by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Comparative Effectiveness Research, Gender and Emotion A key cost bending feature of PPACA (Obamacare) is comparative effectiveness research (see http://www.hhs.gov/recovery/programs/cer/index.html). This research is designed to apply statistical, economic and clinical analysis to care and treatment to encourage effective care and block ineffective treatments. It is highly likely, based […]

by Dan Crawford Key players in the development of this story are judges in each state as they interpret state law defining proper ownership. Inquiry to two people who know courts predicted most judges would probably simply ignore technical discrepancies, but as the story develops these issues are gaining traction. Bypassing property laws is a […]

by Stormy and Dan Drug wars in Juarez…and the cause—NAFTA, really. Mexico drug cartel in the Guardian: Mexico’s main crossing point to the US has always had a seedy border vibe, but two decades ago it was envisaged as a showcase for a new economy built on free trade, manufacturing and cheap labour. Factories drew […]

Financial Times/alphaville’s Cardiff Garcia uses Rebecca Wilder’s post Evaluating the “excess” in the US corporate financial balance. What to make of the excess savings (aka boatloads of cash) that remain on US corporate balance sheets? In trying to answer this question, economist Rebecca Wilder has used data from the Fed’s latest flow of funds report […]

by Bruce Webb There is a great deal of chatter these days about how Obama lost ‘Progressives’, what Robert Gibbs derisively called the ‘Professional Left’ or the ‘Left of the Left’, and as an example you could read this from Peter Daou How a handful of liberal bloggers are bringing down the Obama presidency and […]

by Dan Crawford Institutional Investor reminds us of a vital area not in the news, but drawing enough committed money to attract even hedge funds. Angry Bear has carried posts on the 1989 experiment with privatization of water utilities in Britain, the strange world of WTO rules regarding water supply, ownership, and provision of sewerage, […]

by: Daniel Becker This is a simple little exercise that frankly I wonder why no one with a pulpit (that would be you congress critters, executive office and MSM) has done it. It is for those who think simplistically. Thinking like:  wealthy people create jobs with their extra money and not the non-wealthy people’s demand for […]

CASSE (Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy) carries this piece: Demand a Supply of Common Sense; Just Don’t Price Itby Brian Czech Ah, the confusion of economics students when they encounter the subject of supply and demand in introductory “micro.” They learn that prices are determined by supply and demand. Then they’re […]

by Dale Coberly HOW TO PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITYBALANCE THE BUDGET CUT THE DEFICITand REDUCE THE NATIONAL DEBT Big Numbers and Mental Hygiene We have been treated recently to a great deal of hysteria about “the deficit” and the huge horrible Burden of Social Security, including the mysterious Trust Fund: is it real? or only […]

Let us first stipulate that houses themselves are unique entities, but similar enough that we can consider them comparable if not fungible. (In this, they are like any financial asset.) Let us further restrict them in acknowledging that there are significant transaction costs: one’s liquidity preference should not prefer housing to, say, cash-equivalents or marketable […]