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May 22, 2013, 11:30 am
By
David J. Kappos
Patent law is a pragmatic body of law, and any useful reevaluation
of America’s patent system must start with facts, not theory.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 21, 2013, 3:25 pm
By
Rear Adm. Thomas Cropper and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.)
“Go West young man, go West.”
These words by author
Horace Greeley in the mid-1800s helped spur the American westward
movement that ultimately created the state of California. Tomorrow marks
National Maritime Day, and Greeley’s words resonate all the more
strongly for the citizens of our maritime state as we embark upon the
American Pacific century. We need only look West once more to find
golden opportunities on our Pacific doorstep.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 20, 2013, 5:30 pm
By
Robert Atkinson
As globalization and offshoring have ramped up, the left and right have both responded with failed strategies. The
right’s response has been Panglossian, denying the problem. The left’s
response has been vituperative, and worse in its consequences. When
liberals see U.S. companies sourcing globally, they don’t see trade,
they see betrayal. They don’t see the inexorable creation of an
integrated global market — they see, in the words of Lou Dobbs, a “War
on the Middle Class.”
These observers miss the fact that the
United States is in a race for global innovation advantage that requires
policies that promote a competitive business climate to attract
investment instead of repel it. Notwithstanding the recent surge in
energy production, American companies still face sharp competition as
other countries become more attractive places to do business.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 20, 2013, 4:30 pm
By
Jon Potter
The patent system is intended “to promote progress of science and the
useful arts.” However, in the fast-moving mobile app industry, we are
witnessing the opposite: patents are slowing innovation and serving the
interests of exploitative patent trolls. Sometimes referred to as
patent assertion entities (PAEs), patent trolls do not develop or sell
new technologies. Instead, they build patent portfolios in order to turn
around and license them to operating companies. The burden that this
places on innovators drags down our economic recovery, slows job
creation and effectively taxes our most innovative products and
services. Despite important efforts like the America Invents Act (AIA),
passed by Congress in 2011, the patent troll problem is getting worse.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 20, 2013, 12:30 pm
By
Greg Hollis
With the economy slowing improving, there are several issues that are
hurting small businesses in a negative way and still causing
small-business owners many sleepless nights.
Recent sequestration
has sent government contractors, a significant sector of our economy,
into retraction. Large businesses have garnered uncertainty, thus
initiating some spending pullback. This affects small businesses in a
myriad of ways; large businesses often keep small businesses afloat by
purchasing from them, or partnering with them. When large businesses
sneeze, small businesses catch colds. Not to mention that the government
does business with thousands of small businesses directly. These
business are now either in a "holding pattern" or outright experiencing
some downsizing directly due to the sequester. There is no upside for
small businesses as a result of the sequester.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 16, 2013, 1:00 pm
By
Larry Thompson
There are three distinct phases of leadership when attempting to
implement change: vision, structure and implementation. This same
process can be applied to congressional leadership regarding U.S.
financial reform.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 15, 2013, 3:00 pm
By
Greg Simon and Gregg Wilkinson
Last week’s Department of Labor announcement of the drop in unemployment showed signs of life in the economy, driven in part by a booming U.S. housing market that has been on a roll for several quarters. New homes mean new materials from foundation to roofing, and this is creating a lot of jobs for the manufacturers and distributors of those materials throughout the supply chain. The robust kitchen and bath cabinetry industry alone is an estimated $7 billion industry, according to data from the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association. Good news, right? Unfortunately, this market growth could be stalled and reversed by a direct attack on U.S. manufacturing created by just six companies in a dubious government play to change the dynamics of an important commodity to this industry.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 13, 2013, 4:30 pm
By
AnnMarie McIlwain and Donald Murray
The JOBS Act has the potential to help entrepreneurs finance their small
and emerging growth businesses through “crowdfunding,” but only if we
get the costs right. In the year since the measure was signed into law,
online technology platforms have continued to successfully disrupt the
costs of fundraising, necessitating a reevaluation by the Securities and
Exchange Commission of some components of the law before completing the
regulations.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 10, 2013, 5:30 pm
By
Tom Cochran
Main Street merchants, still reeling from the economic devastation of
the Great Recession, are one step closer to fair and equal treatment in
the collection of sales taxes, thanks to the Senate’s recent passage of
the Marketplace Fairness Act. The law, which passed with bipartisan
ease, is long overdue and aims to rectify a distorted marketplace that
gives online retailers an unfair edge over their brick-and-mortar
competitors.
However, it faces a steep uphill battle in the
U.S. House of Representatives, and has already been tarnished by grossly
inaccurate characterizations by the lobbyists for the online retailers
whose ability to avoid paying any sales tax has put an untold number of
small businesses, with no Internet presence, out of business. The
legislation is neither a new tax nor a tax increase. Rather, at its
core, the bill is about making competition between all merchants —
whether online or over the counter — fair and equitable.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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May 9, 2013, 3:45 pm
By
Martin Neil Baily and Glenn Hubbard
Over the last few days, politically driven critics have called on the
president to abandon his support for changing the way the government
indexes provisions in the budget to inflation by switching to “chained
CPI.” Looking beyond politics, we’re here to say that these critics’
arguments are wrong on their merits.
As economists from opposite
ends of the political spectrum, we would strongly urge the president and
leaders in Congress to continue to support moving to chained CPI, which
represents the most accurate available measure of inflation and
cost-of-living increases. Switching to this more accurate measure of
inflation represents the right technical, fiscal and retirement policy —
and policymakers should not delay any further in making this
improvement.
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Archived under:
Economy & Budget
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