Liberty
Probing the link between oil and gas prices
Robert Romano writes for the Daily Torch about the impact of falling oil prices on gas prices. “The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate…
Market power
Liberty
Health care reforms stymied by ‘Big Hospitals’
Christopher Jacobs writes for the Federalist about a key factor limiting the prospects for significant health care reform. How’s this for bipartisanship? Groups on both the left and the right…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Federal government pushes small businesses toward Amazon
Leif Le Mahieu writes for the Washington Free Beacon about Biden administration policies that promote Amazon. The federal government is steering small businesses to do more business with Amazon to…
Liberty
Re: Attorney General Stein joins investigation into Google, Facebook
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has joined a multi-state “investigation” into the practices of Google and Facebook: In the Google investigation, Stein joins a coalition of 50 attorneys general…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
The Coastland Times picks up piece by JLF’s Jordan Roberts
The Coastland Times republished column by JLF’s Jordan Roberts on hospital mergers on Sunday. Roberts writes that these mergers can be bad for patients for two reasons: price and quality.…
Health Care
NC’s Atrium Health participated in anti-competitive practices
The Justice Department settled a lawsuit in which the North Carolina-based Atrium Health hospital system was said to have participated in anti-competitive practices: The antitrust suit against Atrium Health focused…
Health Care
What triggers skyrocketing health care costs?
Provider Consolidation. The more market power a hospital has, the more leverage it has over insurance companies – resulting in higher prices for services and higher costs for patients. Blue Cross…
Health Care
Override?
There’s a lot of health policy going on this week in North Carolina and nationally, so we’ll just summarize this week. Gov. Perdue owns ObamaCare with her veto of HB2,…
Liberty
Wal-Mart to the Rescue
Lefties are experiencing cognitive dissonance this morning as Wal-Mart (bad) offers $4 generic drugs (good). This means the world’s largest retailer is using its market power to force suppliers to…
Liberty
More on Wal-Mart
People worry about Wal-Mart’s size and market power–I hear about it all the time. But I haven’t heard anything negative about the new bill that writes a government check bigger…
Liberty
Another Type of Welfare, Really
Various governments and supermarket unions are working hard to keep Wal-Mart out of the Washington, D.C. area: Giant Foods, Safeway and Shoppers Food control 55 percent of the local grocery…