By Sreya Sarkar — July 2, 2008
Review of Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, edited by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, The Independent Institute (2008).
There is a growing mass of literature discussing various facets of private industry becoming an involved and effective player in the realm of poverty alleviation. The poor have been considered the constituency of the government for a long time, but now that perception is changing. For example, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’ autobiography, Banker to the Poor, takes commercial banks to a clientele base they have never really served before. C.K. Prahalad’s The Future at the Bottom of the Pyramid is a rallying cry for big business to position serving the world’s four billion poorest people at the heart of their profit-making strategies. Lessons from the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, edited by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, is one of the latest books in this category, adding one more dimension to this discussion. . . . Read more!
By Joe Patten — July 2, 2008
Three years ago, Harvard geneticist George Church and Stanford biologist Chris Somerville asked themselves which natural chemical makes the most efficient fuel. Their answer? Oil.
Funded by private capital, they founded LS9, Inc. in 2005. Using synthetic biology, LS9 has modified bacteria to turn plant sugars into . . . Read more!
By Shirley Iverson — June 25, 2008
Summary
Before Oregonians are asked to approve any expansion of state-sponsored health care, we deserve to know how existing state programs are working. Transparency is crucial to government accountability for tax dollars spent. . . . Read more!
By Eric Fruits, Ph.D. and Randall J. Pozdena, Ph.D. — June 10, 2008
Summary
This study updates past research to benchmark Oregon’s spending (Pozdena and Fruits 2004). Revenue and expenditure data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s census of state and local governments for 2004–05 (Tables 1 and 2). Demographic data are from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. . . . Read more!
By John A. Charles, Jr. — May 29, 2008
My name is John Charles, president and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute. Cascade is a nonpartisan policy research center working to promote economic opportunity in Oregon. I have been involved professionally with environmental policy for the past 30 years and am familiar with the politics of climate change. In recent months I have focused a fair amount of time examining claims made about carbon offset projects in the Pacific Northwest. My comments today reflect that work.
I have been asked to speak about two conceptual approaches to global warming legislation: a carbon tax, and a regulatory limit on greenhouse gases (GHGs). Before I begin, however, I would like to place this issue in the context of the GHG reduction goals embodied in HB 3543. . . . Read more!
By Cascade Policy Institute — February 13, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: James M. Taylor
E-mail: taylor@heartland.org
Hundreds of the world’s leading “skeptics” of the theory of man-made global warming will meet in New York City March 2-4, 2008 to present their case and discuss the latest scientific, economic and political research on climate change. . . . Read more!
