Genetically Engineered Salmon, Cash for Clunkers Failure, Union War
Genetically Engineered Salmon
Over the last two decades, the use of modern genetic engineering technology to produce pharmaceuticals and new crop plants has given rise to prodigious scientific, humanitarian and financial successes. But its application to animals for food has lagged behind despite the fact that animal protein is expensive and increasingly sought-after worldwide.
Today in the Los Angeles Times, CEI Fellow Henry Miller argues that the lag in scientific innovation can be blamed on public policy, not technical difficulty.
“Thousands of animals with genes deleted or added have been engineered for scientific purposes; the catalog of available lines resembles the telephone directory of a small city, and these animals have made incalculable contributions to the understanding of mammalian gene function in health and disease. Rather, the obstacles have their origins in public policy, particularly government regulation.”
Cash for Clunkers Study
A new NBER working paper from Atif Mia and Amir Sufi finds that the Cash-for-Clunkers program didn’t work.
On Openmarket.org, CEI’s Warren T. Brooks Journalism Fellow Ryan Young argues that cash for clunkers didn’t change how much people spent. It only changed when they spent.
“As the data come in, they are proving what theory predicts: fiscal stimulus doesn’t work. President George W. Bush tried Keynesian stimulus in 2001. It didn’t work. He tried again in 2003. It didn’t work then, either. President Obama’s stimulus programs aren’t faring any better.“
California’s Union War
Voting began Monday in one of the most disputed union elections in recent years. The contest pits the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU) against the upstart National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which was created last year by former officials of a SEIU affiliate in Oakland, California.
In the American Spectator, CEI’s Ivan Osorio, Labor Policy Analyst, and Vincent Vernuccio, Labor Policy Counsel, outline why this fight centers on the future of unionism in America.
“The campaign in California is proving a testing ground for new, aggressive organizing tactics. Whichever union wins, worker freedom may be the ultimate loser.“