Daily Archives: May 14, 2012

You might expect that a law criminalizing syringe use in connection with illegal drugs would help keep those harmful drugs off North Carolina streets. Robert Childs, executive director of the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition, argues that the law instead has negative unintended consequences. Childs made a case for syringe decriminalization during a presentation today toContinue Reading

The Kauffman Foundation has done an extensive survey of the degree to which states (and regions of states and localities) are or are not friendly toward small business. Overall, North Carolina gets a grade of C+. Plenty of room for improvement. The Metro Charlotte area is rated the best area for small business, while eastern NCContinue Reading

The turmoil at the North Carolina Democratic Party attracts national attention from Politico. The Republican Governors Association makes a major TV advertising buy to attack Democratic gubernatorial nominee Walter Dalton. Fern Shubert, a former state senator and House member who did not win enough support to reach the GOP runoff election for state auditor, endorsesContinue Reading

Those who remember John Hood’s January 2011 National Affairs article documenting state governments’ disturbing levels of unfunded liabilities might be interested to read a new Bloomherg Businessweek article. It explains how some state and local governments across the country hope to address their debt problems … by borrowing money. While borrowing money to pay offContinue Reading

France’s recent presidential election of Socialist Francois Hollande sent a bad signal about the country’s willingness to accept the reality of the nation’s fiscal woes. But the latest Bloomberg Businessweek explains that the picture might be a little brighter than one might expect — largely because Hollande will ignore much of his campaign rhetoric. He’sContinue Reading

The latest TIME explores the likelihood of nations around the globe pursuing hydraulic fracturing — fracking — for natural gas in shale. Those who’ve not yet considered North Carolina’s potential benefits from fracking might want to check out Daniel Fine’s recent presentation to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society.

As more and more people are beginning to recognize the evidence of a higher education bubble in the United States, Thomas G. Donlan‘s latest Barron’s column suggests a cause: government intervention. “Inserting federal-government credit into higher education has been one of the more popular and less effective programs of the post-World War II era,” DonlanContinue Reading

As you watch ads and hear commentary in the days and weeks ahead about the Obama administration’s success in boosting the American economy out of the depths of the Great Recession, you might want to consider the following assessment from Barron’s “Economic Beat” columnist Gene Esptein: By next month, following the end of the GreatContinue Reading