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Profits — Not Cures — For Alzheimer’s Disease

Obama recently claimed this was the “Decade of the Brain”. But it not the first time the government made that promise. The last time they did it, they wasted millions of your tax dollars. Now they’re back for round two. But this time, their failure could mean more than squandered money. It could mean making Alzheimer’s even worse for those who suffer from it.

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The Police’s License Plate Loophole

Does owning a gun mean you’re guilty until proven innocent? Considering what happened to one man from Florida, that might be the case. But there’s more to this story than just a case of police overreach. Police departments across the nation could be implementing a new technology that puts the burden of innocence squarely on your shoulders.

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How the Fed Creatively Tortures the Data

“So we have, indeed, had a disappointingly slow recovery, and our consistent expectations for a pickup in growth have been dashed over a number of years… And the labor market is behaving in some perplexing ways and showing patterns that are novel.” –Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen in a speech to the Economic Club of …

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The Market Is Rigged

When Michael Lewis’ new book Flash Boys came out, the author caused a stir while making the media rounds to promote it. “The stock market is rigged,” he told 60 Minutes flatly. His comments set off a firestorm of debate as to whether sharp techies and their fast computers are screwing small investors. As titillating …

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The Ethanol Disaster

Last November, when the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) proposed moderating years of escalating mandates by reducing the amount of ethanol that must be mixed into gasoline, a top ethanol lobbyist seemed perplexed. “We’re all just sort of scratching our heads here today and wondering why this administration is telling us to burn less of a …

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Your 5-Step Medical Tourism Checklist

Why Is U.S. Health Care So Much More Expensive? After years of research and many conversations with health policy experts, I see three key culprits of  expensive health care in the U.S. In no particular order, they are the third-party payer system (i.e., employer-provided health care), malpractice suits, and administra­tive support costs/paperwork. The unintended consequence …

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The Changing Face of National Security

At the recently concluded Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian security officials used state of the art facial recognition software to identify potential terrorists. Today, Byron King takes a closer look at this sophisticated new technology and what it means for the future of national security. Read on…

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Discover Your Inner Economist

When you think of economists, you might think of policy pundits arguing ideas on how to fix the country’s stagnant economy. But that’s only part of their job. Most of the time, their job boils down to decision-making, and how to make the best decision based on your particular circumstance.

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Why Minimum Wage Means Maximum Slavery

Politicians who love Big Government love talking about the minimum wage. It’s one of the few policy where they don’t have to ask their constituents to pony up the extra tax dollars to pay the higher costs. Instead, they pass the buck to business owners. They can’t print money, nor can they can force you to pay more. So they cut back hours and fire the very workers politicians tried to help. But that’s how things go when you mess with the economy.

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How the Post Office Killed Digital Mail

Technological progress moves the world forward. It finds ways to do things better, for less money, while using fewer resources. And if you ask any politician, they’ll tell you that’s the way to grow the economy and get America back on track. But if that progress threatens one of the government’s sacred programs, then that’s a different story. One that results in a crackdown on progress, and protection of the status quo.

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Democracy Is a Joke

No one loves democracy more than the politicians in power because of it. But just because you get to vote every year or so doesn’t mean the system works. In fact, the system could be responsible for its fair share of problems. But democracy’s become sacred in the U.S. And no one bothers to question it.

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Against the Crowd: Buy Treasurys

Economists aren’t physicists. But they sure do like to act like they are sometimes. When scientists reach a consensus about something, it usually means they’re breaking new ground on a theory based on hard facts and proven evidence. When economists agree on something, it shows the limitations of a field that tries to model how humans are supposed to behave. And that’s where the danger lies. Especially when it comes to things like U.S. Treasurys.

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A Giant Pain in the Wallet

The Food and Drug Administration will tell you they’re there to protect you. To make sure the food and medicine you put in your body won’t hurt you. But good intentions and actual results rarely match up. Instead, the FDA’s drug certification process has made it easy for business to corner drug markets, and jack up prices. In the end, the only thing the FDA protects are these companies’ profits.

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The Great Keynesian Fraud

Ask a D.C. insider what’s the best way to solve the debt crisis. Nine times out of ten, they’ll recommend taking on more debt. That’s how things operate in the Potomac swamp. Up is down, right is left, digging yourself into more debt is the best way to get out of it. But it wasn’t always like this. In fact, there used to be common sense when it came to the economy. So where did it all go wrong?

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Why Heartbleed Will Change the Internet as You Know It

The Heartbleed bug is a massive security flaw that could put you and your personal information at risk. And while there are things you can do to limit the damage and protect yourself, you haven’t yet seen the ramifications of this security disaster. The Internet in the post-Heartbleed world won’t look like anything you’ve seen before.

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First, They Came for the Doctors

Politicians talk about the uninsured. Special interests argue on behalf of those with pre-existing conditions. But why is no one wondering how doctors are affected by the new law? They’re the ones on the frontlines dealing directly with new patients, as well as the red tape that makes bureaucracies go round.

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Let a Thousand Home Businesses Bloom

Politicians proclaim the benefits of small business while on the campaign trail. But when they meet in the seedy halls of Congress, they have no problem doing whatever they can to stifle, regulate, and subdue their progress. Instead of siding with entrepreneurs, these politicians often side with political allies and cronies that helped put them into office.