The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. HEALTH

The Food and Drug Administration approves the first fully implantable artificial heart.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman finds that two-thirds of cardiologists think that the FDA is too slow in approving new treatments, drugs and devices:

“FDA reform is frequently attacked as a pet project of big business that will allegedly open the door to snake oil remedies. This characterization is wrong. As these polls demonstrate, for many medical specialists, fighting heart disease and cancer can often mean fighting FDA. If this isn’t a public health problem in need of reform, what is?”

2. ENERGY

A massive new oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico could contain as many as 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on why Congress should move to open more coastal areas for energy exploration:

“If Senate was really interested in helping provide affordable energy for American consumers, they would follow the lead of the House and allow coastal states to allow oil and gas exploration along the entire outer continental shelf.”

3. BUSINESS

Coca-Cola faces campus boycotts over issues of corporate social responsibility.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Regulatory Policy Analyst Isaac Post on the ideological background of the CSR movement:

“Though CSR was labeled by free-market icon Milton Friedman as a ‘subversive doctrine,’ much of the business community has embraced it, arguing that it is simply ‘good for our business.’ Opponents of CSR have naturally argued the contrary, emphasizing the economic costs of following such a ‘misguided virtue’ as CSR. But little attention has been paid to the actual arguments made by advocates of CSR within the business community. This is a shame, because a closer analysis of the “business case for CSR” shows that it is, indeed, based on a set of assumptions that undermine the legitimacy of the free-enterprise system.”  

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI Open Market.

Watch the latest video episode from the Bureaucrash Activist Network: Vodcrash #3.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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