Featured Articles
Ohio Needs More, not Fewer, Companies like Skybus
By Sam Staley, Ph.D
Let
the hand wringing begin. How could a promising company like
Columbus-based start up Skybus go bust so quickly? Could we have done
anything to prevent its demise?
The answer is no. It's a sobering answer for Ohio-based
entrepreneurs, state policymakers, and the future of the state economy.
But the lesson for Ohio's economic future is not in
Skybus's bankruptcy. It's in the fact it started up
at all. We need more, not fewer, Skybuses.
Buckeye Voices
In this week's Buckeye Voices podcast, National Review Reporter Stephen Spruiell joins David Hansen on Buckeye Voices to discuss his article Factory-Sized Deception - Obama, Freely Trading in Dishonesty. Spruiell argues that Barack Obama's campaign misled Ohio voters by blaming NAFTA for specific plant closings in Ohio.
No Need to Stop Charter Schools
The
Dayton
Daily News reports, "State Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton,
said Monday that Dayton already has too many charter schools and that
he is proposing legislation to put a moratorium on the establishment of
new for-profit charter schools."
In
The
Real Story Behind the Charter School Cap, Buckeye
Institute Education Policy Director Matt Care notes, "Compared to
government-run schools, charter schools provide comparable or superior
instruction and more conducive learning environments because of the
market forces to which charters must constantly respond.
Indeed, this is the entire theoretical foundation behind school choice
in the first place: competition makes organizations better, more
efficient, and more responsive to the needs of clients (in this case
parents and students)."
Taking Away Ohioans' Financial Options
"House Democrats on Thursday united behind a proposed 36 percent interest rate cap on payday loans and asked Republican Speaker Jon Husted for a vote on the measure," according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
In
The Sound and Fury over
Payday Lending,
Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "It is presumptuous to
second-guess the financial decisions of people who take payday loans.
Most are not the ignorant borrowers portrayed by the opponents of
payday lending. Instead, they are making an informed choice that is
rational to them. Only the borrower knows his or her true financial
needs and preferences. Advocates and politicians need to stop treating
payday borrowers like children. Most are making a choice that makes
sense for them. Others may make a bad choice, but it is impossible to
legislate good financial sense."
Misplaced Blame on Trade
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Both [Hillary] Clinton and her Democratic presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama are criticizing liberalized trade agreements as they campaign for blue-collar votes in Pennsylvania, where shuttered factories speak of a decline in manufacturing."
In
Ohio
and NAFTA Revisited, Buckeye Institute advisor Joseph Zoric
writes, "Our political leaders would like us to believe that NAFTA is
to blame for the decline of manufacturing jobs in the country. It is
true that in the fourteen years since NAFTA began, 2.7 million
manufacturing jobs have been lost. However, in the fourteen years
before NAFTA, 2.7 million manufacturing jobs were lost. In fact,
manufacturing employment as a percentage of all jobs has been declining
since 1944 while manufacturing output has been rising in absolute
terms. This trend is caused by increased productivity brought
about by technological advancements in manufacturing which began long
before NAFTA or the recent advancement in global trade."
Buckeye Institute in the News
In his weekly New York Sun column, Buckeye Institute Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Ken Blackwell discusses Barack Obama.
NBC 4 in Columbus quoted David Hansen in a story on the closure of Skybus airline.
The Hillsboro Times-Gazette published David Kirkpatrick's column on school reform.
