The Heartland Institute

Proprietary trading is a common financial activity that is currently being targeted for additional regulation in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and several high-profile losses by major banks from their proprietary trading desks. In proprietary trading, a financial firm trades financial instruments such as stocks, commodities ...

Mining is the process of extracting raw minerals from the earth to be converted into valuable materials used by society. We rely heavily on mining to support our standard of living, because every modern product uses basic minerals obtained through mining. For example, a car consists of 15 separate minerals, and a telephone ...

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and minimum wage laws have been two of the primary mechanisms the federal and state governments have used to help low-income families move out of poverty. A debate is currently ongoing in many state legislatures and Congress over which of these two policies is more effective and should ...

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his education policy platform in May. He supports tying federal education dollars directly to poor and disabled students to help them attend public, charter, or private schools or pay for online education and tutoring. He also supports reversing the nationalization ...

Several states have halted the creation of health insurance exchanges, awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal health care law. Meanwhile, others are finding they are too small to run an exchange successfully, regardless of the Court’s ruling. States with smaller populations can expect fewer individuals ...

In May 2012, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced his department would offer approximately $200 million in competitive grants of up to $25 million apiece that local school districts nationwide can apply to receive. This is the latest iteration of Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion pool of money originally allocated ...

Absent Congressional action, several tax increases will go into effect at the end of the year. Allowing the 2001–03 tax cuts to expire, combined with tax increases under the Obama health care plan, what some critics are calling “Taxmageddon” would be a historic hike in tax rates across the board. One of the most significant ...

The Pennsylvania House is considering a bill that would privatize the state’s liquor sales. Currently all liquor sales in Pennsylvania are done in state-run stores. Other than Pennsylvania, only Utah retains total government control over both wholesale and retail liquor sales within its borders. Pennsylvania House Bill 11, first ...

Despite there being no known natural gas resources in Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin recently signed into law the nation’s first state ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Vermont’s ban is little more than symbolic, but Shumlin publicly encouraged other states to impose bans, saying the increased natural gas production is not ...

A proposal from the Obama administration that has generated significant opposition from the financial sector is the enterprise value tax. This is because high taxes on investment income can be a hindrance to investment by reducing incentives for investors and financial managers to engage in certain financial activities or higher ...

Several tax increases are set to go into effect at the end of 2012 unless Congress renews the “Bush Tax Cuts.” One of the most significant increases would be a tax hike on dividends of up to189 percent. It would have a stifling effect on economic growth while slashing the value of retirement plans and other investments ...

The New York Times published an article in May purporting to indict tax credit scholarship programs with evidence some scholarship-granting nonprofits were poorly and unethically managed. The paper charged tax credit scholarship programs in Georgia and Pennsylvania, particularly, abused funds previously destined for public coffers ...

In the past 18 months, the number and reach of school choice programs have increased exponentially across the United States, bolstered by Republican governors and legislative majorities elected in 2010. The legislative and public relations battles have been fierce. Do typical voters and families approve of school choice efforts ...

One issue currently under debate is how carried interest, the share of the profits of an investment or investment fund that is paid to an investment manager as compensation, will be taxed. Under current law, when an entrepreneur or private equity, venture capital, or hedge fund firm sells a business or takes it public through ...

While the Supreme Court considers the fate of the federal health care law, some states are attempting to take more control over health care by engaging in interstate health care compacts. An interstate health care compact involves two or more states jointly deciding they want to select the health care system that is best ...

As outstanding U.S. college student debt passed the $1 trillion mark this year and college costs continued to rise faster than health care costs, U.S. policymakers have made several changes and proposals to meet increasing public concern. President Barack Obama proposes to extend a five-year artificial cap on federal student ...

After raising the state’s personal income and corporate tax last year, Illinois is considering a $1 per pack hike in the state’s cigarette tax. Advocates claim the tax would help pay for ballooning Medicaid costs, which are over budget by $2.7 billion. Such an increase, however, fails to address the structural problems of the ...

Farmers buy crop insurance for protection against the financial impact of natural disasters affecting their crops and the loss of revenue caused by declines in agricultural commodity prices. The federal government currently dominates the crop insurance market. It sets most prices, pays more than 60 percent of farmers’ premiums ...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been trying for nearly two years to persuade state legislators to pass a bill creating a pilot tax credit scholarship using donations from businesses to fund school tuition for poor children stuck in some of the state’s chronically failing public schools. Some legislators and interest groups ...

School districts often finalize budgets in the spring, so it’s an opportune time to consider how they can convert the “new normal” of budget cuts into benefits for schools and children. U.S. analysts almost universally agree public education budgets in the foreseeable future will experience cuts or no growth, certainly not continued ...