Online Privacy, Credit Cards and Organ Donation
Members of the House Technology & Internet Subcommittee hear testimony on alleged abuses of consumer privacy by internet marketers.
President Obama meets with credit card executives, warning them that new regulations of the industry are on the way.
New York lawmakers declare April to be Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month.
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1. TECHNOLOGY
Members of the House Technology & Internet Subcommittee hear testimony on alleged abuses of consumer privacy by internet marketers.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Information Policy Analyst Ryan Radia on why the hearing is a false alarm:
“Imposing rigid mandates on user-level monitoring would stifle innovative new ways of connecting buyers and sellers. Internet advertising revenue is essential to online content creators, including many local newspapers. Especially during a recession, Web users stand to benefit from technologies that enhance free content by increasing the value of users’ eyeballs.”
2. BUSINESS
President Obama meets with credit card executives, warning them that new regulations of the industry are on the way.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on why Obama should have met with economists instead:
“…consumers and the economy will pay an even higher price if further restrictions are enacted such as proposed caps on annual percentage rates. Politicians don’t seem to grasp that expanding credit responsibly is incompatible with limiting risk-based pricing. Again, responsible card holders — some of whom don’t even pay interest because they completely pay off their balances — could lose out in the form of the return of annual fees and the loss of credit card “rewards” such as airline miles to make up for the costs from bans on risk-based pricing.”
3. HEALTH
New York lawmakers declare April to be Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Jennifer Monti on why the U.S. should allow live donors to be compensated for their donations:
“The debate over payment for live organ donation comes into sharpest focus when applied to real people in the medical office. By the time the sun sets today, 18 people will have died waiting for a kidney transplant that never arrived. Several people with liver disease will turn a darker shade of yellow as bilirubin piles up in the blood. Medical science is ready and waiting to save these people’s lives, but policy remains a roadblock. The development of a regulated market for payment to live organ donors will drastically reduce the waiting lists for organ transplants in the United States. How much is that worth? The smart money is on priceless.”
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