How Elastic Is the Demand for Travel?Victoria Transport Policy InstituteRecent studies suggest that the demand for particular modes of travel is becoming more elastic, or more sensitive to price. If so, transportation pricing reforms make sense. Solar Power: Reaching Grid ParityNational Center for Policy AnalysisSolar power is reaching “grid parity” with conventional fuels in Hawaii,…

Ever since the Great Recession, plenty has been written on the fate ofthe U.S. economy, as it naturally would be. Negative themes suddenly shot into the sky practically on the exact day Barack Obama, our firstAfrican-American president, was inaugurated. Many tomes were jeremiads painting very dark and dreary images of our future. We are enormously…

Americans still haven’t come to grips with the magnitude of the Marcellus Shale revolution. Gas companies have perfected two technologies, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking), that have unlocked trillions of cubic feet of natural gas stored in shale beds. Virtually overnight, estimates of recoverable gas reserves in the United States have doubled. The energy…

The stakes are increasing in the Rail-to-Dulles controversy. In light of recent decisions made by the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) that could potentially add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the heavy rail line, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10, has introduced legislation to give Virginia a bigger representation on…

The United States must continue to invest in its transportation infrastructure to maintain a competitive economy in the 21st century. Two broad sets of questions arise: (1) where to invest, and (2) how to fund the investment. In a new paper, “Access for Value,” two scholars with the Brookings Institution address the second question, making…

Addressing the Constraints to Growth in Charter SchoolsCenter for American ProgressA limited supply of effective teachers and administrators is the main constraint on the growth of charter schools. This report describes how successful charter schools manage human capital. Black Mayors and Big City PatronageMercatus CenterLike white politicians before them, black mayors use the powers of…

Virginia authorities received 517 complaints about nursing homes in 2009, according to data in a new report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The good news is that the rate of complaints per 1,000 residents was somewhat lower than the national average. The not-so-good news is that the GAO is not impressed with the…

This chart, published by Veronique de Rugy with the Mercatus Center, compares (1) the share of national income earned by each tax quintile and (2) the share paid in personal income taxes. It bears repeating: Yes, the rich are getting richer, but they are paying more in taxes, too.

While the soaring price of tuition and fees is the primary reason that college education has become so unaffordable, as any parent of a college kid knows, the price of college textbooks has followed close behind. As the Government Accountability Office reports in a newly released study, the cost of textbooks has increased at a…

Bob McDonnell is off visiting Asia, but here are a few questions for him when he gets back. They have to do with just how much he really buys into the conservative orthodoxy thing. McDonnell has finally gotten his way and line itemed $424,000 in state funding for NPR, the right-wing bug-a-boo that conservatives claim…

Republicans — you can’t live with ’em, and you can’t live without ’em. Partisans of the elephant clan deem themselves faithful supporters of free market principles. And they are… until they encounter a concrete situation where those principles have to be applied. Then they revert as easily to government controls as the Dems do. I…

Republicans still need remedial instruction, it appears, on the meaning of free markets. Occasionally, they get it right. When President Obama passed healthcare reform that coerces uninsured individuals to sign up for health insurance or pay big penalties, for instance, members of the Elephant Clan raised a ruckus over the abrogation of personal economic freedom.…

Once upon a time, the Rail-to-Dulles project was a matter of all-consuming interest only to those living in Northern Virginia (NoVa) and a handful of us in the Rest of Virginia harboring an obsession with transportation and land use issues. The attitude among most RoVa residents, assuming they knew anything about Rail-to-Dulles at all, is…

Expanding Medicaid Could Result in Worse Overall Health CareHeritage FoundationStudies show that the medical care provided Medicaid patients is no better, maybe worse, than the care provided indigent patients. Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid is not likely to improve matters. Competition Blasts Off in the Space IndustryGovernment Accountability OfficeBottom line for Virginia: Wallops Island is getting…

Wow! Commuters on the Dulles Toll Road, now paying $4 for a round trip, could be paying $40 by the year 2040 to help pay for construction of the Dulles rail extension, reports the Washington Examiner. Those numbers came from financial consultants reporting yesterday to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The tolls could be 30%…