The Antitrust Case Against Occupational Licensing Boards

More work for Trump! MAGA! For more limited and smaller government!

"Occupational licensing boards today act like protectors of cartels, often going beyond merely issuing licenses to launching witch hunts and boxing out their competitors. February 2025 marks the 10-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC. In that case, that state’s dental licensing board was ruled to be acting like a monopolist (using the power given to it by the state government) by trying to drive non-dentist teeth whiteners out of business. This policy forum will discuss the policy landscape that resulted from that decision and what it should mean for liberty-minded policymakers and litigators in the future."

The Antitrust Case Against Occupational Licensing Boards

International Council of Nurses (ICN) Proposes Moratorium On Recruitment Of Nurses From Developing Countries. Really!

Thus, patients will suffer! This is plain old protectionism likely based on some pretentious and wrong exploitation ideology!

The ICN is trying to create and intensify artificial shortages in order to demand higher wages! This playbook is well known!

These foreign nurses earn more money they can then repatriate. They gain more experience and have more training to benefit their home countries after they return. And so on ...

"The International Council of Nurses is calling on the WHO to consider a limited moratorium on the active recruitment of nurses from 55 countries with the most severe health worker shortages, following a “dramatic surge” in recruitment of nurses from LMICs."

"The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to consider a “time-limited moratorium of active recruitment of nurses” from countries on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguard List.

This follows a “dramatic surge” in the recruitment of nurses from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) by wealthy countries, according to the ICN. ..."

Global Health NOW: Africa’s Growing Drug Resistance; Babies at the Center of Sepsis Crisis; and Expanding Screening in Mongolia

International Body Proposes Moratorium On Recruitment Of Nurses From Developing Countries - Health Policy Watch

ICN contributes to Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel

The U.S. Government Created the Baby Formula Shortage

Very recommendable! Imports from Europe and Canada essentially prohibited! Excessive control by FDA and so on

Bring Down Barriers to Interstate Telemedicine

Breakdown the medical profession protection from competition racket! This misguided and expensive protectionism needs to be reduced! This exaggerated protectionism typically in the guise of consumer safety is unconstitutional!

"... In particular, interstate telemedicine—in which physicians serve patients in other states—can facilitate access to care for patients with rare medical problems and to those in underserved parts of the country. It can increase competition across the country, make providers more responsive to patients and help to control healthcare costs. ..."

Bring Down Barriers to Interstate Telemedicine | Cato Institute Many governors waived restrictions on cross‐​state practice, concerned that a heavy load of COVID patients would require access to additional clinicians. Yet we should not overlook that, even during normal times, telemedicine serves a multitude of functions.

Currency Manipulator China - An Irrational Obsession Of Mitt Romney

Candidate With Business Acumen, But A Poor Economist

No doubt, Mitt Romney is an accomplished business man, someone the USA urgently needs to end four years of agonizing und unnecessary Great Recession. However, his understanding of economics seems to be poor as can be shown by his insistence of China being a currency manipulator.

I do not understand which voters Mitt Romney is trying to win with this campaign motto, but if he is smart he would drop it instantly. How much is to be gained with such a slogan versus how much is destroyed by it?

Romney’s Trade Campaign Platform On China

Under “Trade Issues” we read “Confronting China. China presents a broad set of problems that cry out urgently for solutions. …
•Designate China a currency manipulator and impose countervailing duties …” (Emphasis added).

This is certainly overly aggressive language, more suited perhaps for the national defense issue page.

Currency Manipulation & Countervailing Duties

Both terms are taken from the tool box of a mercantilist or protectionist. Both have been tried in the past with considerable negative consequences.

The US thanks to its Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, preceded by the similar Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922, has greatly contributed to the severity of the Great Depression.

Currency manipulation is in the eye of the beholder. Is it currency manipulation that the US keeps short term interest rates for years at artificially and recklessly low rates?

A currency is a two edged sword. It is a measure of value of money of one country versus the value of money in other countries. If one country decides to control the value of its currency to be cheap versus the rest of the world so be it. As most relationships in economics it has benefits, but also disadvantages. A devalued currency promotes exports, but it makes imports more expensive and so on. Thus, China, which is highly dependent on imports of resources and technology, pays a price for devaluing its currency.

The US Needs A Strong Economic Recovery Above Anything Else

The World, including China, is waiting for that to happen!

People, who sit in a glass house should not be throwing stones. That is counterproductive. Meaning, China has acquired a trillion and more dollars in US government bonds, thus helping the federal government to finance its extraordinary debt binge of the past decade. At present, a highly indebted country with a weak economy like the US ought to be careful what it wishes for.