A BRIDGE in the Stimulus That Everyone Could Support
The Senate signed the “stimulus” bill today and is headed to a tough conference with the House. People of differing opinions can have honest debate about whether or not this thing is going to work, and to what degree. Unfortunately there’s one idea that everybody seems to like and yet nobody decided to include. Back in 2001, then-Rep. Jim DeMint championed the BRIDGE (Business Retained Income During Growth and Expansion) Act, a measure with wide bi-partisan support that would help [...]
Bahraini web crackdown sparks protests
Yahoo!Tech reports that “[a] Bahraini crackdown on websites the government deems indecent or socially explosive has triggered calls for reforms by rights activists and bloggers, who say the ban tarnishes the kingdom's reputation for openness. ‘Instead of tackling the social issues people discuss online, the government blocks websites. But that does not change the reality,’ said Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights.” The New York Times writes that, according to Click Forensics (a firm that analyzes [...]
Making it easier for venture capital firms to invest in German companies is a good idea – excluding foreign VC firms is not
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into planned German tax advantages (known in Germany as "MoRaKG") for venture capital companies and individuals investing in target enterprises. The proposed German capital investment law would aim to facilitate the provision of risk capital to young, medium-sized companies by providing tax advantages to VC firms and to individuals investing in target enterprises. But while EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes agrees that “[r]isk capital is essential for [...]
Protectionism may be seductive during an economic crisis – but it’s highly dangerous
Yahoo!News reveals that “Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher warned on Monday against ‘Buy America’ provisions in a proposed fiscal stimulus law and said it could lead to devastating trade protectionism. ‘Let me just be blunt. Protectionism is the crack cocaine of economics. It may provide a high. It's addictive and it leads to economic death,’ Fisher told C-Span television in an interview for its ‘Washington Journal’ program. President Barack Obama seeks a $825 billion stimulus plan to end the [...]
Let’s avoid shooting ourselves in the foot by mandating open standards
On January 21, the European Enterprise Institute (EEI) hosted a conference in Brussels which was entitled “IP-Free Open Standards in ICT: Another EU Own Goal in The Innovation Race?” The conference’s attendees discussed where pressure for the use of open standards in the EU is coming from, and whether the populist rhetoric calling for “openness” risks turning Europe into an innovation dead zone. The European Commission is currently preparing to lay out a strategy for the ICT sector in the [...]
Click fraud reaches all time high
CNetNews.com reports that “[t]hanks in part to armies of compromised computers, click fraud reached an all-time high in the fourth quarter. Click fraud lets Web sites increase revenue from ads supplied by services such as Google's AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network, though those companies take measures to screen out bogus links so advertisers don't have to pay. But that doesn't stop people from trying, according to a new report from Click Forensics, a company that monitors for click fraud [...]