by Linda Beale (Rdan here…I thought this case represents another aspect of the complexities of insurance coverage, approved procedures versus experimental, proper diagnosis, and how our medical and societal expectations interact. Many are aware of the topic but many probably have little personal experience with a transgender person. I believe it is jarring enough for […]

by Rebecca Wilder Thoughts on soveriegn debt Today the European Union released a statement about Greece. Absolutely no specifics are given regarding the terms of any Greek bailout, but there was a (slight) surprise: Euro area Member states will take determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as […]

by Tom aka Rusty YES IT CAN GET WORSE – Health Care Edition Business Week, (a Bloomberg publication), has written some friendly advice for the newly minted elite MBAs who cannot get rich quick on Wall Street as is their birthright. No, not Plastics. Health care! MBAs in health care are hardly new, but the […]

The New Yorker gives us a small look into policy in china other than the currency peg: The Problem Statement U.S. manufacturing’s competitive status is increasingly challenged by other economies. Established industrialized nations such as Japan, Germany, Korea and Taiwan are developing state-of-the-art technologies, which range across all areas of manufacturing from electronics to discrete […]

by cactus Congress thinks by analogy I don’t remember what link I followed to get to this, but never in my life did I expect to agree 100% on any issue with David Stockman. Yes, that David Stockman. Holy wow: DAVID STOCKMAN: Credit default swaps, OK? And we weren’t bailing out AIG. We were bailing […]

Mark Thoma at Moneywatch writes a made up interview “with William Dudley, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on the Fed’s failures as a regulator prior to the crisis, and its plans to improve regulation going forward.” (via Economist View)

by Linda Beale Limit Banks’ Proprietary Trading? Links Worth Noting on Possible Reprise of Glass Steagall Maybe Obama takes on America’s banks with new Glass-Steagall act, Guardian.co.uk, Jan. 21, 2010 President Obama came out in support of the “Volcker rule” intended to stop depositary banks from running hedge funds and using their money to bet […]

by Dale Coberly AN IMMODEST PROPOSAL Bruce Webb offered a modest proposal in a recent post to “fix” the Social Security “problem” by (essentially) cutting the payroll tax a few tenths of a percent to reduce the surplus and thereby reduce the debt by that much money borrowed from and owed TO Social Security. What […]

by Rebecca Wilder Yes, the renminbi (RMB) is closer to fair value. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu states: “Our currency, the RMB, has appreciated more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar since July 2005, when China moved to a floating exchange rate regime,” Ma said. Before 2005, the RMB was pegged to the […]