Recent Policy Studies

• Budget & Taxation
  

  Rhetoric and Reality: Pension Benefits for Retired Massachusetts State Workers

  By James G. Bohn, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research
  
  White Paper, 08/06/2010
  

  The pension system for Massachusetts state workers and retirees has recently received a great deal of attention. Governor Deval Patrick signed reform legislation in June 2009, and additional reforms may be forthcoming. Much of the media coverage of pension issues has focused on sensational accounts of pension abuse.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Actual Pay: A Survey of Missouri Public School Superintendent Salary and Benefits Package

  By Audrey Spalding, Show-Me Institute
  
  Policy Study, 08/06/2010
  

  This Paper addresses a topic that has received little systematic study: the compensation of school superintendents. Missouri school districts spend roughly $9,500 per student in current operating expenses. Superintendents, with the approval of their boards, make important decisions about how these resources are allocated. So, how are these education decision-makers compensated? Which superintendent and district factors explain differences in superintendent pay? To get a fuller picture of compensation, Audrey Spalding made sunshine requests to all Missouri school districts for superintendent contracts. These contracts provide important data about other benefits that superintendents receive, including the use of cars, additional annuities, vacation time, bonus pay, etc. The information is included in the analysis.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Obama Tax Hikes: Killing Job Creation

  By The Heritage Foundation, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Fact Sheet, 08/06/2010
  

  There is never a good time to raise taxes, but allowing the Obama tax hikes to move forward with 9.5% unemployment is absurd. The already anemic economic recovery will slow even further. Congress should immediately remove the threat to jobs and the economy caused by the pending Obama tax hikes and permanently extend current tax rates, allowing investment to flourish and small businesses to grow. Temporary extensions will only prolong this threat.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  2010 Social Security Trustees Report Continues to Show the Urgency of Reform

  By David C. John, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/06/2010
  

  The debate about whether Social Security faces a problem and needs to be fixed is over. The 2010 Trustees Report shows that the program faces massive permanent annual deficits starting in just five years. Now is the time to focus on solutions. Instead of just blindly defending the current program, both Congress and the Administration need to propose comprehensive programs that permanently fix Social Security. Opposing a potential solution is not the same thing as coming up with a plan.

  
  
  
• Transportation/Infrastructure
  

  Restoring Trust in the Highway Trust Fund

  By Robert W. Poole, Adrian T. Moore, Reason Foundation
  
  Policy Study, 08/06/2010
  

  The urgent need to rebuild and modernize vital Interstate highway infrastructure is bogged down by a Federal system that prioritizes politics and ribbon-cutting. The federal gas tax has become a general-purpose public works tax instead of a true highway user fee. Refocusing the federal program on Interstate 2.0, and restoring the true user fee nature of the federal fuel tax, offers a way to cut the Gordian knot.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Leisure College, USA: The Decline in Student Study Time

  By Philip Babcock, Mindy Marks, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Education Outlook, 08/05/2010
  

  In 1961, the average full-time student at a four-year college in the United States studied about twenty-four hours per week, while his modern counterpart puts in only fourteen hours per week. Students now study less than half as much as universities claim to require. This dramatic decline in study time occurred for students from all demographic subgroups, for students who worked and those who did not, within every major, and at four-year colleges of every type, degree structure, and level of selectivity. Most of the decline predates the innovations in technology that are most relevant to education and thus was not driven by such changes. The most plausible explanation for these findings is that standards have fallen at postsecondary institutions in the United States.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Need for Moratorium Mitigated by New Oil Spill Response Capacities

  By James Carafano, Jack Spencer, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/05/2010
  

  While Deepwater Horizon incident revealed flaws in the federal oversight process, suspending drilling operations is not the best strategy for mitigating risks while Washington gets its own house in order. As a result of this incident, the U.S. capacity to respond to even the most catastrophic failures has been greatly expanded and enhanced. Given that major spills are already rare, resuming drilling would be the more prudent course.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Do Drug Courts Work?

  By Jessica Huseman, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 08/05/2010
  

  Drug courts are judicially supervised programs that provide long-term treatment and other services to nonviolent drug law offenders. Cases can be referred to drug courts in lieu of or in addition to traditional criminal punishment, such as incarceration or probation. Given the success of drug courts, and the projected savings if more programs were implemented, the United States should use drug courts to save taxpayers' money and effectively treat criminals with drug problems.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Limit of Tax Revenues

  By David Ranson, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 08/05/2010
  

  For budget planning, it is wiser and safer to assume that tax receipts will remain at a historically realistic ratio to GDP no matter how tax rates are manipulated. That leads to the conclusion that current projections of federal revenue are, once again, unrealistically high.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Putting Corporate Tax “Loopholes” In Perspective

  By Scott A. Hodge, Tax Foundation
  
  Special Report, 08/05/2010
  

  There is a popular misperception that U.S. corporations pay less taxes than they should because of a plethora of “tax loopholes” in the tax code that allow them to minimize their tax burden. However, as is often the case in Washington, reality does not measure up to political rhetoric. If Washington is going to debate the future of corporate tax expenditures it should do so within the broader context of reforming the entire corporate tax code rather than attacking certain provisions in a politically charged and piecemeal process. The U.S. has one of the highest overall corporate tax rates in the industrialized world and that rate—not tax breaks—is threatening American competitiveness, wages and jobs. Lowering the corporate rate should be a top priority for lawmakers and broadening the base by closing some tax expenditures should be part of that discussion.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Santos Takes Charge in Colombia: New Leader for an Old Friend

  By Ray Walser, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/04/2010
  

  The U.S.–Colombian relationship is a strategic pillar in U.S.–Latin American relations. President Santos brings experience, dedication, and the readiness to forge even stronger ties with the U.S. The Obama Administration and Congress must recognize this opportunity and take action.

  
  
  
• The Constitution/Civil Liberties
  

  Elena Kagan Nomination Hearings: Judicial Activism and Pro-Corporatism

  By Robert Alt, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Testimony, 08/04/2010
  

  Before any Senator votes in favor of confirming Kagan to the position of associate justice, they need to be as certain as possible that she will be able to uphold her oath of office to “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich,” and not to rule based upon empathy, or personal policy preferences.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The State Un-Fair

  By Illinois Policy Institute, Illinois Policy Institute
  
  Spotlight on Spending, 08/03/2010
  

  While the state fairs have a long tradition in Illinois, taxpayers cannot afford a losing venture. When the state has billions in unpaid bills to core services like hospitals, mental health facilities and veterans’ homes, events like the state fair should not be adding to the budget deficit. Instead, state fairs should budget the same way families and businesses across the state do every day—by spending no more than they bring in.

  
  
  
• Elections, Transparency, & Accountability
  

  Bureaucratic Tyranny or the Renewal of Self-Government: The Beginning of Centralized Administration in America

  By John Adams Wettergreen, The Heritage Foundation
  
  First Principles, 08/03/2010
  

  The fully bureaucratized order cannot yet be established by a free popular vote. Indeed, the fully bureaucratized order could only be established by popular vote if the American people were so demoralized that they lacked the capacity to rule themselves politically. Two decades of aggressive centralization have already undermined that capacity to some extent. However, the continued success of the antibureaucratic appeal at the national level is a sign, at least, that the longing for self-government is not yet dead in the American soul.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Tax Cuts Are Still Not Driving the Budget Deficit: The Critics Fall Short

  By Brian Riedl, The Heritage Foundation
  
  WebMemo, 08/03/2010
  

  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has released a report challenging Heritage’s report “The Three Biggest Myths About Tax Cuts and the Budget Deficit.” CBPP’s critique is based on faulty economic analysis and fundamental misrepresentations of the original report. Furthermore, even accepting CBPP’s methodological arguments would not materially alter or refute Heritage’s conclusions that the tax cuts play a relatively minor role in past budget deficits, and that future deficits are driven by soaring mandatory spending.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Regaining a Realistic Foreign Policy

  By Colin Dueck, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  A period out of power has given conservatives and Republicans a golden opportunity to reassess their approach toward American foreign policy. Such periods in opposition are often fruitful for political parties, which can reformulate creative and winning ideas on issues of public policy. But there is nothing to say that they will necessarily do such reformulation. Success in political and conceptual rebuilding requires intellectual honesty regarding current strengths and weaknesses. Conservatives pride themselves on a clear-eyed view of political and policy realities. It is entirely fitting that this same clear-eyed view be turned on conservative foreign policy approaches.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Energy Efficiency: Is Texas Getting Its Money's Worth?

  By Robert J. Michaels, Bill Peacock, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Report, 08/03/2010
  

  Energy efficiency has traditionally been about making energy less expensive to use. The public benefit of energy efficiency is that we are able to use more, less-expensive energy that in turn produces greater economic growth. However, today’s government-mandated energy efficiency programs are generally designed to decrease energy use. And, as described below, they often do this by increasing the cost of energy.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Congressional Response to the Gulf Spill: What It Could Mean for Texas

  By Mario Loyola, Texas Public Policy Foundation
  
  Policy Brief, 08/03/2010
  

  America gets a third of its domestic oil production from the Gulf of Mexico—and more than 80 percent of that from deepwater wells. The offshore oil industry represents a vital part of the economy of Texas. A reformed framework for offshore drilling must protect our economy as well as our environment.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Is a VAT the Answer?

  By John C. Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis
  
  Brief Analysis, 08/03/2010
  

  All over the developed world, countries are facing an extremely unpleasant budgetary reality: Per capita health care spending is growing at twice the rate of growth of per capita income. Couple the fact that government promises of health care for the elderly are almost everywhere unfunded with the fact that pension promises are mostly unfunded and that aging populations mean an ever-increasing number of retirees per worker, and just about every first world country is projecting a fiscal nightmare. So what is the answer? The Obama administration has made it about as clear as it is going to get that after the fall election its solution to trillion dollar deficits is going to be a VAT (value-added tax). But is that a good idea?

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Oil Spill Liability: A Plan for Reform

  By Nicolas Loris, Jack Spencer, James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 08/03/2010
  

  Congress should create a liability system that clearly identifies risks and allocates associated liabilities, ensures that those engaged in the industry can meet their potential liabilities, protects industry from frivolous lawsuits, and assures the public that both environmental and economic damages from an oil spill can be addressed in full. The oil industry should create an independent safety organization that would provide an incentive for oil companies to explore and implement new safety and prevention mechanisms. While such an organization would greatly reduce the likelihood of spills in the future, the industry also needs to demonstrate a clear and full ability to respond competently in the event of a spill. These reforms would keep oil and gas operation safe, the public informed, and overzealous regulators in check.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Effect of Expiration of Bush-Era Tax Cuts on Average Middle-Income Family, by State and Congressional District

  By Tax Foundation's Data Analysis Division, Tax Foundation
  
  Fiscal Facts, 08/03/2010
  

  This Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact analyzes the impact that the expiration of the so-called "Bush-era" tax cuts would have on the average middle-income family's tax bill in each state and congressional district. Family circumstances such as income level, sources of income, marital status, number of children, housing status, and a myriad of other factors can affect federal income tax liability. And these factors can vary significantly across geographic locations.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Iranian Revolution in the New Era

  By Said Amir Arjomand, Hudson Institute
  
  Articles, 08/03/2010
  

  While the events of the summer of 2009 helped to revitalize the revolutionary spirit among some in the clerical establishment, they also made clear that the Islamic Revolution within Iran had entered an entirely new era. This has dramatically transformed the regime’s internal power structure and given rise to a wide-ranging political clash among the Islamic Republic’s aging lay revolutionaries and clerics over the true legacy and future direction of the revolution and the republic it created. Perhaps most decisively, the electoral putsch provoked an unexpectedly vigorous and astonishingly persistent wave of popular protest, which has come to be known as the “Green Movement,” and which has been swelling up from a new generation whose political sensibilities and aspirations are post-Islamist and post-revolutionary. All of these developments among others will have dramatic consequences for Iran and for the region as a whole in the decades ahead.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Massachusetts Shows Federal Reform Headed for Trouble

  By Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute
  
  Paper, 08/03/2010
  

  If Massachusetts is a harbinger—and all evidence indicates it is—the new federal health overhaul legislation is headed for serious trouble. Massachusetts and the federal government built their reform efforts using similar architectural plans—strict regulation of health insurance, mandates on individuals and businesses, expensive new taxpayer-funded subsidies, and a major expansion of Medicaid—and both share a central structural flaw in failing to address rising health costs. Health reform in the Bay State has increased demand without increasing the supply of health care providers, it continues to keep people in the dark about the true cost of health care and health insurance, and has not changed incentives for people to seek more affordable options or for a truly competitive marketplace. Washington’s health overhaul law has the same structural flaws.

  
  
  
• Regulation & Deregulation
  

  Leviathan’s Drug Problem: Increasing Patients’ Choices Through International Competition in Pharmaceutical Regulation

  By John R. Graham, Pacific Research Institute
  
  PRI Study, 08/03/2010
  

  If the U.S. government allowed American patients to use new medicines that were approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but not yet by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American patients would have had faster access to 17 new medicines, out of the entire set of 39. Clearly, Congress’s grant of a regulatory monopoly to the FDA is creating a significant obstacle to Americans’ timely access to new medicines. Therefore, Congress should amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to allow Americans to use new medicines once the EMA has removed its prohibition. The FDA would retain the power to compel manufacturers to label their medicines with the warning that the FDA has not yet approved their safety or efficacy.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  The Truth About Obamacare

  By Sally Pipes, Regnery Publishing
  
  Book, 08/03/2010
  

  President Obama’s national health care mandate will undoubtedly lead to the largest expansion of government in the history of the United States and will cost taxpayers at least $1 trillion over ten years. As candidates across the country debate and defend their stance on health care, The Truth About Obamacare dissects the 2,400-page bill, exposing the most wasteful, inefficient, and dangerous provisions that will irrevocably hurt our health care system and our economy.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Collective Bargaining and School Performance

  By Terry M. Moe, Hoover Institution
  
  Defining Ideas, 08/03/2010
  

  Since the publication in 1983 of A Nation at Risk, a watershed report that warned of a “rising tide of mediocrity” in America’s schools, public officials have been under intense pressure to improve academic performance. They have responded with billions of additional dollars and with a commitment to reform that has persisted for a quarter century. The focus has been on academic achievement, but there has been great concern as well for closing the “achievement gap” between white and minority children and for improving the large urban districts that many minority students attend.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Who Should Pay for the Gulf Oil Spill?: Liability and Incentive Issues Raised by the Deepwater Horizon Incident

  By James Plummer, Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
  On Point, 08/03/2010
  

  In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident, political pressure to limit and ban offshore drilling is on the rise. The answer is not to ban offshore drilling, but to correct the errors in the liability and insurance markets that helped precipitate the disaster. Raising or eliminating the liability caps would encourage more prudent behavior by oil companies and the insurance companies and bond markets that finance them. Raising the caps after the fact obscures the ways in which interference in the market likely encouraged risk taking. Congress should consider repealing the entire Trust Fund structure, which socializes risk among prudent and imprudent firms and encourages imprudent behavior.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  State Budget Gaps and State Budget Growth: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

  By Matthew Mitchell, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 08/03/2010
  

  State governments that spent a larger fraction of state income—and had done so for many decades—experienced smaller percentage budget gaps in FY2010. On the other hand, states whose per capita spending levels increased the most over the last two decades had larger percentage budget gaps in FY2010. Furthermore, states whose policies permit economic freedom and states with strict balanced budget requirements experienced smaller budget gaps. Taken together, these results suggest that spending restraint, economic freedom, and institutional rules that ensure a strict balanced budget requirement seem to be a more reliable path to fiscal balance than tax increases.

  
  
  
• Information Technology
  

  The Coming Fifth Amendment Challenge to Net Neutrality Regulation

  By Daniel A. Lyons, Free State Foundation
  
  Perspectives from FSF Scholars, 08/03/2010
  

  The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment raises a constitutional question regarding the FCC’s authority to adopt net neutrality regulations without clear authority from Congress. These doubts, coupled with all the other legal and policy concerns which have been raised regarding net neutrality mandates, should cause the FCC to pull back from its current course.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Beyond a Culture of Short Horizons

  By William Damon, Hoover Institution
  
  Defining Ideas, 08/03/2010
  

  The single greatest barrier to youngsters’ finding their paths to purpose is the fixation on the short horizons that infuses the cultural messages to young people today. A popular culture celebrating quick results and showy achievements has displaced the traditional values of reflection and contemplation that once stood as the moral North Star of human development and education.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Spending Beyond Our Means

  By Bruce Yandle, Mercatus Center
  
  Working Paper, 08/03/2010
  

  The federal government’s deficit will reach $1.4 trillion this year—a whopping 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product—and the total federal debt stands at almost $14 trillion. That’s $40,000 for every citizen of the United States. The U.S. fiscal picture is shaping up to be a category 3 hurricane of red ink. Reeling in federal spending must be the first step in taming an unruly deficit. The reason is simple: Raising taxes enough to close the gap would require a doubling of tax rates. This is far more than the taxpayers will tolerate.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  Cap and Trade: An Inconvenient Tax

  By Terry Anderson, Gary D. Libecap, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  Although the Obama administration has been fixated on bailouts and stimulus, it has not lost sight of the fact that its campaign promises included a dramatic change in environmental policies. Reacting especially to the Bush administration’s apparent unwillingness to grapple with global warming and energy issues, President Obama has taken the same bold steps on these issues as he has on other issues in the headlines.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Utah’s Defined-Contribution Option: Patient-Centered Health Care

  By Gregg Girvan, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 08/03/2010
  

  Utah is an innovator in health insurance market reform, as it has addressed insurance issues through the creation of a defined-contribution option for employer-sponsored health insurance administered by a state health insurance exchange. Utah also demonstrates that state lawmakers with vision, skill, and the political will to effect consequential change can make a real difference in the lives of their citizens. Moreover, Utah’s initiatives validate the premise of the founders of the American republic. The states can and should be laboratories of democracy, the mainspring of imaginative social and economic policies. But they can also serve another important function that the founders explicitly intended—to be a source of institutional resistance against the concentration of power in Washington, and true guardians of their citizens’ liberty.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  No CLASS: How Congress Saddled Taxpayers with Another Costly Entitlement

  By Brian Blase, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Backgrounder, 08/03/2010
  

  The Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program is an actuarially unsound and fiscally irresponsible misadventure by Congress. Congress should never have enacted this new government-run long-term care insurance program. It places CLASS participants at risk of benefit cuts and American taxpayers at great risk of being forced to bail out this poorly designed program. Congress should promptly repeal the CLASS program and then make a serious effort to address the problem of financing the long-term care of the nation’s population in the context of an overall reform of federal entitlements.

  
  
  
• National Security
  

  The Nuke in the Cargo Hold

  By Justin Muzinich, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  Since beginning to monitor incidents of nuclear trafficking in 1995, the International Atomic Energy Agency has documented at least 196 instances of illegal trafficking, including at least 18 that involved weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium and plutonium, the primary fuel of nuclear weapons. Given these statistics, one might have expected international law to become much less hospitable to nuclear traffickers after terrorists made their intentions clear on September 11. Yet the nonproliferation regime in some ways looks very much like it did before the towers fell, providing surprisingly little room to combat the spread of nuclear weapons. If this sounds counterintuitive, it is for good reason. The UN has often made pronouncements denouncing proliferation. However when it comes to a crucially important component of nonproliferation — physically stopping the transport of prohibited material — international law generally precludes action in international waters. The U.S. and Spain understood this, which explains the treatment of the North Korean ships.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Top 10 Reasons Not to Trust Russia

  By The Heritage Foundation, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Fact Sheet, 08/03/2010
  

  The current regime in Russia has a terrible record as a reliable partner, yet President Obama wants the nuclear treaty he negotiated with the Kremlin fast-tracked for Senate approval. This is a bad idea because, among other reasons, Russia repeatedly violated the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty all the way to its expiration in December 2009. Additionally, Russia cultivates ties with terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and provides military and diplomatic support for anti-American “rogue states” such as Syria, Iran, and Venezuela.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Kids Deserve Better: Stopping the Obama Education Agenda

  By The Heritage Foundation, The Heritage Foundation
  
  Fact Sheet, 08/03/2010
  

  After decades of ineffective billions, education spending is at an all-time high. Decades of increased education spending have yielded little academic progress. Academic achievement nationally has flatlined, and graduation rates are no better today than they were in 1970. Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s education agenda is undermining school choice for children in need and increasing the federal control by imposing national education standards and tests on states. Instead of adopting one-size-fits-all national standards and tests, state standards and tests should be strengthened and schools should increase transparency about results to parents and other taxpayers. More federal funding from Washington is not the answer to improving American education.

  
  
  
• Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, & Science
  

  The EU Connection in Climate Research

  By John Rosenthal, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  The leaking of the East Anglia “Climategate” e-mails and data last November shattered the appearance of a scientific consensus on supposed “man-made global warming” and provided a disturbing insight into the corruption of the scientific process as it relates to the “man-made global warming” hypothesis. The spectacle of scientists stonewalling freedom of information requests, destroying records, hiding unwelcome results, colluding to keep dissenting viewpoints out of scholarly journals, and even suppressing their own acknowledged doubts — all of this made it perfectly clear that other interests were at stake than the pure pursuit of knowledge. The centrality of the quest for funding in the e-mail exchanges made it equally clear that for the scientists in question, money, unsurprisingly, was first and foremost among those interests.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Out of Balance: The False Patent Marking Landscape Post- Bon Tool and Solo Cup

  By Marla Grossman, Adam Lerner, Institute for Policy Innovation
  
  Issue Brief, 08/03/2010
  

  The December 2009 court ruling in Bon Tool provides patent protection in excess of that necessary and, in fact, results in costly and unnecessary litigation that frustrates the constitutional goal of promoting “the progress of … useful arts.” Indeed, the court’s June 2010 decision in Solo Cup demonstrates that unless a sound legislative solution is enacted, it is likely that we will continue to witness narrow judicial interpretation of the false patent marking statute in order to avoid what a court deems to be an inequitable outcome.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  The Goldstone Report and International Law

  By Peter Berkowitz, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  The controversy over the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict” (September 15, 2009), more commonly known as the Goldstone Report, seems to have died down. But its larger significance has yet to be appreciated. For the most part, the controversy has swirled around the reliability of the Goldstone Report’s factual findings and the validity of its legal findings concerning Operation Cast Lead, which Israel launched on December 27, 2008, and concluded on January 18, 2009. But another and more far-reaching issue, which should be of great significance to those who take seriously the claims of international law to govern the conduct of war, has scarcely been noticed. And that pertains to the disregarding of fundamental norms and principles of international law by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), by the Mission members, and by the HRC and the United Nations General Assembly.

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  The Case Against Public Sector Unions

  By John O. McGinnism, Max Schanzenbach, Hoover Institution
  
  Policy Review, 08/03/2010
  

  Public employees unions have wielded huge influence to gain perquisites for themselves at the expense of the public. Early retirement, job tenure, high wages, and generous defined-benefit pension plans have gained increasing attention from commentators and voters, though many public sector perks are intentionally shrouded and confuse the public debate. What has received far less attention is the pernicious effect of public sector union privileges on the provision of public goods in the United States. Public sector unions have greatly distorted state spending priorities and made it more difficult for states to devise innovative public goods that would benefit their citizenry as whole. For example, prison guard unions have directly influenced penal policy, fighting reduced sentences or decriminalization of drugs. Teachers’ unions fight charter schools and merit pay. The strong organizational rights of these unions, protected or abetted by statute and regulations, enables their outsized influence on public policy.

  
  
  
• Immigration
  

  BAMN: By Any Means Necessary

  By Kevin Mooney, Capital Research Center
  
  Organization Trends, 08/02/2010
  

  The radical group called By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, believes racial profiling is wrong but racial quotas in hiring and college admissions are right. A contradiction? BAMN doesn’t care. It goes to court and into the streets to cause trouble and provoke political upheaval.

  
  
  
• Crime, Justice & the Law
  

  Determining “Obviousness”: A New, Less Certain Methodology Prescribed by KSR Decision

  By Robert D. Yeager, Washington Legal Foundation
  
  Contemporary Legal Note, 08/02/2010
  

  Following its landmark decision in Graham v. John Deere, 383 U.S. 1 (1966), in which the Supreme Court laid down the methodology for determining obviousness as an obstacle to patentability, the Court did not address the subject for over 40 years. Then, in 2007 the Court decided KSR v. Teleflex, 550 U.S. 398 (2007). In KSR, the Supreme Court jettisoned the teaching-suggestion-motivation (TSM) test and resurrected the discredited “obvious to try” concept, thereby adding more factual inquiries to the Graham litany. The Court, however, did not indicate just how these inquiries should be blended in an applicable methodology. KSR has had effects beyond the elimination of a bright line test for obviousness: mainly, broadening the scope of “prior art.” This paper first explains how KSR derailed the conventional determination of the scope of the prior art and then attempts to harmonize Graham and KSR into a workable new methodology for analyzing obviousness.

  
  
  
• Monetary Policy/Financial Regulation
  

  The Inefficiency of Clearing Mandates

  By Craig Pirrong, Cato Institute
  
  Policy Analysis, 08/02/2010
  

  In the aftermath of the financial crisis, attention has turned to reducing systemic risk in the derivatives markets. Much of this attention has focused on counterparty risk in the over-the-counter market, where trades are bilaterally executed between dealers and derivative purchasers. One proposal for addressing such counterparty risk is to mandate the trading of derivatives over a centralized clearinghouse. This paper lays out the advantages and risks to a mandated clearing requirement, showing how, in some instances, such a mandate can actually increase systemic risk and result in more financial bailouts.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  Urgency and Legitimacy: Tensions in Rebuilding the Legal Structure for Business in Post-Conflict Countries

  By Wade Channell, Center for International Private Enterprise
  
  Article, 08/02/2010
  

  One of the well documented casualties of conflict is the economy. Civil strife inevitably disrupts business activity, sometimes reversing years of steady growth as markets come apart and business interests either flee or reduce activity. In impoverished countries, of course, the negative impact is even greater. In response, reformers in post-conflict societies will often give high priority to rebuilding the commercial sector. The cessation of conflict establishes possibilities for rebuilding conflict-ravaged economies. Donor organizations often rush to help re-establish the framework for doing business, from rebuilding roads and marketplaces to revising laws and regulations. This work is often done on an urgent basis to redirect activity into productive endeavors and growth, with the hope of forestalling and avoiding a permanent reversion to disarray.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  “Last Hired, First Fired”: Young Teachers Reject NEA/AFT Seniority Rules

  By RiShawn Biddle, Capital Research Center
  
  Labor Watch, 08/02/2010
  

  The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have successfully used their collective bargaining muscle and lobbying influence to enact reverse seniority, or “last hired-first fired” policies that protect senior teachers from layoffs and performance management. But many school officials, education reformers and taxpayers are urging that these outmoded work rules be altered or abolished, and the two unions are struggling to defend their policies. Worse for the unions, their younger members – who benefit least from seniority – are demanding that the unions remove last hired-first fired provisions from union contracts.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  How Liberal Activists Passed Obamacare

  By Philip Klein, Capital Research Center
  
  Foundation Watch, 08/02/2010
  

  Supporters of national healthcare did not get the single payer system they wanted or even a “public option,” and they get no thanks from the public which wants to repeal the new healthcare law. So why are liberal advocacy groups so pleased with themselves? Because they still helped pass a bill that brings America one step closer to socialized medicine. (This is the third article in a three-part series on Obamacare. The first and second installments appeared in the May 2010 edition of Labor Watch and July 2010 edition of Organization Trends, respectively.)

  
  
  
• Budget & Taxation
  

  Oil Today, Fatty Foods and Sugary Drinks Tomorrow: The Administration’s Assault on the Manufacturing Deduction for Oil Companies

  By Scott A. Hodge, Tax Foundation
  
  Fiscal Facts, 08/02/2010
  

  The oil industry is the favorite political tax target of Congress and the Administration right now, thanks to the BP spill. But if there's any such thing as a sure bet in Washington, it's that when the next big story puts a different industry in a bad light—probably another industry that allegedly makes us unhealthy—the picadors in Congress and the Administration will stick the offending industry with a raft of new corporate tax hikes.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  The Class Size Myth

  By Michael Van Beek, Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  
  Studies, 08/02/2010
  

  Reforms such as improving teacher quality are far more cost-effective than reducing class size, and have been shown to actually boost student achievement. Unfortunately, seniority-based staffing policies dictated by union contracts and state tenure laws prevent districts from identifying, attracting and rewarding high-performing teachers and putting them in front of as many kids as possible.

  
  
  
• Education
  

  Shifting Risk to Create Opportunity: A Role for Performance Guarantees in Education

  By Bryan C. Hassel, Daniela Doyle, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Working Paper, 08/02/2010
  

  In “Shifting Risk to Create Opportunity: A Role for Performance Guarantees in Education,” Bryan Hassel and Daniela Doyle of Public Impact point out that uncertain results, political dangers, and unmapped responsibilities make the risk of partnering with new providers simply too great for many districts to take on. To address these challenges, Hassel and Doyle suggest a variety of performance guarantees such as warranties, bonds, and contracts that can be adapted for the case of nontraditional education providers. These tools can help spread risk and thereby facilitate partnerships as they have done in other sectors.

  
  
  
• Foreign Policy/International Affairs
  

  Iranian Influence in Afghanistan: Imam Khomeini Relief Committee

  By Ahmad Majidyar, Ali Alfoneh, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Middle Eastern Outlook, 08/02/2010
  

  As the United States targets the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran is using soft-power tactics to combat U.S. influence and win over the minds of the people. This Outlook examines the activities of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, a charitable organization that aims to promote Iran’s ideological and political goals in Afghanistan. Since the early 1990s, the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee’s Afghanistan arm has been expanding its budget and reaching more and more Afghans, which poses a growing threat to U.S. interests. To succeed in Afghanistan, the United States must focus not only on the hard power of the military, but also on a comprehensive soft-power strategy.

  
  
  
• Economic Growth
  

  We Do Not Have Liftoff

  By John H. Makin, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Economic Outlook, 08/02/2010
  

  The economy may be heading for a sharp reversal of the modest growth achieved so far. With lower growth will come a higher risk of deflation and a global slowdown. The current pattern of central bank complacency after the acute phase of a financial crisis that allows a growth relapse in the real economy is all too common. It happened in Japan during the late 1990s and in 2001, as well as in 1937 during the Great Depression in the United States. Hopefully, the August 10 Federal Open Market Committee meeting will signal a more decisive Fed response to the threat of negative growth, further disinflation, and deflation.

  
  
  
• Health Care
  

  Addressing Geographic Variation and Health Care Efficiency: Lessons for Medicare from Private Health Insurers

  By Darius Lakdawalla, Thomas J. Philipson, Dana Goldman, American Enterprise Institute
  
  Health Policy Outlook, 08/02/2010
  

  Medicare’s attempts to restrain costs center almost exclusively on reducing prices paid for medical services. Private-sector insurance companies are unable to secure similarly sized price discounts but rely more heavily on managing utilization to control costs. Studies find that Medicare spending and utilization vary considerably across U.S. regions, leading some to suggest that Medicare should look at relatively “low-use” regions as a model for decreasing costs in “high-use” regions. However, this AEI study finds that, while Medicare’s market share gives it more leverage to dictate prices than private health insurance companies have, variations in service use across regions are smaller for the private sector than for Medicare, suggesting tighter management of utilization in the private sector. To reduce spending and more appropriately limit geographic variation in utilization among Medicare beneficiaries, the program should consider the utilization-management techniques employed in the private sector as a model.