The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. CONGRESS

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming holds a hearing on high gas prices.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow on gas price politics:

“As gas prices rose [last summer], customers blamed gas station owners and oil producers alike. Politicians moved from somnolence to frenzy at record speed. Never mind that there were many reasons for rising prices: Officeholders and candidates alike campaigned to stem energy costs. […]But prices soon fell dramatically, and remain well below their peak, when a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline ran about $3.00. The price of crude oil dropped by 35 percent from its high. If the energy producers controlled prices, why did prices decline?”

2. FINANCE

The shake-up in the “subprime” lending market trickles up to the luxury home market as well.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on why lending markets need informed consumers, not government restrictions:

“A leader in the fight against what it calls “predatory lending” is the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), part of the Self-Help group of non-profits run by Martin Eakes in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />North Carolina. CRL wants to outlaw all sorts of financial products from the portfolio currently available to the ‘subprime’ market, i.e. those with weak or bad credit.”

3. INTERNATIONAL

Bill Clinton brokers a deal with drug companies to provide cheaper anti-AIDS drugs to patients in the developing world.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Roger Bate on the challenges of fighting HIV/AIDS in poor countries:

“Although the antiretroviral drug regimens for HIV have been greatly simplified in recent years, doctors and nurses need specific training in order to dispense them properly. Ensuring that patients are treated regularly and can rely on good stocks of medicines requires reliable drug procurement and logistics and good storage facilities, including continuous cold storage during transport and at the treatment centers. In addition, patients need to see physicians and other trained medical personnel several times before they begin treatment, several times during the first 3 months of treatment and then at regular 3 month intervals. Patients should still have a good support network at home so as to ensure that they take the right drugs at the right time and stick rigorously to the treatment requirements. In addition, patients should have support at home to assist with the side effects of treatment.”

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

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