The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. FINANCE
The Senate Finance Committee considers the nomination of Goldman Sachs chairman Henry Paulson to be the next Secretary of the Treasury.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on Paulson’s questionable history as chairman of the Nature Conservancy:
“No conservative administration should consider appointing anyone who works for the Nature Conservancy to any position and certainly not to one carrying the high responsibilities of Treasury Secretary. The financial scandals at the Nature Conservancy uncovered by the Washington Post are only the tip of the iceberg. The Nature Conservancy has served as the agent for turning millions of acres of productive private land into federally-owned land and has made huge profits doing so.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
European Union regulators are expected to find Microsoft guilty of violating EU competition rules, resulting in a fine of as much as $2.5 million a day.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the implications of Microsoft’s experience in Europe:
“The Microsoft case [in Europe] signals a move toward micro-managing the way businesses organize and re-organize over time, a profoundly anti-competitive and dangerous stance. Politicians too often take regulation for granted, unaware of the academic debate on the merits of antitrust.”
3. HEALTH
Democrats in Congress charge the Food and Drug Administration with lax enforcement of drug safety standards.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct General Counsel Sam Kazman on why the FDA’s real problem is its deadly overcaution:
“The real risk is that FDA will slow down its approval of new therapies in response to this critique, further delaying the availability of important new therapies. The only way to guarantee zero risks from medicines is not to approve any medicines, and that would be a public health disaster.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].