What is going on is actually rather simple. Big corporations have done what they love to do with big government; get in bed together. Unfortunately, it’s us, as the common taxpayers, who will have to foot the bill for this love affair.
Individual v. Collective's archives
Healthcare Reform Eve: A Pork Fest of Corporate Welfare
under: Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Obama Says, Treasury, Trust
Tags: Barack Obama, Billy Tauzin, biologics, Bloomberg, Cigna, CNBC, Constitution, corporate welfare, corruption, Democrats, discounted cash flows, Dow Jones, employeer mandate, FDA, healthcare, healthcare reform, House of Representatives, individual mandate, insurance companies, Johnson and Johnson, LA Times, lobbyists, Medicare, Medicare Part D, Mike Huckman, Nancy Pelosi, New York Times, Obamanomics, patents, PhARMA, pharmaceutical companies, reconciliation, Republicans, Senate, Slaughter Rule, special interests, stock market, Tim Carney, U.S. Constitution, UnitedHealth Group
Intellectuals and Economics: Thomas Sowell Cuts Through the Fog
Intellectuals have some very bad incentives according to renowned economist Thomas Sowell. He defines an intellectual as someone’s who’s end product are ideas (i.e. not an engineer, scientist, medical doctor, etc.). While admitting that he himself is an intellectual, he condemns that lunacy that pervades the intellectual community. The problem is there are no checks on their ideas. If an engineer builds a bridge and it collapses, that engineer has failed. However, if an intellectual pushes for certain policies that turn out to be disastrously wrong, they rarely face any ramifications for this whatsoever.
Did the National Health Service Let 20,000 Brits Die?
“Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the [British National Health Service], it was revealed yesterday,” according to Daniel Martin of The Daily Mail. These unnecessary or unnecessarily quick deaths had to do with patients being refused cancer medication for rare forms of cancer.
under: Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Trust
Tags: Britain, cancer, costs, Daniel Martin, healthcare, healthcare reform, National Health Service, National Institute of Clinical Excellence, NHS, NICE, prices, prices vs. costs, Singapore, single-payer healthcare, The Daily Mail, Thomas Sowell
CBO Projects Obama’s Budget Would Add $9.8 Trillion of Debt
The most frightening element of this ten-year forecast is that an estimated $5.6 trillion of the debt would be interest expense. Yes, that’s right, interest.
Judge Jim Gray Discusses Winners and Losers of the War on Drugs
Judge Jim Gray discusses with Reason Magazine, the six groups who benefit from drug prohibition. I’ll give you a hint, none of those groups are the average citizen:
Swift Wits: Good News… Only 36,000 Jobs Lost
Perhaps losing 36,000 jobs is better than expected, or even a sign of a recovery (which I doubt), but at best it’s a sign that things aren’t as bad as they were, not good news.
The True Costs of Public Education
The Cato Institute released a short a video on how “creative accounting” is being used to underreport the cost of public education on the tax payer. While this is nothing new for the government, the scope of the dishonesty is impressive (if that’s the right word to use here):
The COMPLETE Fiscal Picture of the U.S.
There’s a lot of talk out there about green shoots, economic recovery and stabilization. Most people aren’t predicting giant leaps in GDP anytime soon, but some are predicting modest global GDP growth between 2-4 percent for 2010. As Greece goes bankrupt and looks to its EU compatriots for help, remember they’re not the only nation on the belly up path. And from a United States perspective, here are the numbers you should be hearing on a daily basis, but aren’t. It isn’t just a matter of restoring economic growth and reducing unemployment. Surprise, surprise: debt, unfulfillable promises and easy money have consequences. Unfortunately, we have plenty of all three:
Bernanke’s Plan For Tighter Money
We haven’t seen inflation on the whole during the financial rescue efforts, despite the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies. If you wanted to cherry pick certain assets, the argument could be made that $140/barrel oil, during a recession, coinciding with a dump of liquidity on the economy, could be related. Global oil transactions are denominated in US dollars. It is hard to imagine any other factor being solely responsible for such a historic, and counterintuitive, rise in petroleum during a recession.
under: Deficits, Dollar, Energy, Federal Reserve, Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Taxes, Treasury, Trust
Tags: Ben Bernanke, easy money, Fannie Mae, financial crisis, fractional reserve banking, Freddie Mac, housing, inflation, real estate, stagflation, tight money, Treasurys, velocity of circulation
“Volcker Rule” Both Practical, and Admission
If you didn’t think there was a wink and a nod relationship between large banks and the feds, the “Volcker Rule” should serve as an acknowledgment. Because lending and credit is so crucial to the economy, financial institutions know the government will backstop them during crisis mode in the industry.
under: Deficits, Dollar, Federal Reserve, Game Theory, Individual v. Collective, Live and Learn, Obama Says, Taxes, Treasury, Trust
Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, financial crisis, financial sector, government safety net, Great Depression, moral hazard, Paul Volcker, Savings and Loan Crisis, Senate Finance Committee, Volcker Rule
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