In April 1998, California initiated an ambitious programme to bring retail and wholesale competition to its electricity sector. Those pressing for sweeping changes believed the program would lead to lower consumer prices, a host of innovative retail services, improved performance from existing generating plants and massive investment in clean new
Total spending on prescription medicines rose 16 percent in the U.S. last year to $142 billion 10 percent of the Americas $1.42 trillion worth of health-care spending.
This year, Medicare patients are expected to pay more than $1,000 out of their pockets for prescriptions up from $813 in 2000.
To
Stock options are offered to chief executive officers and employees as a tool to align the interests of executives and investors. The current controversy surrounding stock options is whether or not companies should include options as an expense for accounting and tax purposes at the time that they are issued.
In a new U.S. study, researchers found numerous errors in utilising and administering medicines in hospitals and nursing homes. The rates are similar to those in other reports on drug errors, but the new study highlights a specific point in the process of getting a drug to a patient: “administering
Globally, the steel industry is in terrible shape. Economists largely blame the short-sightedness of industry executives and interventions by government policymakers.
The steel industry is plagued by over-capacity worldwide, yet steel prices are up sharply.
Even as production rises year-by-year in such regions as Russia, the European Union, Japan and
Globalisation has long been criticised for making the rich richer and the poor poorer, but a new study says that argument is misleading. Since per capita income measures don’t convey the significant improvements in life expectancy, education and the supply of food, they do not necessarily indicate quality of life.
World inequality is increasing. Thats one of the major claims of Greens, Reds and assorted anti-globalisation activists. Grassroots International is a typical example. The organisation has claimed that inequality, by any definition, has increased and the rich have become much richer as the ranks of the very poor have swelled
Government subsidies are keeping alive the wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy industries, but such government subsidies are based on erroneous economic projections, according to analysts. Despite polls offering strong public support for government-funded renewable energy, very few consumers will opt for it due to the high cost. Here’s why:
Equities have historically been a successful form of investment, earning 6 percent more than interest on cash investments and 5 percent more than bonds. However, this may not be the case in the future. Some analysts argue that demographic trends will lead to a weakening of equity returns.
Equity investments have
During the past decade, numerous countries have adopted “inflation targeting” as a framework for setting monetary policy. In nearly all cases, the authorities have established a target range for the rate of price inflation, usually between 2 and 3 percent. However, the rationale for choosing these numbers is often unclear.
According
