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1821. Abortion Nation

Author:
James Q. Wilson
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When South Dakota passed a law banning all abortions save those that threaten the physical health of the mother, opponents of abortion were cheered and defenders of it outraged. I think both sides were mistaken.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, Health, and Human Rights

1822. Bond Market Bubble?

Author:
John H. Makin
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On Tuesday, January 18, the yield on fifty-year inflation-protected U.K. government bonds (what the British call "indexed-linked gilts") dropped to 0.38 percent, about one-seventh the historical average of just over 2.6 percent for such debt instruments. Just a few months earlier, that yield had been over 1 percent, still extraordinarily low by historical standards, and especially low in an economy that has experienced fifty-three consecutive quarters of positive growth. A yield drop from 1 percent to 0.38 percent on a fifty-year bond corresponds to a 30 percent rise in its price over a period of just three months. That is an annual return of over 100 percent, much higher than the 13 percent annual increase in U.S. house prices at midyear and the 20 to 30 percent gains seen in the stock market before the March 2000 crash. The asset bubble has spread to long-term government bonds, especially those with inflation protection. What is going on here?
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, United Kingdom, and Europe

1823. Where Preparation Meets Opportunity: The Future of Freedom

Author:
Charles Murray
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Atlas Foundation provided Charles Murray with an occasion to consider the influence of classical liberal ideas on policy and also to speculate on what lies ahead.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government

1824. Why Poverty Doesn't Rate

Author:
Nicholas Eberstadt
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Without a clearer understanding of the serious flaws in the government's official measure of poverty, most initiatives aimed at reducing poverty in the United States will be needlessly ineffective. New measures that take into account contemporary lifestyles and the dynamic U.S. economy will be more useful in helping the poor.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States

1825. American Exceptionalism

Author:
James Q. Wilson
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When President George W. Bush said that America hopes to spread democracy to all the world, he was echoing a sentiment many people support. Though Americans do not put “extending democracy” near the top of their list of foreign policy objectives (preventing terrorism is their chief goal), few would deny that if popular rule is extended it would improve lives around the world. Democracy, of course, means rule by the people. But the devil is in the details. By one count, the number of democracies quintupled in the second half of the twentieth century, but there are freedom- loving and freedom-disdaining democracies. Fareed Zakaria calls the latter “illiberal democracies.” Among them are Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
Topic:
International Relations, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:
Pakistan, United States, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela

1826. Iran Against the Arabs

Author:
Michael Rubin
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
After Hamas kidnapped nineteen-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25, Israeli forces launched an assault on Gaza to win his release. Arab condemnation was swift. Saudi Arabia's pro- government al-Jazira daily called Israel “a society of terrorists.” Egypt's state-controlled al-Gumhuriyah condemned Israel's “heinous crimes” in Gaza. Following a July 8 meeting in Tehran, foreign ministers from countries neighboring Iraq denounced the “brutal Israeli attacks.”
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Israel, Tehran, Gaza, Arab Countries, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt

1827. Cop Out - Why Afghanistan Has No Police

Author:
Vance Serchuk
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When rioting sparked by a fatal traffic accident involving the U.S. military suddenly broke out in Kabul in May, most in the city were taken by surprise. Less shocking was the response of the Afghan National Police (ANP) to the unrest. Rather than dispersing the mobs and restoring order, Kabul's cops were reported fleeing their posts and, in some cases, joining the looters. “The reaction of our police was really shameful,” acknowledged Jawed Ludin, chief of staff to President Hamid Karzai. Unfortunately, the sorry performance of the ANP was not an isolated event, but a reflection of a much bigger problem. Nearly five years since the ouster of the Taliban and more than three since the fall of Saddam, the Bush administration has repeatedly stumbled in its efforts to create effective foreign police forces. In marked contrast to the army-building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have begun to yield encouraging results, the indigenous police in both countries appear stuck in a transition to nowhere, slaughtered by insurgents and infiltrated by militias and warlords.
Topic:
Government, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, Middle East, Taliban, and Kabul

1828. Who's Playing Politics?

Author:
Edward Blum, Roger Clegg, and Abigail Thernstrom
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Government memos leaked to the press are nothing new in Washington, yet they can still command a front-page, above-the-fold headline. The latest came on December 2, 2005, when the Washington Post trumpeted, “Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting as Illegal; Voting Rights Finding on Map Pushed by DeLay Was Overruled.” (Part of this story was recycled by the Post on Monday, January 23, in another front-page, above-the-fold story.) The story that followed loosely described the contents of a 2003 internal Department of Justice memo written by career staffers in the voting section of the civil-rights division. Those staffers—five lawyers and two analysts—had concluded that the Congressional redistricting plan Texas had recently submitted to them for approval was in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act because it “retrogressed”—or, more simply, “diminished”—the electoral position of blacks and Hispanics. Then attorney general John Ashcroft and the political appointees in the civil-rights division—as well as, incidentally, a career lawyer higher in the chain of command (a fact that the Post failed to note)—rejected the memo's findings and allowed Texas to implement the new plan.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and Washington

1829. Striking a Balance: Drug Labeling and the FDA

Author:
John E. Calfee
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
With the fourth Vioxx lawsuit currently under way, a fourth jury is in the thick of trying to determine whether Merck is indeed liable for any injuries that may or may not have arisen from the use of its blockbuster arthritis drug. The trials have highlighted bad tort bar science in all its dubious glory—from questionable pathology reports to seriously exaggerated claims about the dangers of Vioxx—but they also raise a deeper issue. Every drug presents patients and doctors with a trade-off between benefits and risks. But how can physicians and drug companies strike a balance in the age of a hyperactive litigation? Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) weighed in on that question when it published a long-awaited rule to simplify drug labels. Up to now, extensive, cringe-inducing lists of every imaginable side effect of a medicine were a drug company's best hope of immunizing itself from lawsuits down the road. The FDA wants to simplify those impenetrable reams of fine print by preempting state-court lawsuits claiming that an FDA-approved label failed to warn patients of a potential danger.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Health, and Human Welfare

1830. A Palestinian Grand Bargain: Abbas's Government, Hamas's Program

Author:
Ben Fishman and Mohammed Yagi
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Rumors of a newly formed Palestinian unity government have been ubiquitous in recent weeks, yet Hamas and Fatah appear to be closer than ever to reaching an agreement. Their unity talks survived even the tragic killing of twenty Palestinian civilians on November 8 in Beit Hanun, an incident that would ordinarily derail such negotiations. Both Hamas and Fatah understand the severity of the current political crisis and recognize they must move beyond this impasse to avoid further civil violence.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine