Archive for category Links
John Stossel on Health Care
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on September 12th, 2009
John Stossel: What if we had grocery insurance?
Back From Vacation: 10 Things I Read
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on August 25th, 2009
I’ve been on vacation these past few weeks (San Francisco, Yosemite, Napa Valley, New York, and Virginia Beach), but just because I’ve been away doesn’t mean I haven’t been following the news (and blogosphere!).
I have a couple things to take care of now that I’m (finally) in college, but I’d like to share a few interesting things I read.
The Top Ten Things I Read on Vacation
10. The math of a zombie attack
Freakonomics readers, however, point out that the model was flawed.
9. John Goodman notes a Joint Economic Committee report with this table
Or as I like to call it, we’re screwed!
8. How to publish a scientific comment in 123 easy steps
7. Jon Stewart shows why Fox News is stupid
6. Don Boudreaux explains why insurance should only cover catastrophic events
and why Medicare isn’t necessary
What’s funny (well not funny, really) is that we’ve totally forgotten the point of insurance and why it’s economically sensible. Insurance is designed for the unpredicatable. There’s nothing unpredictable about bad health when you get old.
Many of the current budget assumptions are laughably implausible. Both the White House and CBO predict that Congress will hold federal spending at the rate of inflation over the next decade. This is the same Democratic Congress that awarded a 47% increase in domestic discretionary spending in 2009 when counting stimulus funds. And the appropriations bills now speeding through Congress for 2010 serve up an 8% increase in domestic spending after inflation.
4. Political Math does an epic beatdown on Paul Krugman
My problem with Mr. Krugman’s “How big is $9 trillion?” is that he is aware of all the problems I pointed out. He didn’t explain how much $9 trillion is; he obfuscated it. By comparing the debt load in the heart of a world-shaking war to a debt load that was accumulated in (relative) peacetime, he has misled his readers to the real significance of the data.
3. “Radio Nowhere” by Bruce Springsteen
I flew Virgin America, which gives you loads of music to listen to. Luckily, they had 15 of The Boss’s best tracks. I hadn’t listened to Magic before, but that’s definitely the next album I’m buying. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the video.
2. TSA assaults pregnant woman, and arrests husband
There is now a division between the citizenry and the state. When that state is used as a tool against me, there is no longer any reason why I should owe any allegiance to that state.
What troubles me is when liberals decry the tyranny of the state when it comes to the police — but they’re perfectly willing to put the same folks in charge of health care, auto companies, and finance.
1. The best article I’ve ever read on health care reform
The most important single step we can take toward truly reforming our system is to move away from comprehensive health insurance as the single model for financing care. And a guiding principle of any reform should be to put the consumer, not the insurer or the government, at the center of the system.
The article is written by a Democratic businessman whose father died in a hospital. Although it’s 6 pages long, the author offers the best diagnosis of why health care is so bad in America. He ends with his idea of how government should support the sick and poor — if I were to design a health-welfare system, that’s how I would do it.
“Regulation kept this treatment from me”
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 31st, 2009
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Myrna Ulfik writes of her experiences battling cancer:
I took a different path, seeking a cancer vaccine. One had been developed at Stanford University 12 years earlier that had given 90% of patients very long remissions and cured some entirely. Unlike chemotherapy, there were no severe side effects.
But I couldn’t get the vaccine because the Food and Drug Administration required another trial that would take nine more years. Over-regulation has kept this treatment from patients for 21 years, as some 24,000 lymphoma patients died each year.
“It’s Time to Make Some Tough Choices. Or We’re Doomed.”
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 25th, 2009
Cross-posted at Young Americans for Liberty
President Obama has promised that the health care bill will be “deficit neutral.” Regardless of whether you believe that or not (I don’t), that’s not going to be enough.
A few days ago, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released something called the “Long-Term Budget Outlook.” According to the CBO, the following will happen if we don’t change our ways:
An End to the Era of Lobbyi — Oops. Scratch That.
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 13th, 2009
Paul over at Power Line writes:
I am reliably informed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office sent an email to a number of lobbyists for corporations asking their companies to pay for “thank you” ads for ten Democrats who voted for the House cap-and-trade legislation. The ten Democratic members presumably are those most vulnerable in 2010 by virtue of their vote. They are:
John Boccierri (D-OH-16)
Zach Space (D-OH-18)
Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH-15)
Steve Driehaus (D-OH-1)
Frank Kratovil (D-MD-1)
Mark Schauer (D-MI-7)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM-1)
Baron Hill (D-IN-9)
Leonard Boswell (D-IA-3)
Scott Murphy (D-NY-20)One can only imagine what the reaction would have been to a comparable attempt at strong-arming by Tom DeLay.
MSNBC: Don’t Mess With Ron Paul
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 8th, 2009
But something has to give. Paul’s Gang of 244 is fed up. They’re ready to kill something. It will probably be Obama’s regulatory plan. Then again, with Paul leading the charge you never know. It may be something central, something federal, something reserved. Never underestimate Ron Paul. Even if there’s no reason not to.
Hell yes. Read more here.
Mises Blog: Free Bernie Madoff
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 2nd, 2009
Some libertarians actually don’t make much sense to me.
Bernie Madoff stole billions from the customers of his phony investment funds, running a racket rather than a financial service. People who aren’t even his victims are furious, and nearly everyone enjoyed a 10-minute sense of vengeance when the judge threw him behind bars for 150 years.
Let me weigh in with a contrary view. Free Bernie Madoff, I say.
More here.
Don Broudeaux Has a Pop Quiz for You
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on July 1st, 2009
Over at Cafe Hayek:
Pop quiz: If Mr. Obama accepts this recommendation, why will he have then have blood on his hands?
Cap and Trade Bill Screwed Up
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on June 30th, 2009
From Donald Marron (HT Greg Mankiw):
That, by the way, would pay for a lot of the new proposed health care spending….
Who Says Economists are Boring?
Posted by The Marginalist in Links on June 29th, 2009
Economists can get into heated debates (and amusing ones, at that), too (emphasis mine):
Both George Will and Greg Mankiw basically argue that we don’t need a government role because we can trust the market to work — hey, we do it for groceries, right?…. To act all wide-eyed and innocent about these problems at this late date is either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.
To which Greg Mankiw responds,
On the issue of tone, I again think I understand Paul’s point of view. He likely believes that civility is overrated. He seems to think that in the blogosphere, and perhaps in the public debate more generally, you score points simply by insulting your intellectual adversaries. Sadly, I am afraid he may be right.
Go Mankiw.