In its last meeting with Alan Greenspan at the helm, the FOMC decided today to raise interest rates (i.e. the Federal Funds rate) yet again. See Mark Thoma for analysis of the accompanying statement. Despite David Altig‘s response to my worry that the Fed might overshoot (I think David and I differ more in our […]
Keeping with my New Year’s resolution, let me say BRAVO to Ramesh Ponnuru for this: But conservatives are almost certainly overestimating how much good “earmark reform” can do … Critics of Alaska’s “bridges to nowhere” have pointed out that it makes no sense for the Congress to fund such dubious projects at the expense of, […]
As a follow up to my last post about administrative costs in the US health care system, let me take a moment to address the following hypothetical question: what could we really expect if the US moved from its current system to a single-payer system? Theoretically, there’s no clear answer to this question. On the […]
Why are health care costs so high in the US? Some possible explanations include medical malpractice insurance, improving (but also more expensive) medical technology, the desire by people to simply spend more of their income on health care services as their income rises, and large and increasing administrative costs. If he addresses the question of […]
From December 29, 2005: Snow urges Congress to raise debt limit U.S. Treasury Secretary “The administration now projects that the statutory debt limit, currently $8.184 trillion, will be reached in mid-February 2006,” Snow said in a letter to 21 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate released by Treasury after financial markets had […]
President Bush, January 20, 2004: [W]e can cut the deficit in half over the next five years. President Bush, February 8, 2005: [My budget] keeps us on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009. President Bush, January 6, 2006: [W]e are still on track to cut the federal deficit in half by 2009. […]
I wonder if Greenspan thought to himself this morning: “Darn. Did I do it again?” Kash
The BEA has just released its first estimate of economic growth for the fourth quarter of 2005. It was dramatically lower than most people were predicting. The consensus estimate was for about 3.5% growth. Some pessimists guessed that it would be as low as 2.5%. The actual figured turned out to be just 1.1%. From […]
If one goes to cnn.com, the breaking news is that Senator Kerry calls for a filibuster of the Alito nomination. Almost as excellent as the latest from Senator Clinton: “Obviously, I support tracking down terrorists. I think that’s our obligation. But I think it can be done in a lawful way,” the New York Democrat […]
Robert Samuelson provides a few insights worth repeating: Almost everyone agrees that we ought to “fix the health care system” – a completely meaningless phrase despite its popularity with politicians, pundits and “experts.” Indeed, it is popular precisely because it is meaningless … Unfortunately, tinkering isn’t enough. As everyone knows, health care spending has risen […]