Month: December 2007

Do you believe in Santa Claus? By the time many people think they are too old to believe in Santa Claus, they have unwittingly come to believe in another one—a figurative Santa Claus that goes by the name of “welfare state,” or “big government.” But Santa would be insulted by the comparison.

The real Santa Claus is (more…)

Summary

While TriMet has agreed to some reforms in the wake of the MAX security crisis, a much better solution would be to allow consumers to have real choices in transit service. Here in Portland, privately operated automobiles formerly served successfully as unsubsidized, flexible, quasi-public transportation directly responsive to popular demand. (more…)

Summary

“Income inequality” is a central part of the debate surrounding poverty and economic growth. However, a better alternative to the term “income inequality” is “opportunity inequality.” Poverty is not about what or how much you consume but about limited opportunity and freedom. (more…)

Summary

The polling data is trending toward school choice. As more and more parents experience choice through charter schools, vouchers, tax credits and the like, the idea of educational freedom becomes less scary, more real and urgently rational. (more…)

The 2007 Oregon legislature capped interest rates on payday loans, effectively putting the lenders out of business. What happens now to people who relied on those so-called predatory loans?

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just released a study about two other states that (more…)

Observers of Portland transportation have long criticized local politicians for spending billions of dollars on rail transit projects even though rail carries just a small fraction of all trips in the region.

Now the critics have a powerful new ally: Portland city commissioner and mayoral candidate Sam Adams. Commissioner Adams announced last week that he wants to (more…)

Summary

Al Gore’s recent Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change has intensified calls for drastic measures to slow “global warming.” However, the global climate is an incredibly complex system known to change throughout history. We need to ask some common-sense questions about the science of climate change and what are truly the best ways to deal with it. (more…)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: John A. Charles, Jr.
Tel.: 503-242-0900
Fax: 503-242-3822
E-mail: john@cascadepolicy.org

This week Cascade Policy Institute released a report analyzing Portland’s eighteen-year-old polystyrene foam ban. Sustainable Failure: Why Portland’s Polystyrene Foam Ban Should Be Repealed details why the ban clearly fails the “triple bottom-line” test (more…)

Introduction

In the summer of 1988, Portland City Commissioner Bob Koch introduced an ordinance to ban the use of polystyrene foam (PSF) for prepared food in restaurants, grocery stores and other retail establishments. He hoped that this would address perceived environmental issues with PSF, commonly known by the trade name Styrofoam. However, the proposal was quickly withdrawn when Commissioner Koch discovered that the alleged problems with PSF did not actually exist and that the measure had the potential to increase rather than decrease environmental impacts. (more…)

Poverty, economic development and fairness are words often used when speaking about income inequality. “Income inequality” refers to the gap in consumption between the rich and the poor but fails to illustrate anything about well-being and long-term self-sufficiency.

The term “income inequality” is not particularly helpful. It focuses more on (more…)