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

Comparative effectiveness standards

by reader ilsm From the Sunday June 14 Economist View discussion over Tyler Cowen’s article on Medicare crushing the federal budget, as the DOD budget has for many years. Tyler states the devastating growth of cost is due to “the financial incentives for doctors and medical institutions to recommend more procedures, whether or not they […]

Here’s your Medicare Part D

by Divorced one like Bush Time for some real numbers. This example is also an example for people to understand the need for fixing our system of paying for health care. Because, even in the senior years, the cost can bankrupt you. My parents, 2008 adjusted gross income $43,291. $19,745 is capital gains from a […]

Trace the Bombing Route from Israel to Iran

Time for our military readers to step up. Various basement bloggers belonging to the 101st Fighting Keyboardists continually tell us the next step is Israel bombing Iran. But can someone explain exactly how this would work in detail? I mean in actual detail including 1) Israeli strike capabilities, 2) Iranian air defense capabilities, 3a) how […]

Karl Rove on Health Insurance

by cactus I’ve had a few posts on healthcare in the past, such as looking at how costs increased across various presidential administrations to my own run-ins with insurance companies. So I was kind of interested in this piece on healthcare on the WSJ by Karl Rove. Let me pick a few passages and comment… […]

Context for trade deficit

rdan This chart from Calculated Risk shows the surplus and deficit as a per centage of GDP since 1960. Howard Rich mentioned in his post that the deficit was a function of “the leak in demand of the American economy.” Juan reminds us that China is not a passive player to our ‘demand’ pull’. Juan […]

Open thread June 13, 2009

rdan I will put up two open threads for a little while to see what happens since I am averse to censoring. The first is Open thread with GW, the other Open thread w/out GW. The latter could be about economics of some kind. This is the one without, since we put up the other […]

Trade deficits resume upward climb

rdan Re-posted with permission from the author. Trade deficits resume upward climbHoward Richman The US trade statistics for April were just reported yesterday. The US trade deficits, overall, went up for the second month in a row, despite a continuing decline in both imports and exports. The largest component of our trade deficits continues to […]

Unclear on the Concept

Robert Waldmann Will Wilkinson* demonstrates his absolute inability to understand the concept of “opportunity cost” and complete lack of common sense after the jump. * update: spelling Kirrected. Cash for Clunkersby Will Wilkinson on June 10, 2009 OK. Let me get this straight. I can get $4500 toward a new car as long as my […]