Expert Commentary by Veronique de Rugy

Hard To Find the Return on Green Energy Investments

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
May 20, 2013
Wind energy is the darling of the green energy sector. Over the past 35 years, the industry has received nearly $30 billion in federal subsidies and cash grants, and Washington has promised another $12 billion in subsidies over the next decade.…

Get Uncle Sam Out of the Green Startup Loan Business

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
May 03, 2013
Meet the Solyndra of the electric car industry: Fisker Automotive. In 2009, the company was awarded a $529 million loan through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. It is in bankruptcy, and has now fired 75 percent of its workforce.…

Privatize the Postal Service Before It's Undeliverable

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
Apr 19, 2013
Making a profit by delivering goods and services that consumers want to buy at a given price is the first goal of any business. If consumers aren't interested, the business goes under. But that's not the model the U.S. Postal Service follows.…

Study of States Shows Freedom Works Best

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
Apr 05, 2013
People follow jobs, and jobs follow freedom. That's one of the main results from the third and much improved edition of the Mercatus Center's "Freedom in the Fifty States: Index of Personal and Economic Freedom."…

Farm Subsidies Must Die

Reason
By Veronique de Rugy |
Mar 12, 2013
On January 2, President Barack Obama signed a bill designed to avert the fiscal cliff.…

Give Sequestration a Chance

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
Mar 08, 2013
There's been lots of alarmism from interest groups about the impact of sequestration on teachers, security, White House tourism and congressional janitors. In addition, many commentators are arguing that it is wrong to reduce the burden of government spending in a weak economy -- no matter how small the actual cuts are.…

There Is Good And Bad Austerity, And Italy Chose Bad

Forbes
By Veronique de Rugy, Alberto Alesina |
Mar 07, 2013
Italians understood the gravity of their economic situation in November 2011 when Mario Monti was appointed, and were prepared to make sacrifices to help pull their country back from a cliff.…

Bowles-Simpson 2.0 Won't Be Enough

Washington Examiner
By Veronique de Rugy |
Feb 22, 2013
Erskine Bowles and former senator Alan Simpson, the two co-chairmen of the President's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, put out a new plan to address our long-term debt problems.…

Soaking the Rich

Reason
By Veronique de Rugy |
Feb 13, 2013
In January, as part of a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, Congress increased marginal tax rates on higher-income earners to Clinton-era levels while preserving existing Bush-era rates for most taxpayers. …

Raising the Minimum Wage: A Tired, Bad Proposal

National Review Online
By Veronique de Rugy |
Feb 13, 2013
We heard many bad and tired ideas during last night’s State of the Union address, and one of them was the promise to raise the minimum wage, to $9 dollar an hour. While on the surface it may seem like a way to increase the standard of living for lower-income Americans, in reality the policy is likely to backfire.…