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

Health Care Reform is Already Happening

by Tom aka “Rusty Rustbelt” Health Care Reform is Already Happening Ohio State University Medical Center has built an affiliated physician group of more than 600 physicians. Effective by January 1, 2011, the physicians will be merged into OSUMC (not as medical school faculty) and will be full employees of OSUMC. OSUMC will do all […]

Speculation and Finance: Good for you? (part III)

by Linda BealeSpeculation and Finance: Good for you? (part III) In a couple of prior postings (Part 1 and Part 2), I considered (1) Darrell Duffie’s op-ed in the Wall St. Journal asserting that financial institution speculation in the markets is “good” for us and (2) the question of financial institution speculation in credit default […]

M1 growth in charts: the Majors vs. the BIICs

by Rebecca Wilder This is expansionary monetary policy… … this is expansionary monetary policy on drugs Note: Japan’s M1 growth is labeled on the RHS, with range -1.5% to 1.5%. Any questions? I know, kind of corny; and I did grapple over which set of economies should be labeled “on drugs”, the BIICs or the […]

More on speculation: Banks, Credit Default Swaps, and Greece’s Debt

by Linda Beale More on speculation: Banks, Credit Default Swaps, and Greece’s Debt (Part 2) Yesterday, I commented on Darrell Duffie’s defense of speculation in the Wall Street Journal, here. I noted that the idea that speculation is a positive because it absorbs risk others don’t want and helps reveal the “true price” by providing […]

More Detail on Working the Refs

So there are several comments to my previous post. Ignoring the a good one from Dr. DeLong, several people are taking umbrage at my unsubtle suggestion that the effect on employment being suggested is, to be polite about it, rather creative. kharris begins, “So let me see if I have this right. If anybody tries […]

Politics vs. the Economy: Turkey edition

Turkey’s on my mind. Let me sum up my point – that the outlook for the Turkish economy hangs very much in the balance – from the following news excerpts. From the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review on February 8 : the Legislation for the [fiscal] rule, which will limit the size of the […]