If you have been reading the news this week you may have gotten some mixed messages on the future of American manufacturing. The big news is the announcement from Foxconn (the Taiwanese manufacturing giant that built most of your iPhone) that the company will build a $10 billion LCD display screen plant in Wisconsin. The move was touted by the president, and the factory could potentially employ 13,000 people. Reuters reported: Trump praised Foxconn chairman Terry Gou at a White House event, asserting: "If I didn't get elected, he definitely wouldn't be spending $10 billion ... This is a … [Read more...]
Can Competitors Use Robots to Beat Amazon’s Logistical Dominance?
In 2012, Amazon recognized the value of a robot producing company known as Kiva Systems. The robots became a centerpiece of Amazon's logistical system, toting shelves of goods from the warehouse floor to lines of humans who would pick out the right items and send the robots back again. Now Amazon's competitors in retail will get their chance to catch up. Some of the same team of roboticists who worked for Kiva Systems is back with a new invention known as the Chuck. The new robot cart helps warehouse workers by carrying many items, and leading the humans around the warehouse to the … [Read more...]
Are Canada’s Higher Taxes the Answer to America’s Infrastructure Problems?
In a word, no. Dan Mitchell, a senior fellow at the free market focused Cato Institute deftly shoots holes in the argument made by Canadian writer Jonathan Kay in The Atlantic. Kay makes the case that if only the U.S. would raise its overall tax burden nearer to the average for OECD nations, the Land of the Free would have plenty of money to pour into upgrading its infrastructure. On his International Liberty blog, Mitchell takes apart the case made by Kay piece by piece. He makes the case quite clear, without even employing his trove of Laffer Curve examples. Mitchell writes: Canada is … [Read more...]
Counterproductive Foreign Aid Should be Cut
Not only do foreign aid programs cost Americans billions each year, some of them are counterproductive. My friend Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, highlights a new study found at Downsizinggovernment.org, that says foreign aid not only costs too much, but can even be counterproductive in its results. He writes: The federal government funds an array of aid programs aimed at promoting growth in less-developed countries. Funding goes to federal agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, and it also goes to international aid groups, such … [Read more...]
Can Money Buy Happiness?
A new study from Harvard Business School says it's possible money can buy happiness. More specifically using money to buy free time can make people happier. The researchers surveyed people in the U.S., Canada, Denmark and The Netherlands to find out "whether—and how much—money they spent each month to increase their free time by paying someone else to complete unenjoyable daily tasks." Then those surveyed responded to another questionnaire about "time stress." Karen Kaplan summarized the results at the LA Times, writing: Survey-takers were asked whether they paid other people to do … [Read more...]
A Hidden Tax in the New Illinois Budget
Illinois residents have been watching closely as their lawmakers took the state to the brink of having its debt downgraded to junk status last month. It was a white-knuckle ride and there were no winners. But in the final compromise there was a hidden clause that made Illinois residents the undoubted losers of the final budget. In 2011 Illinois granted ethanol a tax exemption, saving Illinois residents around 7 to 10 cents per gallon on their gasoline. The new budget quietly removed that exemption, and now gasoline wholesalers and consumers are crying foul. Cole Lauterbach writes at … [Read more...]
Could Vanguard Take its Show on the Road?
Vanguard's CEO, Tim Buckley, is being urged to take Vanguard's low cost model into more foreign markets. You probably haven't had the time to research the investment options available to foreigners, but in short they tend to be expensive and narrow. That's just the kind of market that screams for the low cost model Vanguard brings to its customers. FT's Chris Flood writes of Buckley: In May, Vanguard announced it would sell its funds directly to UK retail clients in a move that will intensify the competitive pressures facing rival asset managers. Liberum, the brokerage, predicted that a … [Read more...]
The World’s Largest Government Program is in Trouble
In a time dominated with news on the fate of Obamacare and any potential replacement, Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute keenly refocuses attention on what is the world's biggest government program, and one that is headed for a fiscal train wreck: Social Security. The program will soon have an annual budget of $1 trillion, a budget larger than that of all but six countries on earth. But Dan points out the scary fact that the program will have a shortfall of $44.2 trillion between now and 2095. He writes: And for those who want to know about the gap between the inflow and outflow, here’s … [Read more...]
Is This City Committing Economic Suicide?
I've been writing about bad policy at the state and local levels for years now. Most recently I told you about the rough state of affairs in Hartford, CT, a major American city that's headed toward a possible bankruptcy. Another government on the brink is the state of Illinois, which credit ratings agencies are watching like vultures for any sign of weakness. Now, Cato Institute senior fellow Dan Mitchell asks if Seattle isn't committing economic suicide with its plan for a local income tax. Dan writes: From an economic perspective, I think a local income tax would be suicidally foolish … [Read more...]
Do Millennials Spend their Money Differently Than You?
It turns out, Millennials have some different shopping habits than GenXers or the Baby Boomers. They're very interested in motorcycles and eating out, but not very interested in clothes or cars. … [Read more...]
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