New from the Business & Media Institute
Media Mantra: Unhappy Holidays
The media declared shoppers Scrooges this Christmas season, but early
numbers indicate the retail holidays were merry. Online sales alone were
up an estimated 30 percent from last year. The Business & Media Institute takes
journalists to task for sticking to the lumps-of-coal theory.
Commentary: Fear and Loathing in Business News
Thanks to news reports, Americans are suffering from the
fear of everything. Pick any letter of the alphabet and youll find
something to make you run and hide from avian flu to a bust in housing
or cloning. This anxious hype is an avoidable man-made disaster.
CBS Conjures Recession Specter in New Years Newscast
Economic forecasts for 2006 are looking bright, but that didnt stop the
CBS Evening News from warning that recession might be in store.
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of
business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news
tips to staff writer
Ken Shepherd.
This week: Strong U.S. economy; ABC weighed and found lacking
on calorie-counting; IBD joins other media in snowing public on housing
news.
Also from BMI:
Post Calls Left-Wing Organization a Consumer Group
ABC Portrays Union as Victim, Delphi as Villain
143 Million Cheeseburgers Short of Paradise
Research, News & Commentary
Tax Cuts
Research: Middle-class retirees would benefit from tax cuts on dividends and capital gains, a recent report argues. As stock ownership becomes the norm rather than the exception in the U.S. today, capital gains and dividend income will become an increasingly larger share of the retirement income for seniors, writes Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge.
Wal-Mart
Commentary: Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report argues that Wal-Mart succeeds where General Motors has failed: it continually adapts to the shifting demands of the marketplace and in doing so benefits its customers and employees alike.
Education
News: Mike Ford of School Choice Wisconsin reports on unsuccessful efforts by school voucher advocates to lift a state-imposed quota on the number of children who can enroll in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. Ford notes that Gov. Jim Doyle (D) has vetoed three bills in two years to lift the enrollment cap which was surpassed in September 2005 of 15 percent of Milwaukee students.
Energy
Commentary: Arguing we should sell while the selling is good, Cato senior fellows Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren write that the federal government should close the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Taylor and Van Doren call the Reserve a federal insurance policy against a fuel crisis where the cost of the policy has been more expensive than the dangers the stockpile is meant to prevent.
Commentary: Contrary to the popular media spin that corporate Big Oil runs the world oil market, Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins argues that nationalized oil industries abroad and heavy regulation of private oil ownership at home threaten steady economic growth. Jenkins writes that The world can expect to pay a price in instability for decades to come thanks to this phenomenon.
Government Waste
Commentary: Heritages Ronald Utt writes that budgetary pork for the Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere is still going to, well, nowhere but more wasteful spending.
Health Care
News: Tarren Bragdon of the Maine Heritage Policy Center reports in the Heartland Institutes January 2006 newsletter how the Pine Tree States public health initiative, DirigoChoice, is hemorrhaging money and faltering while taxing Mainers an additional fee for every health insurance claim they file.
