consumer

John Nothdurft and Donny Kendal present episode #111 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s podcast features work from the Tax Foundation, the Illinois Policy Institute, The Property and Environment Research Center, and the Fraser Institute.

John Nothdurft and Donny Kendal present episode #72 of the In The Tank Podcast. Today’s podcast features work from the Tax Foundation and the Heartland Institute.

Congratulations to Google on Pokemon Go. Google’s parent company Alphabet incubated and spun out this latest highly successful data-collection-device – for sale to advertisers everywhere.

Why does the company that by far collects the most private information that the FCC claims it wants to protect, and that also has the worst consumer privacy protection record with the FTC, (Google), get 99% exempted from the telecom and cable privacy protections expected of telephone, broadband, cable and satellite providers?

A new report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency tasked with auditing, evaluating, and investigating government affairs for Congress, faults the Internal Revenue Service for failing to properly secure taxpayer data, leaving taxpayers’ private information at the mercy of hackers, both domestic and foreign. The report, delivered to IRS chief John Koskinen on March 28, says the IRS has failed to make recommended improvements to its financial and information-technology procedures.

In this episode of The Heartland Daily Podcast, managing editor and research fellow Jesse Hathaway talks with Salisbury University associate professor of economics Dustin Chambers about a new paper published by the Mercatus Center, examining how federal regulations affect the prices of consumer goods, and consumers themselves.

Hosts Donny Kendal and John Nothdurft continue to explore the world of think tanks in episode #27 of the In The Tank Podcast. This weekly podcast features (as always) interviews, debates, roundtable discussions, stories, and light-hearted segments on a variety of topics on the latest news. The show is available for download as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast every Friday. Today’s podcast features work from the James Madison Institute, the Mercatus Center, the John Locke Foundation, the American Energy Alliance, and Reason.

Let me try to explain to a consumer what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) arbitrarily has done, and apparently intends to do, for consumer internet privacy protection going forward.

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, managing editor Jesse Hathaway talks with Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the progress of technology that improves the human condition, about how regulators both at home and abroad are using the power of the state to combat zero-rating, a kind of sponsored-data plan where access to popular web applications like Facebook or streaming video services is made available to consumer at no cost.

If advocates of freedom were to make up a list of New Year’s resolutions for 2016, one of the most important items should be ending government’s monopoly control over money. In a free society, people in the marketplace should decide what they wish to use as money, not the government.

In cities and states across the nation, lawmakers are using excise taxes on popular consumer products to raise funds to pay for their pet spending projects.

The U.S. government’s Internet priorities in Europe are upside down. It has chosen bits over bodies, prioritizing protecting the neutrality of innumerable inanimate Internet bits over protecting peoples’ privacy and personal data.

Northern Virginia has experienced strong and consistent population growth over the past decade. Loudoun County grew more than any other county in the commonwealth over the past three years and recently became Virginia’s third most populous county. A booming population has led to growth in Northern Virginia’s economy, with competitive markets developing in all manner of industries, save one: health care. A single provider that has developed a near-monopoly, Inova, dominates health care in region.