Ezra Klein explains that Medicare can’t cut payments too much or doctors will opt out The problem is that Medicare can’t control costs too much better than private insurers or, as you see from the article above, doctors will simply abandon Medicare. Klein seems oddly indifferent to the detailed text of the Afordable Care Act. […]

Echoes of Japan, echoes of the Great Depression. One of the few economists who knows history closes a post by presenting the proper context for the choices: A quick exit [by Ireland, from the Euro] may still be better than a decade of slow, grinding deflation combined with Zombie banks and Zombie household balance sheets […]

Assume I believe in risk-adjusted return on capital. That is, I don’t buy a bond yielding 12% instead of one yielding 6% without first considering that the yield difference is affected by the likelihood of Principal return being lower. (But I will buy the 12% bond if I believe the risk premium is too high […]

Mark Thoma says it well on the ‘what comes next’ dilemma facing voters and those making recommendations for policy: there is supposed to be a “rest of the trick,” but it doesn’t come until later. The idea is that the labor that is freed up from the increased productivity will be used to produce new […]

Nov. 30, is National Call Congress Day to fight Social Security cuts! It’s not too late to commit to participating in this important event. Call your Senators tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1-866-529-7630, toll-free. The operator will identify your senators by asking for your zip code. Call BOTH of your senators if you have time. It only […]

by Mike Kimel A Proposed Bet for Professors Bryan Caplan and David R. Henderson (and Anyone Else Who Believes Lower Taxes Generate Faster Economic Growth)Cross posted at the Presimetrics blog. Professors Caplan and Henderson, Both of you have had recent posts that indicate you have some enthusiasm for betting on economic outcomes. (Your co-blogger at […]

by Tom Walker (aka Sandwichman) (Dan here…this piece is in the middle of a conversation starting in 1997 to now and how we measure up in our capacity or willingness to learn different lessons from the series of financial bailouts of the last thirteen years. The links are necessary to flesh out the argument, but […]

by Linda Beale Increasing taxes on the richcrossposted with Ataxingmatter Sometimes a few letters to the editor can restore one’s faith in the sensibleness of fellow Americans.  I particularly like Jerry Trupin’s Nov. 25, 2010 New York Times letter responding to Nicholas Kristof’s article on hedge funds.  In A Hedge Fund Republic, New York Times, […]

What Treasury under Geither does, according to the Washington Post: “I think we are known as the front line,” said [Michael] Pedroni, 38, a former International Monetary Fund economist and Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee who has spent time at a Wall Street research firm. “Our analysis is meant to be very candid, […]