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My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy details three things that she likes about 2017 [2]. A slice:
At the agency level, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is doing his share to boost innovation and investment through deregulation. The FDA is working on lowering the cost of development to bring a new drug to market—$2.6 billion on average, according to one Tufts University study—by streamlining and lightening the approval process without jeopardizing safety.
Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, eliminated misleading “net neutrality” rules. As my colleague Brent Skorup explains, “net neutrality had given the FCC far-reaching authority to approve or reject new internet business models, technologies and services based on a vague standard and to initiate investigations into telecom and tech companies for contrived violations. The FCC appointed itself an invasive zoning board for the internet.”
Last but not least are the sustained efforts by Sens. Pat Toomey, (R-Pa.), and Richard Shelby, (R-Ala.), to slow down the process that would restore the Export-Import Bank, a bastion of cronyism, to its full and former glory.
I agree with Mitch Daniels: “Avoiding GMOs isn’t just anti-science. It’s immoral. [4]”
Neocons should read and reflect on this post by David Henderson [5].
How the rollerboard suitcase changed travel [6]. (HT David West)
Here’s Ilya Somin on Bruce Ackerman on waging war [7].
One hundred years ago today H.L. Mencken first published his famous satirical history of the bathtub [8].
The University of Chicago Law Review published a special issue devoted to Antonin Scalia [9].
Sheldon Richman wisely warns against using taxes as tools for social engineering [10].