Lessons from Latin America: Antipoverty Efforts Can Promote Growth

Everybody enjoys a feel-good story. And for economists, anyway,the latest data on income inequality in Latin America fits that description very well. After decades in which the income divide in this most divided of regions only seemed to grow wider, the process has abruptly reversed. What’s more, the reasons for …

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How Cell Phones Are Boosting Kenya's Economy

Can you guess which countries’ citizens have the greatest access to cell phones? It’s an odd list. The United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, and Italy are near the top—no surprise, since they’re all rich. But middle-income countries Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Brazil …

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Google's Turn to Quake?

Breaking News: Facebook is planning to go toe-to-toe with Google, challenging its supremacy in Internet search. Or maybe not.

Facebook is certainly hinting at a major foray into search, which is enough to keep the media wheels spinning. But the company may have nothing more in mind than some needed tweaks …

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Trade War Looms as China Objects to European Union Carbon Fees

China’s opposition to European Union rules that will require commercial jets flying European routes to pay carbon emission fees is (in the diplomatic language reserved for such matters) unfortunate. Expressing its opposition by threatening to boycott Airbus, the giant European aircraft manufacturer, is much worse—an early sign of the almost inevitable …

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The Coming Age of the Entrepreneur

Is this (in the immortal words of James Rado and Gerome Ragni) the dawning of the Age of Aquarius? No, seriously: Are we 21st century humans about to experience an era of unprecedented growth and increase in well-being?

Professor Philip Auerswald of George Mason University makes a convincing case that entrepreneurs will …

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Why Mobile Data Plan 'Throttling' Is Actually a Good Thing

It’s official: The era of salad bar style mobile data plans is almost over. AT&T has joined Verizon and T-Mobile in slowing download speeds for its remaining customers with unlimited data plans, once they reach set (albeit generous) limits. Among the national mobile carriers, only Sprint, which is struggling to compete …

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Has the 'Peak Oil' Tipping Point Arrived?

“Peak oil” is one of those ideas that used to be the province of commodity speculators and zanier environmentalists, but is now entering the mainstream of the energy policy debate. The idea is simple on its face: For one reason or another (which one does it matter), we are approaching a …

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TV Spectrum Deal a Win-Win for Washington

Who says Congress never does anything? In what amounts to the legislative equivalent of a multi-carom trick shot in billiards, the House and Senate have cobbled together a complex deal in which a hefty chunk of airwaves now controlled by television stations will be auctioned off to wireless telecom carriers for …

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The Case for Taxing Frequent Flier Miles

Road warriors arise! You have nothing to lose but the tax deductibility of your frequent flier miles.

Or something like that … When the airlines started doling out benefits linked to miles flown, in the late 1970s, the Internal Revenue Service took its cue from …

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FCC Should Allow Verizon, AT&T a Fair Bid for Wireless Spectrum

The world is an amazing place. You can sit in a Starbucks in Malibu while I’m sipping tomato soup at a Pret a Manger in London, and we chat for free using Skype or Viber or Rebtel. Or how ‘bout this one: You can pull a smartphone out of your …

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