Pass a Law to Combat Rent-Seeking
Barton Swaim on April 07, 2019.
Corporate welfare is finally receiving the scrutiny it deserves. In Wisconsin, the Foxconn deal of 2016 looks worse all the time: In exchange for a $4 billion incentive package, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer was to build a $10 billion factory and create 13,000 jobs by 2032, but the project is far behind schedule and Foxconn has missed its jobs targets by a mile. New York City and state offered Amazon $3 billion in incentives and the company promised to invest $5 billion and create 25,000 jobs over a decade, but the deal collapsed. New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority is under investigation for authorizing tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for companies that didn’t qualify, seemingly as part of a political payback scheme…
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Why the Small Business Administration Should Make Startups a Priority
Leigh Buchanan on April 02, 2019.
In a recent interview about antitrust issues, Robert Atkinson, an economist who is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, suggested that the Small Business Administration should be reinvented as the “New Business Administration” to make potential, rather than size, the basis of government support. It’s an idea that he and his co-author Michael Lind first suggested in their 2018 book Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business, which contends that contrary to popular wisdom large rather than small companies drive innovation and employment. Inc. asked Atkinson how a new version of the agency would improve the odds for startups…
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Trump Wants U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza To Lead Small Business Administration
Sasha Ingber on April 05, 2019.
President Trump says he intends to nominate Jovita Carranza, the U.S. treasurer, to lead the Small Business Administration after former pro-wrestling executive Linda McMahon announced last week that she was stepping down.
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DOL Proposes Updating Regular Rate Regulations
Mary A. Gambardella on April 04, 2019.
On March 28, 2019, the DOL proposed a rule designed to clarify and update the definition of the “regular rate” under Section 7(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The current rules have not been updated in decades, and have been the source of some confusion, so employers should welcome this development.
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Don’t Turn Banks Into Regulated Utilities
Norbert Michel on April 04, 2019.
In a recent House Financial Services Committee hearing, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan. That she would attack Sloan was no surprise, but her specific line of questioning was.
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Iowa pork producers need expanded export markets, not regulations
Trent Thiele on April 02, 2019.
“They will come. They will most definitely come.”
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New Privacy Regulations Aiding, and Stunting, Brazil’s Legal Tech Market
Frank Ready on April 01, 2019.
It’s an exciting time to be in the legal tech or e-discovery service provider sector in Brazil—or is it? With uncertainty still clouding the future of the country’s General Data Privacy Law (LGPD), it may be a long while until the effects on the developing legal tech marketplace begin to crystalize…
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Is Government Regulation Keeping Americans from Getting Addiction Care?
Francie Diep on March 22, 2019.
American doctors have had, for a generation, a treatment that’s proven to work for addictions to prescription painkillers, heroin, and similar street drugs. Overdoses on these opioid drugs killed more than 47,000 Americans in 2017. Yet the American government regulates that life-saving therapy—called medication-assisted treatment, or MAT—in a totally unscientific way, which may be part of why it’s not available in the majority of doctor’s offices or addiction treatment centers in the United States…
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Money To Help Hurricane Victims Stuck In Red Tape
Benjamin Briscoe on March 26, 2019.
Harvey, Irma, Maria. 2017’s deadly trifecta of storms prompted quick action from Congress setting aside money for the victims. But auditors found a big chunk of those funds have been stuck in red tape for way to long...
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Will New U.S. Privacy Regulations Be Too Expensive for Small Businesses?
Scott Ikeda on March 26, 2019.
Stronger privacy regulations in the manner of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are almost universally seen as a net good for consumers. However, as with most debates that pit private and public interests against each other, there is a legitimate competing interest to consider. New privacy regulations that stress consent of the individual mean added compliance costs, and those are often quite significant. While a Google or an Apple may be able to bear these costs without much pain, it can be much more of a burden on small businesses…
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