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Behavioral Psychology

Some people might be surprised at the amount of psychology used in our lives. Advertisers have been using the research of psychologists for years. In fact, John Watson, one of the first known successful marketers, actually began his life as… Read more [More...]

What if we just left health care alone?

Health care reform is in the news. We have the world’s most expensive health care system, but our health care outcomes are not that good and we still leave one-sixth of Americans under age 65 without insurance coverage. President Obama… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma is not a poor state – we just continue to play one on TV

Back in March, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released 2008 data on state personal income, which is the most widely used measure of a state’s relative prosperity. We took note of it at the time in our April Numbers You… Read more [More...]

Local government mandates–first the good news

Nobody fears the coming of a new legislative session more than Oklahoma’s 1,900 local governments. Because they are legally “creatures of the state,” our counties, cities, and special districts are subject to the state’s complete control. The Legislature often exerts… Read more [More...]

The cliff effect: "Sorry, I can't afford that raise"

In recent years, whenever I’ve participated in forums on poverty and barriers to self-sufficiency, the single barrier raised most often and most fervently by those who work with low-income individuals and by low-income individuals themselves is the “cliff effect”. A… Read more [More...]

We get attention

Doc Hoc over at OkieFunk likes our recent recomendations about what to do to help through the fiscal crisis. Oklahomans for Responsible Government, not so much.… Read more [More...]

Coming up short – understanding the revenue shortfall

On Thursday, Treasurer Scott Meacham declared a revenue shortfall for the current budget year, FY ’09, and announced that state agencies would be required to take an across-the-board cut in their allocations for June, the final month of the fiscal… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma's new state budget–the first word

Just a day after Governor Brad Henry signed the state budget for FY ’10, Oklahoma Policy Institute released its annual budget review. And the new fiscal year, which starts July 1, promises to be an interesting one: all agencies face… Read more [More...]

Do parties matter less than we think?

In the heat and passion of the legislative session, the battles that divide the political parties tend to grab the spotlight. This year, for the first time in history, Republicans controlled both chambers of the Oklahoma legislature. The session featured… Read more [More...]

Who are our most charitable givers?

A number of papers ran an article over the Memorial Day weekend from the McClatchey Newpapers that analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau showing that the poorest Americans are the most generous in giving to charity. By far. When… Read more [More...]

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