“Health insurance is, in large part, a Prisoners’ Dilemma. If everyone but you has it, medicine will seem prohibitively expensive. Demand is high, comparison shopping is unheard of, and no one cares but you. When nobody has insurance, though, you probably don’t need it. Lower demand and more comparison shopping make treatment affordable. Which makes […]
Archive for June, 2009
Jun22nd2009
“The young interviewer, Conor Clarke, owes a huge debt to Milton Friedman, who did more for him and for every healthy American male under age 54 than [liberal economist] Samuelson ever did. I’m referring, of course, to Friedman’s “nutty libertarian” crusade against the draft. The draft ended in 1973 and among the leaders who pushed […]
Jun19th2009
“To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble.” — Paul Krugman, writing in 2002, Link via Arnold Kling […]
Jun17th2009
“Despite a few exceptions that are tirelessly (and selectively) cited by advocates of a higher minimum wage, the bulk of the evidence — from scores of studies, using data mainly from the U.S. but also from many other countries — clearly shows that minimum wages reduce employment of young, low-skilled people. The best estimates from […]
Jun16th2009
“As an aside, I do not see how the same policymakers can support both stimulus and TARP. If you support the stimulus, it’s because you believe there is a lack of demand for loanable funds. If you support TARP, it’s because you believe there is a lack of supply of loanable funds.” — Arnold Kling
Jun15th2009
“On health care, we live in an Orwellian world. What is called “reform” is really an attempt to entrench the existing, unsustainable system of third-party fee-for-service reimbursement for service providers. This third-party reimbursement in turn is know as “insurance,” even though it does not serve that function.” — Arnold Kling
Jun11th2009
“How is a $118 billion structural deficit, $35 billion in Medicare Part D, and a theoretical end to the Iraq presence forcing Barack Obama to spend nearly $1 trillion in 2018? How is it forcing him to spend roughly $650 trillion more than he takes in in 2012?…The problem with the budget deficit is that, […]
Jun5th2009
The Clinton Years vs The Bush Years - A Pet Peeve I have
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Economics, General, ModernPolitics, Myths and Personal. 5 CommentsCasey B. Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago, made a comment that he should know is disingenuous, he wrote:
the “big spending Democrat” stereotype is incorrect — government spending / GDP fell under Clinton and increased under Bush.
This comparison, used to argue that when it comes to spending there is no difference between […]
Jun4th2009
“The left’s complaints make far more sense than Mr Cheney’s. Mr Obama is adjusting the Bush administration’s policies here and there and seeks to put them on a sounder legal footing. This recalibration is significant and wise, but it is by no means the entirely new approach that he led everybody to expect. Mr Obama […]
Jun3rd2009
Why Are Companies Eager To Support Cap And Trade?
Published by in Environment and ModernPolitics. 0 CommentsWhy would companies be eager to support something that would be a cost on them? Because it would be an even bigger cost on their competition:
I think they see it as a way to keep the competition at bay. “Cap and trade” is essential to the Obama plan. If emission permits cost $20 per ton […]
Jun2nd2009
Regina E Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, wrote a blog that is a must read for anybody who supports a single-pay healthcare system in the United States.
Here are a couple of snippets:
In the United States, Medicare is alleged to be a good cost controller and one that […]
Jun1st2009
Ezra Klein Makes Sense On Healthcare Reform - Sometimes
Published by in Economics and HealthCare. 0 CommentsNormally I don’t agree with him, but this post is spot on:
It is evidence of the chaotic, unplanned, irrational nature of our health care system that the most decisive piece of health care policy — save maybe Medicare — is a World War II-era tax quirk. The Roosevelt administration had instituted wage and price controls […]
