Lower Prescription Drug Costs Don’t Tell the Whole Story
AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley discusses important issues surrounding the prescription drug debate.
Lower Prescription Drug Costs Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Can the problem of high prescription drug costs in the United States be solved by purchasing drugs on the Internet or with a bus trip across the Canadian border? That was the question posed during an event sponsored by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) early in February in Pasadena, California. The PRI invited AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley to address these and other important issues surrounding the prescription drug debate.
M. Florida et l’hiver: Qu’on ne se trompe pas sur ce qui rend une ville attrayante. AIMS dans La Presse.
Dans sa chronique mensuelle dans La Presse, Brian Lee Crowley, président de AIMS, notait que Richard Florida, gourou à la mode de la vie urbaine, était de passage à Montréal, avec tout le brouhaha qui accompagne ordinairement une vedette des médias. Dommage que ce gars-là ne sache pas faire la différence entre la cause et l'effet dans ce qui rend une ville attrayante, dans ce qui incite les gens à vouloir y vivre. Et puisque ses idées influencent beaucoup de monde par les temps qui courent, le moment est propice pour examiner plus en profondeur ce qu'il dit.
Getting there from here, the test case for Open Skies
Good quality and low-cost air links are indispensable to any plan to build the economy. This is why AIMS President Brian Crowley puts forward in his latest column a modest proposal for Ottawa to consider: Let's make Atlantic Canada a test case for open skies. Let Air Iceland and Continental and Northwest and anybody else who can meet our safety standards fly without restriction into this region. Let them pick up passengers wherever they like, and let them decide what destinations they offer to attract customers. Read the full article to see how this idea has helped Ireland, among others, turn around their struggling economy and how the concerns about protecting our “national carrier” are easily overcome.
The Beacon, 20 January 2005
The Beacon returns! AIMS is pleased to reintroduce this updated version of our original newsletter "The Beacon". In this inaugaural issue you will find discussions on Canada-US relations, pharmaceutical policy issues, the modernization of Newfoundland's fishery, NS tax cuts and the issue of problem gamblers.
Taking a moment to reflect on how to avoid MAN made disasters
ASIA'S devastating tsunamis are only the latest vast natural disasters that humble humanity's beliefs in its own power and in the benevolence of Nature. Yet, the devastation and grief offer us another opportunity to head the advice of Voltaire and "cultivate our garden". In this latest column, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley explores how, through our own actions in the rich industrialized world, we cause a Third World disaster that kills far more people every year, year in and year out, than the Asian tsunamis. The disaster, as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote the other day, is that mosquitoes kill 20 times more people each year than the tsunamis did, disable many more, and undermine local economies in the process. These deaths, disabilities and debilitation can easily be avoided, read the full column to learn how.
Problem gambling a problem that can be ignored no longer
In this piece from the Chronicle Herald, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley explains why government has to make it more difficult to gamble in Nova Scotia. Money derived from gambling, unlike normal taxation, comes from one group of residents and the province relies too heavily on that cash to pay for public services such as health and education. If we really believe the services we're paying for publicly are worthwhile, everybody should contribute and not take advantage of the illness of a few. Yet the province expects to take in about $133 million from video lottery terminals by the end of the fiscal year and people considered problem gamblers account for about half of that profit.
Return of tax cut is best bang from extra federal bucks
The NS government is expecting a "windfall" of unexpected revenue from the federal coffers this year because of increases in equalization and health transfers. Brian Lee Crowley, president of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, explains in this article why the unexpected increase in funds should not be used to drive up spending but instead puts Premier John Hamm's government in a position to cut income tax by 10 per cent. "There's lots of evidence that suggests that the best bang for their buck is going to be through tax reductions - and personal income taxes are a good place to start."
Port of Halifax is at the start of the new road, not the end of the old
Reading the National Post, one might reasonably conclude the Port of Halifax is the end of the Earth, or at least the end of the line. Under the headline, "Shippers divert cargo to Halifax from Vancouver, despite longer voyage and higher costs", a recent article implied Halifax is an expensive inconvenience forced on Asian shippers solely because of Vancouver's congestion. Think again. Major changes in shipping technology, and projected huge increases in shipping volumes, have now put the east coast of North America on the Pacific Rim. More: the Port of Halifax is emerging as a major gateway to the heartland of North America, and the only Canadian east coast port that can plug into these new developments.
AIMS Commentary: U.S. Flu Shot Shortage – Why Canada Should Stand up and Take Notice
How to reform drug policy, the latest paper from the AIMS series on Canadian pharmaceutical policy