The Kyoto Protocol for the reduction of greenhouse gases to avoid climate change was unachievable when it was adopted in 1997, according to distinguished economist Thomas Schelling, and more recent negotiations and modifications to the treaty have done nothing to change that. Since the U.S. Senate, prior to the Kyoto
Creative jobs in science, art, media, research and technology now dominate the U.S. economy, and according to Richard Florida, professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon university, they will change where people work and live. In his new book, “the rise of the creative class” (basic books), he explains
U.S. Justice Department statistics reveal that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 were rearrested for at least one new, serious crime within three years 5 percentage points higher than among prisoners released in 1983.
The recidivism rate for motor vehicle theft was 79 percent, 77
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)has estimated that health, safety and environmental regulations cost up to $229 billion annually. But professors Thomas Hopkins of the Rochester Institute of Technology and Mark Crain of George Mason University say regulatory costs are more like $840 billion if economic regulations and
Across the USA, a shortage of American-made vaccines has been disrupting the normal schedule of inoculations for 8 of the 11 preventable childhood diseases since last year. No outbreaks have been attributable to the inconsistent supplies, and enough vaccine has been available for the crucial first doses. But doctors say
Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) have become the dominant form of health insurance in the United States, based largely on the promise of controlling the cost of care through cleverly designed systems of incentives. Critics of HMOs are concerned that financial incentives cause physicians to alter their treatment at the expense
Faced with revenue shortfalls, many of the American state governors are turning to tax increases. But when they tried this during the economic downturn of the early 1990s, the states that raised taxes to balance their budgets dug deeper financial holes.
Tax hiking states lost businesses and taxpayers, prolonging the recession
A Bush administration report to the U.S. Congress today says that welfare reforms enacted in 1996 have helped lower Americas poverty rate.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services study:
Four years after the reform law was enacted in 1996, 5.1 million fewer Americans were dependent on welfare
Screening relatives of people with high cholesterol levels is the most cost effective way to reduce deaths from coronary heart disease, yet no recommended screening strategy currently exists in the United Kingdom, according to researchers in this week’s British Medical Journal.
High cholesterol that runs in families is known as familial
Protectionist trade policies initiated by the Bush administration are causing Canadian officials deep concern. Ottawa has become sufficiently frustrated that it has authorised 20 million Canadian dollars (US$13 million) for a public relations campaign in the U.S. to combat the trend.
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect
