at last? The Skills Development and Employment Equity Acts are upon us.
Steadily improving digital technologies have set up a confrontation between producers of copyrighted materials and the purchasers of such items as CDs and videos. Some accuse the entertainment industry of going behind the backs of their consumers and trying to pass legislation that would trample the rights of those who
Despite scepticism about both the stock market boom of the 1990s and the influence of technological innovation, Martin Baily and Robert Lawrence believe that the new economy is real. The researchers claim that there has been a structural acceleration of total factor productivity (TFP), caused by innovation in information technology
Just after the Second World War, the per capita poverty of Russians, Japanese and South Africans (as a whole) was much the same. Japan then had a half-century of astonishing growth while Russian communism and South African apartheid demonstrated the damage caused by protectionist command and control.
By 1994 per capita
By deciding to smoke in spite of the health hazards they face, smokers demonstrate a willingness to take more risks than non-smokers. This characteristic is not limited to smoking. Smokers are apparently also willing to bear more risks in other aspects of their lives. For example, they take more hazardous
Is the logjam of union power and labour inflexibility breaking at last? The Skills Development and Employment Equity Acts are upon us. The Labour Relations, Basic Conditions of Employment, and Insolvency Acts have been ‘fine-tuned to improve investor perceptions of the efficiency and flexibility of our labour market’, says labour
At some point in the year 2000, the proportion of workers employed by large American companies those having 500 or more workers probably passed the 50 percent mark, according to U.S. Small Business Administration data.
In 1999, big companies employed 49.7 percent of the 111 million U.S. workers
America’s job-based system of health-care coverage is under serious strain. The costs of employer-paid premiums are escalating dramatically. Workers are losing their coverage along with their jobs. Health-care services become more expensive year by year.
Consequently, alternative systems are being suggested and debated.
On one side are conservatives who want to
