Friday Facts: October 25, 2013

“If a government resorts to inflation, that is, creates money in order to cover its budget deficits or expands credit in order to stimulate business, then no power on earth, no gimmick, device, trick or even indexation can prevent its economic consequences.” – Henry Hazlitt

Moving on MOOCs: Michael Horn of the Christensen Institute, who addressed the Foundation in 2011 and in 2013, is so convinced that MOOCs — massive open online courses — are the learning wave of the future that he and several colleagues are producing a MOOC curriculum.  Read about what they’re doing. 

Eliminating driver error: Computers make ideal drivers: They don’t drink and then climb behind the wheel. They don’t do drugs, get distracted, fall asleep, run red lights or tailgate. And their reaction times are quicker. They do such a good job, in fact, that a new study from the Eno Center for Transportation says self-driving cars and trucks hold the potential to transform driving by eliminating the majority of traffic deaths, significantly reducing congestion and providing tens of billions of dollars in economic benefits.

Don’t tell? The Obama administration asked North Dakota’s largest health insurer on Monday not to publicize how many people have signed up for health insurance through a new online exchange, according to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. In fact, just 14 state residents had successfully enrolled since October 1. That brings total statewide enrollment to 20 – less than one a day. Source: Inforum.com

You can keep your insurance: Hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country are getting cancellation notices from various insurers because their plans don’t meet ObamaCare requirements. Kaiser Health News reports that Florida Blue is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state; Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people, about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.”

Rocky Mountain High Taxes : Coloradans will vote next month on a referendum that would “repeal the state’s current flat income-tax rate of 4.63 percent that liberals loathe because raising it requires raising taxes on nearly all Coloradans.” The Wall Street Journal editorializes that “Colorado’s liberals may aspire to join the left coasts, but that won’t make the state any more competitive in its interior U.S. neighborhood, where states like Kansas and Oklahoma are cutting tax rates. High-tax states created one net new job for every four in states without an income tax from 2002-2012, according to a study for the American Legislative Exchange Council.”

Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read our latest commentary, “Proposed CO2 Standards: Expensive Hot Air,” by Benita Dodd.