Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Considering Alternatives to Patent Monopoly Financing of Drug Development

There is more to this story than just making technology open to the public so others can manufacturer it. Think about what is being said here. The manufacture of face masks went overseas. When many were needed, foreign manufacture could not keep up and the prices were ridiculous. We are in a situation of whether […]

Not All Non Profit Hospitals Deserve Tax Exemption Status

This is the third or forth I have seen concerning Non-Profit hospitals. The issue being whether a Nonprofit hospital provide enough nonprofitable care to be considered nonprofit which entitles them to tax exemptions. As the authors discuss, some for-profit hospitals provide greater nonprofit care. Read on and I am sure there will be more to […]

Some Healthcare Detail on costs, smoke, and morphine.

Three healthcare issues that are relevant to today. Things we should be talking about. If you remember Merrill Gooz had a chart up showing healthcare costs have been around 17%. For more than a decade, CMS and CBO consistently overestimated the growth in health care spending, which undermines efforts to spend more on health-related social […]

How to Save Social Security . . . Investors Version

I am seeing numerous articles on Social Security as of late. How to save it from running a deficit. Is this really, what this is about? Even though, the nation has almost always run a deficit except during Clinton(?). There are different ways in which Social Security can be funded. As one finance expert proclaimed, […]

US: Nonprofit Hospitals Chase Low-Income Patients on Debts

This is more of an introduction to the Human Right Watch Org and the review of healthcare in the United States. The topic is no surprise as we have touched upon this in earlier commentaries. In this short piece they are finding private nonprofit hospitals are not so nonprofit. Indeed, they are skimping on healthcare […]

July 15, 2023 Letters from an American

July 15, 2023, Letters from an American, Prof Heather Cox Richardson [Warning: the 13th paragraph of this piece, beginning “They did,” graphically describes racial violence.] July 16 marks the 160th anniversary of the most destructive riot in U.S. history. On July 13, 1863, certain Democrats in New York City rose up against the Lincoln administration. […]

Biden Administration Taking Action To Limit Junk Healthcare Insurance

About half of this is original and the other half is a rewrite. Just explaining things more than the author. What President Joe Biden is doing is repealing trumps Short Term Healthcare Coverage which today is less than 365 days. This was extended from prior 3-month coverage (maximum 4 months) when Congress failed to repeal […]

We would’ve never been able to see cricket live on television

Basically, a story about big oil selling prosperity to a country by having their cricket team televised on TV and building a new stadium to be completed by 2025. Exxon and their partners were busy telling the story of fossil fuels as the solution to poverty. This story told as more and more Global North […]