Does planning have to work to be successful?

We Oregonians believe many myths about ourselves that just don’t happen to be true. As a visioning group created by the Governor put it not too long ago: We Love Dreamers!

For instance, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently came to town and congratulated Portland on reducing its carbon emissions to 1990 levels. Portland has asked for and received world-wide recognition for . . . Read more!

Those who advocate using the federal Medicare program as a model for “universal health care” in America claim that it only spends two percent of its budget on administrative functions.

But that pales in comparison to what Harvard professor Malcolm Sparrow believes may be the 20 percent eaten up in fraud and mismanagement. Parade magazine recently reported that Sparrow sees $70 billion of Medicare’s 400 billion dollar budget going toward . . . Read more!

Last year the Oregon legislature passed three bills (HB 2210, 2211 and 2212) to subsidize and to provide incentives to Oregonians to produce biofuels. Promotion of homegrown ethanol and similar biofuels was seen as an answer to high global oil prices and supply worries. The Oregon Environmental Council predicted 100 million gallons would be produced annually by the year 2010.

Now, a brewing world food crisis has hit the headlines. World food prices have . . . Read more!

Recently the Environmental Protection Agency tightened the standard for ground-level ozone by 11 percent. Ozone is formed by the mixing of certain pollutants such as car exhaust in the presence of sunlight, and can irritate lungs and damage crops.

Predictably, local environmentalists immediately complained that the reduction didn’t . . . Read more!

A recent analysis by two prominent economists pegs the eventual cost of our war in Iraq at a mind-boggling three trillion dollars. Only World War II topped that, at a current dollar cost of $3.2 trillion. For comparison, the Vietnam War cost us only $650 billion, less than one-third as much.

Opponents of the war argue that there are more important things to . . . Read more!

Starting with the beginnings of life on earth, change has been a constant and mysterious catalyst for growth. We humans would not exist if it weren’t for change. The comforts we are privileged to enjoy are results of the quest to make a change for the better. Science and the study of historical patterns can benefit the well-being of humans in myriad ways. The science of agriculture allowed our early ancestors to feed more people without the necessity of a nomadic lifestyle; change that encouraged the growth of culture and community.

We humans embrace the idea of . . . Read more!

The Portland City Council, in its collective wisdom, imposed a system of public campaign financing in 2005. The goal was to reduce the impact of large special interest dollars on campaigns for city offices. So how’s that working out?

First, in 2006, Emily Boyles received $145,000 in . . . Read more!

Recently, the Oregon Board of Education took up the issue of whether and how to regulate online or “virtual” charter schools. A state law, passed in 2005 at the request of the teachers union, places severe restrictions on virtual charter schools that would essentially prevent them from operating without a waiver from the Board. The law gives the Board the power to set the conditions under which any online charter school can operate.

After much deliberation, the Board decided last week to . . . Read more!

In the early 1980s federal investment in research and development of agricultural machines was suspended because of a political campaign by the prominent United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez to protect farm workers’ jobs and the technological challenges of that time.

Today the situation has changed. Now American farms are seriously disturbed about . . . Read more!

William F. Buckley, Jr. died last week at his home in Connecticut. He was 82.

Known as a founder of the modern conservative movement, Buckley had a great impact on many people over the years, both through his books, articles, National Review magazine and Firing Line television show that ran for 33 years, the longest-running public affairs show in TV history with a single host. . . . Read more!

A recent study suggested that nearly half of the cost of a home in the Seattle area is due to land-use regulations.

The study, by University of Washington Economics professor Theo Eicher, was highlighted in a recent article in the Seattle Times.

Professor Eicher’s research shows that the . . . Read more!

A recent article in Resurgence Magazine (December 2007) makes the claim that our free-market economy “lacks a moral compass” and is “value-free.” The author proposes a moral compass for the economy based on values pointing towards the environment and fulfilling human needs.

However, this sort of economy overlooks the . . . Read more!

Within the last week, two major news stories have demonstrated why politicians should not try to plan the economy. First, Science magazine published the results of several studies showing that the mad rush to promote ethanol and other biofules as a tool for “fighting global warming” is generating a substantial net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The studies found that clearing rainforest or grasslands for conversion to croplands (necessary as the feedstock for ethanol production) releases large amounts of carbon.

The second news story, published in The Oregonian, focused on . . . Read more!

Last year two important developments took place in Oregon that favored low-income workers’ access to mobility, but they did not receive much media coverage.

First, automobiles were included in the transformative asset category of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to facilitate asset-building opportunities for low-income Oregonians.

Second, a car ownership program called Opportunity Cars was . . . Read more!

Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy released a report last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, alleging that the United States ranked only 39th among 149 countries in terms of environmental protection. According to the authors, the U.S. lags Russia, Albania and Croatia, and barely edges out Cuba.

Anyone who has ever traveled internationally would be surprised at . . . Read more!

Last week’s Oregon Health Summit in Salem featured experts talking with legislators, providers and others about how to reform our ailing health care system. One pair of speakers really highlighted the contrast between competing approaches.

On one side, a Wal-Mart executive told the audience that the nation’s largest retailer was pioneering programs that are driving down health care costs and driving up satisfaction for . . . Read more!

While the debate continues over top-down, government-provided health care vs. consumer-driven, grassroots health care, here are some interesting points to consider.

First, the government- provided approach. Many say that affordability would not be an issue, given a payroll tax to pay for universal coverage. However, any time a tax is levied, more of “middle America” loses earned income. This leads to an increasing burden on working families, without any guarantee of . . . Read more!

The Portland Public School Board recently denied all four requests from charter school applicants who wanted to offer more options for Portland children in the 2008-09 school year.

The Willamette Week described the meeting this way:

“Charter schools got no love Monday night from Portland Public Schools’ Board of Education. The board unanimously rejected four new charter applications in a two-hour smackdown that . . . Read more!

Contrary to what the interest groups who run our public education system keep saying, the general public understands their schools aren’t all that they could be. A recent nationwide poll of 1,000 adults by The Economist Magazine reveals an interesting picture of how voters feel about public education.

Only 13% say “Too little money” is the most important problem . . . Read more!

Do you believe in Santa Claus? By the time many people think they are too old to believe in Santa Claus, they have unwittingly come to believe in another one—a figurative Santa Claus that goes by the name of “welfare state,” or “big government.” But Santa would be insulted by the comparison.

The real Santa Claus is . . . Read more!