Business

An aerial photograph of the U.S. at night.

High-speed internet is an asset Rhode Island should build on.

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2021 |

Obviously, those of us who choose to live in Rhode Island feel the state has a lot to recommend it, even as we’re perpetually frustrated by its flaws.  While making decisions for the future, we should build on our strengths.  Explicitly noting it as a reason to move to the state, TechRepublic’s N.F. Mendoza reports…

A man fuels his car

Coalition Looks for TCI Sanity from McKee

By Justin Katz | April 20, 2021 |

During a time of hoped-for economic recovery after COVID lockdowns, a coalition of state, national, and local groups is asking Governor Daniel McKee to reverse his predecessor’s pledge for the Ocean State to join a handful of others in imposing a new gas tax.

What Businesses Charge

By Patrick Laverty | April 2, 2013 |

I had an interesting revelation when I was a teen and working in the stock room at my local JC Penney. When inventory arrived, I was to put the price tags on the items. The sheet that I was given to derive the prices from also had the store’s own cost for those items. The…

Who owns your stuff?

By Marc Comtois | March 19, 2013 |

When is our stuff actually, you know, our stuff? Recently a stir was caused when cell-phone unlocking—the practice of enabling your cellphone for use on any cell network with any SIM card—became illegal. Now, with legislation pending in Congress to re-legalize(?) the practice, Kyle Wiens writes that we need to focus on “unlocking” much more…

Why Not Rhode Island?

By Patrick Laverty | December 7, 2012 |

In an interview with Brian WIlliams, Apple CEO Tim Cook yesterday said: “We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States. Next year, we will do one of our existing Mac lines in the United States.” The article doesn’t say where in the US that Apple will begin their manufacturing.…

Building a Business Community

By Patrick Laverty | September 28, 2012 |

Recently, we’ve seen a report from RIPEC about the troubled EDC and how to improve it. Everyone wants to improve the business community, or at least they say they do, but as one of the points in the report, Rhode Island lacks a clear vision or path toward making any improvements. Reports like that can…

Talking Teen Unemployment and the Minimum Wage on the Dan Yorke Show

By Justin Katz | July 26, 2012 |

630AM/99.7FM WPRO has posted my appearance on the Dan Yorke show, Tuesday, in two segments. The first is the initial half hour introducing the research from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity and touching on some conclusions. For the second hour, Economic Development Corp. board member and VIBCO President Karl Wadensten joined us in…

A Decade of Moving Next Door

By Justin Katz | July 17, 2012 |

I’ve been following taxpayer migration data for years, but in a haphazard way. A new study that I’ve coauthored for the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity finally gave me the opportunity to review all fifteen years of available data from the IRS. The picture — from the 2003 beginning of what can only be…

Obama: Businesses Are Lucky & Should Thank the Government

By Marc Comtois | July 16, 2012 |

President Obama: [L]ook, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than…

Fundamental Questions (as in Business Fundamentals) About 38 Studios Running Aground When It Has

By Carroll Andrew Morse | May 15, 2012 |

Say you’ve got a company that has 5 products on the market, and plans to release a new one in the next year. Which products should existing teams and new hires be assigned to work on? Maybe your existing customer base is willing, in large numbers, to pay for a new release of one of…