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Category Archives: Economy
Organizing Healthcare
The important question for healthcare, as is true for the economy as a whole, is how to organize and regulate healthcare. Generally, we can organize around competitive markets or through a system directed by a central authority. History proves that competition is the superior choice, … Continue reading
Lip Service From The WSJ
The editors of the WSJ are quick to praise markets and competition. But when push comes to shove, when either DOJ or FTC actually challenges the anticompetitive practices of a dominant firm or combination of firms, the WSJ always comes down on … Continue reading
What’s Left For Regressives?
Flush from the gay rights victory at the Supreme Court, “progressives” are now wondering what’s left for the progressive movement. Writing in Slate magazine, for example, Barry Friedman and Dahlia Lithwick offer up a laundry list of progressive causes that they be-lieve all good progressives should pursue, now … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Politics
Tagged big government, collective action, competition, current events, free markets, self government
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Ignoring The Blue Whale In The Room
One of the unassailable facts of social life is that centrally directed economies never out-perform economies that organize collective activity through competitive markets. The “natural experiments” of the last century, some of which continue today (e.g., see the experiment on the Korean peninsula), easily prove the superiority … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics
Tagged central planning, competition, liberal mind, ObamaCare, policy wonks, self government
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More Insights From Wise Boy
So Wise Boy (aka Ezra Klein) is perplexed. You see, he noticed that Republicans support the idea of doing long-run estimates of the federal budget deficit, hope to secure the long border between the U.S. and Mexico, and believe that the government … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Politics
Tagged big government, budget, budget deficit, ezra klein
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More Obfuscation From Ezra Klein
Wise Boy (aka Ezra Klein) is at it again: destroying the meaning of words in the best Orwellian tradition in support of statism. Wise Boy is one of those liberals who confuses matters by calling government spending “investment” or “insurance.” And he loves to equate tax expenditure … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Politics
Tagged budget deficit, ezra klein, government spending, interest rates, liberal mind, Orwellian
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The Determined Statist akaThe Incidental Economist
The authors of the blog The Incidental Economist are thinking of changing its name and are asking readers for suggestions (mine is given below). Evidently, the primary authors have no formal economic training and so the name doesn’t “convey” what they do, … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics
Tagged Accountable Care Act, liberal mind, liberals, ObamaCare, statism, The Incidental Economist, wonks
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Debating Wing Nuts
So liberals like Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School think they have a way to humble “wing nuts.” Wing nuts are people who, from the liberal perspective, disagree with the liberal “vision” of massive government. As he considers how to debate wing nuts, Sunstein finds a … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Healthcare, People
Tagged big government, Cass Sunstein, liberal mind, politics, wing nuts
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Catastrophic Care – Part Two
The previous post reviewed some of the problems about healthcare in America as iden-tified by David Goldhill in his recent book “Catastrophic Care.” So how does Goldhill pro-pose to fix healthcare and contain costs? First, he would require everyone to purchase health insurance, but … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics
Tagged antitrust, Catastrophic Care, competition, David Goldhill, health accounts, healthcare costs, moral hazard
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Catastrophic Care – Part One
In his recent book “Catastrophic Care,” David Goldhill argues that the central problem with America’s healthcare system is the use of insurance to finance healthcare expen-ditures. According to Goldhill, insurance-based healthcare cannot control costs because consumers (i.e., patients) don’t directly pay for … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Healthcare, Politics
Tagged antitrust, Catastrophic Care, competition, David Goldhill, healthcare costs, moral hazard
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