In-Box Topics which May Be of Interest
Evey day, I get an array of emails in my In-Box offering up articles or what they think can be interesting reads. I would definitely read Economist David Zetland student’s writings on water shortages in other countries.
Most Interesting Read
Economist David Zetland’s Students Studying the Impact of Water Shortage in Europe, The one-handed economist, The Hague. What something interesting to do? Write to David’s students on his site. David does review all comments. Of course. you can just read and see what they are thinking.
Healthcare
UnitedHealth AI algorithm allegedly led to Medicare Advantage denials, lawsuit claims, Healthcare Finance News. Jeff Lagasse. Allegedly healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group unlawfully used an artificial intelligence algorithm to deny rehabilitative care to sick Medicare Advantage patients.
The Medicare Advantage Trap, The American Prospect, Matthew Cunningham-Cook. For one vulnerable sector of the population, that discrimination never ended. Insurers are still able to deny coverage to some Americans with pre-existing conditions. And it’s all perfectly legal.
Compensation Is Key to Fixing Primary Care Shortage, MedPage Today, Substantial disparities between what primary care physicians earn relative to specialists like orthopedists and cardiologists can weigh into medical students’ decisions about which field to choose.
What is fentanyl and why is it behind the deadly surge in US drug overdoses? A medical toxicologist explains, theconversation.com, Kavita Babu. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that was originally developed as an analgesic – or painkiller – for surgery. Often illicitly used to form related compounds with marked differences in potency.
Getting people the drugs they need, GoozNews, Merrill Goozner. A proposed plan to provide universal treatment for hepatitis C, the nation’s #1 killer among bloodborne pathogens, could become a model for reversing the damage done by high drug prices.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers: History, Business Practices, Economics, and Policy, JAMA Network, Authors. Criticism of the PBM industry centers around the lack of competition, pricing, agency problems, and lack of transparency.
SCOTUS and 5th COA
The Supreme Court’s Objectivity (kabuki) Theater, The American Prospect, Max Moran. The Court wrote a new ethics code for itself. It’s all but meaningless.
The Fifth Circuit Is Making the Supreme Court Look Reasonable, The Atlantic, Stephen I. Vladeck. Where to even start in cataloging the most ridiculous—and alarming—recent rulings to come out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit?
Supreme Court to consider giving First Amendment protections to social media posts, theconversation, November 2023. rules governing discussions on social media platforms such as Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter – and the constitutional limitations on the government to affect speech on the platforms.
Economy
A Victory Lap for the Transitory Inflation Team, Roosevelt Institute, Joseph E. Stiglitz. More than two years after economists divided into opposing camps over the nature of the post-pandemic inflation, we now know which side was right. Disinflation has confirmed the earlier price increases were “transitory,” driven largely by supply disruptions and sectoral shifts in demand. (No sh*t. How quick we forget the lessons of 2008. Contrived.).
The Curious Partner in Big Banks’ Drive to Weaken Capital Rules, The American Prospect, David Dayen. Proposed capital rules for big banks are mostly about limiting risky bets on securities and derivatives trading, not small-business or mortgage lending. AB: This is the re-emergence of credit default swaps and potentially the countering naked credit default sways. More of this later. A Brooksley Born replacement is advocating for these rules.
October Inflation Preview: A Data Release That Can Dictate the Future of The Hiking (& Easing?) Cycles, employamerica.org, Skanda Amarnath. “we see marginal asymmetry towards a downside surprise in CPI in October, though our baseline forecast is consistent with consensus.”
Why the Fed should treat climate change’s $150B economic toll like other national crises it’s helped fight theconversation, November 2023. Climate disasters are now costing the United States US$150 billion per year, and the economic harm is rising.
Soaring Home, Car Insurance Rates Hurt Americans’ Finances, US Economy, businessinsider, Bartie Scott. The cost of insuring the property jumped by 43% from 2019 to 2022, forcing the board members in charge of managing the building’s finances to make some tough choices.
Other Items of Interest
The problem with conventional lawns (and what could replace them), Grist Archive, Claire Elise Thompson. “3 million tons of nitrogen-based fertilizers per year and give their yards haircuts with gas-powered lawn care equipment, which spews an estimated 30 million tons of CO2 as well as other harmful substances, like fine particulate matter.”
Gettysburg tells the story of more than a battle − the military park shows what national ‘reconciliation’ looked like for decades after the Civil War, theconversation.com. Gettysburg commemorates an event whose survivors held dramatically different views of its meaning.
‘The Hum’ Noise: Mystery Sound Is Invading Towns – What Is It? popular mechanics, Jackie Appel. Keeping people awake for hours on end. It’s low-level, omnipresent, and constant—and it’s been doing its disturbing work for decades.
Orange Jesus, The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell 11/29/23 YouTube. Republicans refer to Donald trump as Orange Jesus.
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2023-11-28/Murcia-s-wastewater-miracle-How-Spanish-city-recycles-98-of-its-water–1p6yuyYH9eg/index.html
November 28, 2023
Murcia’s wastewater miracle: How Spanish city recycles 98% of its water
“This would all be desert, as far as the eye can see,” says Jesus Rojo, a local farmer, pointing to chalk-white, bone-dry hills surrounding his lemon and apricot plantations near the town of Archena in Murcia. “Not even the olive trees would grow without us watering the land, it doesn’t rain here. Zero.”
It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Murcia, one of over 300 every year that the province enjoys. This area may have the most arid land on the continent but it’s also known as the ‘orchard of Europe’ – a leading producer of EU fruit and vegetables. It’s a paradox made possible with water transfers from wetter regions and the reuse of water on a vast scale.
Where does Spain get all its water from?
Heatwaves, droughts, extreme weather and rising temperatures are drying up reservoirs and causing regional tensions over water in Spain. In November 2023 over nine million people in 600 municipalities had already been living for months with water restrictions. Droughts in Catalonia and Andalusia are among the longest and most severe ever recorded.
Catalonia has even declared a state of emergency, and over a dozen municipalities in Malaga and Huelva endure nightmare water cuts – particularly at night. In the town of Belmez in Cordoba the Sierra Boyera reservoir has dried up and some 80,000 residents in surrounding towns now need water to be trucked-in every day by local authorities.
This is not a new problem in Spain, however, and it’s the reason why an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and water transfers were built over the past century. They allowed arid Murcia to become a thriving horticultural hotspot, exporting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fruits and vegetables to Europe each year.
Here the agriculture industry is vital – employing around 100,000 people – and is worth over $3 billion a year.
Heatwaves, droughts and rising temperatures are drying up reservoirs and causing regional tensions in Spain. But there is hope Murcia’s water recycling technology could be used across the country./CGTN.
How Spain turned a desert into the garden of Europe
Now the water transfers have become contentious too, with many headlines talking about Spain’s ‘water wars.’
The country’s longest river – The river Tagus – has been providing Murcia with the water it needs to grow lemons, oranges, apricots, peaches, and many more fruits and vegetables you can buy in Europe’s supermarkets.
It arrives in Murcia via pumped pipes, aqueducts and tunnels to the Segura River in the southeast where farmers can access it. But the Tagus has been under increasing pressure because of growing demands and evaporation due to climate change….
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2023-11-28/Murcia-s-wastewater-miracle-How-Spanish-city-recycles-98-of-its-water–1p6yuyYH9eg/index.html
November 28, 2023
Murcia’s wastewater miracle: How Spanish city recycles 98% of its water
“This would all be desert, as far as the eye can see,” says Jesus Rojo, a local farmer, pointing to chalk-white, bone-dry hills surrounding his lemon and apricot plantations near the town of Archena in Murcia. “Not even the olive trees would grow without us watering the land, it doesn’t rain here. Zero.”
It’s a beautiful, sunny day in Murcia, one of over 300 every year that the province enjoys. This area may have the most arid land on the continent but it’s also known as the ‘orchard of Europe’ – a leading producer of EU fruit and vegetables. It’s a paradox made possible with water transfers from wetter regions and the reuse of water on a vast scale.
Where does Spain get all its water from? …
Is this anything?
Drunk and Asleep on the Job: Air Traffic Controllers Pushed to the Brink
NY Times – just in
A nationwide shortage of controllers has resulted in an exhausted and demoralized work force that is increasingly prone to making dangerous mistakes.
(Maybe a great opportunity for AI AT controllers to ‘go online’.)
New AI Sytem Offers Potential Air Traffic Management Solutions
Biden Administration Announces Rule to Cut Millions of Tons of Methane Emissions
NY Times – just in
The measure, which requires oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of the greenhouse gas, came as the U.S. vice president spoke at the COP28 climate summit.
Biden Administration Unleashes Powerful Regulatory Tool Aimed at Climate
NY Times – just in
Its new estimate of the economic impact of climate change could create the legal justification for aggressive new regulations.
The paragraphs just above continue this article
Biden Administration Announces Rule to Cut Millions of Tons of Methane Emissions
In other news…
More Chinese Are Risking Danger in Southern Border Crossings to US
NY Times – Dec 3
Trekking the perilous Darién Gap and seeking asylum are risks worth taking for migrants from China who have lost hope in (that) country’s future.
US Doctors and Pharmacists Are in Revolt
NY Times – Dec 3
Once accustomed to a status outside the usual management-labor hierarchy, many health professionals now feel as put upon as any clock-punching worker.
White House warns Congress the US is out of money, nearly out of time to avoid ‘kneecap’ to Ukraine
Boston Globe – just in
The House is busy with more pressing matters.
Johnson says vote on Biden impeachment inquiry is ‘necessary step’ after WH ‘stonewalled’ GOP investigations
Fox News – Dec 2
‘I think it’s something we have to do at this juncture,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News.
The GOP is said to be against further Ukraine aid as a ‘litmus test’ of some sort, and because the Dems are so striongly in favor of it (so it’s a wedge issue), but also because Trump for whatever reason is opposed to further such aid.
Opposition to Ukraine Aid Becomes a Litmus Test for the Right
NY Times – October 5
From the timing, I’m guessing Johnson got a talking-to about the need to Impeach Joe Biden pronto to show earnest support for Mr Trump.
Johnson Pays Trump Visit as He Faces Mounting Criticism from the Right
NY Times – November 21
It was the speaker’s first trip to see the former president since he won his post, and it came as he faced anger from right-wing lawmakers for moving to fund the government. …
Why a Second Trump Presidency May Be More Radical Than His First
NY Times – just in
Donald Trump has long exhibited authoritarian impulses, but his policy operation is now more sophisticated, and the buffers to check him are weaker.