Gore Inhales
IMF Scale-back?
What Recession?
McCain on Health Care
Gore Inhales
Vice President Al Gore broke with Clinton Administration policy yesterday by saying the government should give doctors greater flexibility in prescribing marijuana to relieve suffering.
Roger Pilon testified before Congress about the medical marijuana referenda movement in 1997 and its implications on federalism. Doug Bandow took Steve Forbes to task in "Forbes Is Wrong On Medical Marijuana," after the candidate campaigned against the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
IMF Scale-back?
Treasury Secretary Larry Summers yesterday proposed that the IMF stop providing long-term loans to the better-off developing nations, reports the Wall Street Journal. Instead, he suggested the IMF focus on quick emergency loans and pre-approved credit to prevent financial crises.
In "Is There a Need for an International Lender of Last Resort?" Anna J. Schwartz shows that International Monetary Fund meddling proves to be counterproductive, in fact hurting the countries it is trying to help. William Niskanen examines how to reshape the global financial architecture and the role of the IMF in it in the Cato Journal (pdf). In "IMF Failure Redux" Doug Bandow looks at the IMF's handling of the Brazilian financial crisis, finding that "yet again, the IMF is a problem, not a solution."
What Recession?
Petroleum is less relevant in the New Economy, declares the Wall Street Journal in front- page story today. Despite the fact that oil prices are at a decade high, the consumer price index had increased a paltry 0.1% -- unlike the past oil-driven recessions of 1973 and 1980. The reason: improving technology, liberalized trade and expansion of investment capital. Robert Bradley discussed these trends earlier this year in "The Increasing Sustainability of Conventional Energy" (pdf).
McCain on Health Care
Presidential contender John McCain became the latest candidate to enter the health care reform debate, proposing a plan that would allow patients a limited right to sue their HMOs for denying them treatment. He also endorsed tort reform and a "responsible" patient bill of rights. Greg Scandlen critiques another candidate's proposals in "Three Cheers for Bill Bradley." He also recently spoke to delegates of the American Medical Association about medical savings accounts.
Brink Lindsey wrote about "patient power" in the Cato Institute's plan for health care reform. The plan calls for control over spending to be put back in the hands of individual patients -- allowing people to make deposits to tax-free Medical Savings Accounts.
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