MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'economic'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:57:36 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5174597&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFiy1IQMguDM%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe White House has announced that it is nominating Alan Krueger, a professor at Princeton, to be the new Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. In a Freudian copy-editing slip, the Fox News story (at least as of 8:44 a.m.) says “Krueger’s job will be to provide policy prescriptions on ways to spur unemployment.” That’s obviously tailor-made for a joke about the Obama Administration not needing any help when it comes to stimulating joblessness. On a more serious note, though, I’m worried about Krueger’s sympathy for a value-added tax (VAT). Here’s what he wrote back in 2009. …a 5 percent consumption tax would raise approximately $500 billion a year, and fill a considerable hole in the budget outlook. In addition, a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5174597 Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:00:06 +0100 5174597 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159197&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F08%2F25%2Fusing-tragedy-to-justify-mental-health-services-in-delaware%2F In a letter that could’ve been written in virtually any state by any National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) representative, NAMI Delaware executive director Matthew Stehl and president Mary Berger recently wrote an op-ed for Delaware’s leading newspaper, The News Journal. In the opinion piece, Stehl and Berger decry the lack of adequate funding for mental illness treatment in the state. In a period of economic recession, state-funded health and human services are usually the first to undergo cuts. But it’s an especially relevant issue in Delaware, because the U.S. Department of Justice struck an agreement with the state to ensure it improves its mental health services for its indigent and poor residents who need mental health services. All of which is good. I’m ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159197 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:55:45 +0100 5159197 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5158853&cid=t_186160_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F08%2F23%2Ffirst-steps-in-improving-phlebotomy-the-challenge-to-improve-quality-productivity-and-patient-experience%2F Scan or click to download 'First steps in improving phlebotomy: The challenge to improve quality, productivity and patient experience' Title: First steps in improving phlebotomy: The challenge to improve quality, productivity and patient experience The Skinny: Report from NHS Improvement testing whether Lean methodology could meet the challenge of improving the quality, productivity, and patient experience for phlebotomy services. Among the four cases are examples from Whiston. Publisher: NHS Improvement Published: May 2011 Size: 44p. Filed under: Ooops Missed Category! Tagged: Blood letting, Clinical support workers, Economic efficiency, Efficiency, Grey Literature, Lean Thinking, Medical laboratory assistants, Phlebotomists, Productivity, Support staff (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5158853 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:05:35 +0100 5158853 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139694&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fw0BZieNHsaM%2F By Emily EkinsSeveral recent polls have shown Americans are becoming increasingly skeptical of of Washington’s economic planning capabilities. According to a recent Washington Post poll, 73 percent of Americans doubt Washington’s ability to solve economic problems. In fact, these numbers have leapt from 52 percent last year and from 41 percent in 2002. It appears that the more the government has tried to fix the U.S. economy, the less confident Americans are that the government is capable of doing such things. When the government in Washington decides to solve economic problems, how much confidence do you have that the problem actually will be solved: A lot, some, just a little, or none at all?  Source: Washington Post Poll Another example of this skepticism toward government economi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139694 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:24:22 +0100 5139694 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130655&cid=t_186160_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F08%2F15%2Fopen-public-services-white-paper%2F Title: Open Public Services White Paper Scan or click to download the 'Open Public Services White Paper'. The Skinny: The Open Public Services White Paper establishes how the Coalition Government intend to improve public services. The focus is on the devolution of control to the most local level possible. Guiding principles are: Choice – where possible Localism – local control where possible Diversity – public services are to be provided by public sector, third sector and private sector. Fairness – enabling equitable access to public services Accountability – all public services should be accountable to the taxpayer, providing value for money. Publisher: TSO Published: 11/07/11 Size: 58p. Filed under: Ooops Missed Category! Tagged: Economic sectors... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130655 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:15:26 +0100 5130655 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130658&cid=t_186160_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F08%2F15%2Fcan-competition-and-integration-co-exist-in-a-reformed-nhs%2F Scan or Click to go to King's Fund website to download 'Can competition and integration co-exist in a reformed NHS?' Title: Can competition and integration co-exist in a reformed NHS? The Skinny: King’s Fund report that addresses the fundamental question of whether competition and integration can co-exist and considers the role that different bodies, especially the NHS Commissioning Board and Monitor, will play within a new system. The NHS Commissioning Board and Monitor must: develop bundled payment mechanisms so that commissioners can contract for packages of care from different providers allow flexibility for local innovation – regulations and guidance from both are critical access to specialist procurement support for clinical commissioning groups is vital ... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130658 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:00:21 +0100 5130658 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077945&cid=t_186160_133_f&fid=35452&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphictruth.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fjohn-mccain-wakes-up-in-bizarro-world.html I remember back to the dawning of the current Cycle of Unease, the days immediately after the 9/11 attacks.I'd been ignoring politics almost entirely; politics, current affairs, world news and for the reasons most people do.It's boring. Politics are supposed to be boring. Like soccer, golf or Dungeons and Dragons, while it matters a great deal to those who enjoy the sport and great benefits are claimed of it, the rest of us are mostly glad that it keeps those who are interested in such things locked away in oppressively smoke-free rooms, chewing nicorette and trying to look dignified while peeing on one another's shoes.It is not particularly surprising that those who participate in this needful task try to make it seem more significant than it is when in the ideal, it is a mind-numbing rou... Graphictruth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077945 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:46:00 +0100 5077945 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077661&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWp3y4aV9HqI%2F By Ilya ShapiroLast week, a federal court in Louisiana ruled that a state law prohibiting sales of caskets by non-licensed merchants was unconstitutional.  A monastery that has made caskets for over a century sued the state to protect their modest casket business. It should come as no surprise that our friends at the Institute for Justice were leading the charge against the law: Under Louisiana law, it was a crime for anyone but a government-licensed funeral director to sell “funeral merchandise,” which includes caskets.  To sell caskets legally, the monks would have had to abandon their calling for one full year to apprentice at a licensed funeral home and convert their monastery into a “funeral establishment” by, among other things, installing equipment for embalming. The Honor... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077661 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:22:32 +0100 5077661 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5069450&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FKpdi2xw9bqk%2F By Daniel GriswoldAs its governor, Rick Perry, weighs a run for the White House, Texas has drawn attention for its healthy job growth. Since the recession ended in June 2009, Texas has accounted for half of the net new jobs added to the U.S. economy, according to the lead story in this morning’s USA Today. That’s quite a record for one lone state. We’ll leave it to others for now to argue over how much credit Gov. Perry can claim. Some credit surely goes to high oil prices, fueling job growth in a sector important to the Texas economy. Another reason for its relatively strong job growth is a friendly business climate, including no state income tax and relatively light regulations. And for those who scapegoat trade for the nation’s persistently high unemployment rate, consider that ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5069450 Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:38:58 +0100 5069450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028155&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHyem7SCcShk%2F By Tad DeHavenWhen government officials come up with what they claim to be a wonderful new idea, I often think of an old Saturday Night Live skit from 1990 poking fun at commercials for blue jeans. The skit’s scene is a group of middle-aged buddies getting ready to play basketball in their new “Bad Idea Jeans.” Each guy optimistically announces a plan to do something that is actually a “bad idea.” For example, a character says “I don’t know the guy but I’ve got two kidneys and he needs one, so I figured…” and “BAD IDEA” flashes across the screen. (The skit can be watched here.) The White House’s new “Strong Cities, Strong Communities” initiative had that BAD IDEA screen shot flashing repeatedly in my mind as I read the press release: Today, the Obama Administr... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028155 Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:00:05 +0100 5028155 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997524&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fgoodbye-marcus-welby-hello-hospital-employee-md%2F2011.07.03 Close your eyes and think of a doctor.  Do you see a Marcus Welby type? A middle aged, smiling and friendly gentleman who makes house calls?   Is his cozy office staffed by a long time nurse and receptionist who knows you well and handles everything for you?  If that is what you envision, either you haven’t been to the doctor lately or you are in a concierge practice where you pay a large upfront fee for this type of practice.  Whether you live in a big city or a rural community, small practices are dissolving as fast as Alka Selzer.  Hospitals and health systems are recruiting the physicians, buying their assets (unfortunately not worth much) and running the offices. Doctors are leaving small practices and going into the protection of larger groups and corporations because of e... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997524 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:00:00 +0100 4997524 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4984424&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtX8A0d1ktBg%2F By Caleb O. BrownSome smart folks have drawn strongly on the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World Annual Report to put together a short video extolling the virtues of economic freedom. Enjoy! The Fraser Institute report is published in the United States by the Cato Institute. Economic Freedom is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4984424 Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:53:45 +0100 4984424 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975826&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5lkzgVd7Tog%2F By Chris EdwardsAs we close in on congressional votes to increase the federal debt limit, negotiators are coming up with all kinds of ideas to hike taxes. (Suspiciously, they haven’t revealed very many spending cut ideas so far). One idea being discussed is to raise revenue by reducing the indexing of parameters in the income tax code. Currently, tax brackets and other features of the tax code are indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It is widely recognized that the CPI overestimates inflation for various reasons, as discussed here. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed a more accurate (and lower) measure of inflation, called chained CPI. If the tax code was indexed to chained CPI instead of CPI, the government would receive an automatic tax increase relative to cu... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975826 Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:35:34 +0100 4975826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952788&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtwsZfSvdo9c%2F By Tad DeHavenWhen Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-MN) lost his bid for reelection in November, it brought to an end a congressional career that spanned nearly a half century. As a former chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Oberstar’s faith in the ability of the federal government to turn taxpayer water into wine was typical for a politician ensconced in the Washington Beltway bubble. Oberstar reemerged this week to voice his support for legislation reauthorizing the Economic Development Administration, which is still being debated on the Senate floor. In an op-ed written for The Hill, Oberstar says that “It is disheartening to see that the agency I helped create more than 45 years ago which has had constant bipartisan support is now under unwarranted partisan attack in an economic en... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952788 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:38:27 +0100 4952788 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934100&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdI0BNiY-7_I%2F By Daniel GriswoldInternational Business Machines Inc. is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a company today. In this time of economic worry and uncertainty, it’s worth taking a moment to consider a few policy lessons we might glean from its longevity. Unlike government agencies and programs, private-sector companies competing in a free market come and go. In an essay posted on the IBM web site, company officials noted: Of the top 25 industrial corporations in the United States in 1900, only two remained on that list at the start of the 1960s. And of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 in 1961, only six remain there today. How did IBM not only survive but thrive during a century that took us from horses and buggies to FaceBook and iPhones? In a word, adaptability. IBM’s managemen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934100 Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:33:44 +0100 4934100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934109&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FXc7k-_at7S8%2F By Tad DeHavenLast week, I wrote about reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration, which is currently being debated on the Senate floor. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) wrote an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal that cites Cato’s work on the EDA. DeMint correctly notes that the mistaken rationale behind the EDA’s creation during the Great Society is the same as the Obama administration’s $814 billion stimulus bill: government programs can solve economic problems. Instead, both have been massive wastes of taxpayer money. After doing an able job of listing some of the EDA’s faults — and acknowledging that he was wrong to have supported the program in the past — DeMint concludes that members of Congress should be “actively finding ways to reduce spending” given t... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934109 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:24:20 +0100 4934109 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911450&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmxymmNehZsA%2F By Malou InnocentAs confirmed by yet another U.S. government report, this one prepared by the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, America’s nation-building mission in Afghanistan has had little success in creating an economically viable and politically independent Afghan state. The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung writes: The report also warns that the Afghan economy could slide into a depression with the inevitable decline of the foreign military and development spending that now provides 97 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. [Emphasis added] U.S. leaders could look at that statistic and justify prolonging the mission. In fact, the report suggests, “Afghanistan could suffer a severe economic depression when foreign troops leave in 2014... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911450 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:10:41 +0100 4911450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902409&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3jcb9WgcdV4%2F By Tom G. PalmerIt reminds us of the need to repeat, and repeat, and repeat the same messages.  Tornadoes, diseases, and wars are not good for “the economy.”  They may be good for hardware stores, doctors, and military contractors, but not for the rest of us.  Still, the New York Times couldn’t help but tell us on the front page that “Reconstruction Lifts Economy After Disasters.” Frederic Bastiat exploded the fallacy long ago.  Here’s a modern (and shorter) retelling: Broken Windows All Over is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902409 Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:36:28 +0100 4902409 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902697&cid=t_186160_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Frecoveryissexy.com%2F12-things-i-like-about-recovery%2F AA is the guide to my Higher PowerRecovery gives many benefits such as those related in the 12 promises of recovery. Each and every member of any 12 Step Fellowship has things they value.One day I began to think about what I liked about recovery. I excluded the 12 Steps, Traditions and Promises and came up with a simply worded list.This was my list on that day.12 Things I like about recoveryNo more domestic violenceNo fear of the policeEconomic stabilityBetter libido and sexual enjoymentA Higher Power that helps me in all of lifeBetter relationships with familyWake up without a hangover – every dayA Fellowship that is my second familyClear, rational thinkingNo deep, crippling depressionNo chronic, hurtful anger or resentmentsI can laugh at myself.That was couple of months ago and as ... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902697 Sat, 04 Jun 2011 19:24:40 +0100 4902697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893411&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEowm-HZKXmA%2F By Chris EdwardsPresident Obama wants to raise revenues by reducing tax deductions and other tax breaks, which the administration calls “spending in the tax code.” Donald Marron of the Tax Policy Center argues that “hundreds of billions of dollars of spending are disguised as tax cuts.” Don is a very good economist, and he is concerned that special interest tax breaks can misallocate resources the same way that spending subsidies do. I agree. But I’m also concerned that tax breaks and spending subsidies have different implications for the size of government, which is where I part ways with Don and the president. The following Tax Policy Matrix helps sort out which sorts of tax cuts make economic sense when government size is also a consideration. The government distorts the econ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893411 Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:17:20 +0100 4893411 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893419&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnXbjPkLiTjY%2F By Ilya ShapiroCINCINNATI — Now for something completely different, and not just because the spirited Sixth Circuit judges were much more skeptical of the government’s position than the Fourth Circuit was last month. Unlike the panel in Richmond — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli probably started outlining his cert petition as soon as court adjourned — here there will be at least one vote to strike down the individual mandate, and maybe even all three. And this panel should produce one or more opinions in which there will be much for the Supreme Court to grapple with. The appellate argument didn’t even begin until after a skirmish over standing provoked by the motion to dismiss the government filed last week. That mini-argument — what Judge Marti... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893419 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:19:32 +0100 4893419 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883535&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=34902&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.futurepundit.com%2Farchives%2F008110.html Businessweek has a very flattering article on Tyler Cowen and how his book The Great Stagnation has prompted a shift in the debate about poor economic growth. Having read the book I strongly recommend reading it. The Great Stagnation runs through three centuries' worth of what Cowen calls the "low-hanging fruit" of economic growth: free land, technological breakthroughs, and smart kids waiting to be educated. For developed economies, he argues, none of these remains to be plucked. Even more important than land, in my view, is energy. As Peter Tertzakian pointed out in his book A Thousand Barrels a Second, previous energy transitions of the last couple of centuries were to energy sources that were cheaper and/or more convenient. The... (Source: FuturePundit) FuturePundit blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883535 Sat, 28 May 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4883535 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841437&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLrWEFtQ-Q3Q%2F By George Scoville Next up for marriage equality: Perry v. Schwarzenegger. Please join us at 12:00 p.m. Eastern today as co-counsels for the plaintiffs Theodore Olson and John Boies join Center for American Progress president John Podesta and Cato chairman Robert A. Levy for a panel discussion on marriage equality, exploring legal and moral questions dating back to the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision that ended state bans on interracial marriage. If you cannot join us here at Cato, please tune in to watch a live stream of the event. “Republicans have an opportunity for a much more important debate, which will frame the election campaign next year.” In President Obama’s next speech, Cato director of foreign policy studies Christopher Preble hopes “that the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841437 Wed, 18 May 2011 14:29:53 +0100 4841437 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820813&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLKDab3HSOFg%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI got a few cranky emails after my post suggesting the United States should copy the Baltic nations and implement genuine spending cuts. These emailers were upset that I favorably commented on the fiscal discipline of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia while failing to reveal that these nations were suffering from high unemployment. From the tone of this correspondence, my new friends obviously think this is a “gotcha” moment. The gist of their messages is that the economic downturn that hit the Baltic nations is proof that the free-market model has failed, and that I somehow was guilty of a cover-up. That’s certainly a strange interpretation, especially since I specifically noted that the three nations had suffered from an economic downturn. There’... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820813 Fri, 13 May 2011 18:10:47 +0100 4820813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4820822&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJVTIs8aBKcc%2F By William A. NiskanenHouse Speaker John Boehner, in his speech to the Economic Club of New York on Monday night, was very clear about the conditions for which he would support an increase in the federal debt limit: … Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt limit increase.  And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority the president is given. We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions. They should be actual cuts and program reforms, not broad deficit or debt targets that punt the tough questions to the future. And with the exception of tax hikes — which will destroy jobs — everything is on the table. Congress is institutionally incapable of formulating and approving a large... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4820822 Thu, 12 May 2011 20:35:40 +0100 4820822 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813241&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdnA5cikAZoM%2F By David Boaz His Royal Highness Prince Charles, who lives, well, like a king, off wealth that his ancestors stole, appears at a Washington Post conference to tell his still-recalcitrant former subjects to change their economic system. As befitting a hereditary aristocrat, coming from a long line of people used to issuing orders, with little interest in spontaneous order or actual economic growth, he finds an urgent need for . . . the willingness of all aspects of society — the public, private and NGO [non-governmental organizations] sectors, large corporations and small organizations — to work together to build an economic model built upon resilience and diversity. Sure thing, guv’nor, we’ll get right on that. The King’s Speech is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato I... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813241 Wed, 11 May 2011 20:33:34 +0100 4813241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4813253&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_wrupaZeHWs%2F By David BoazPresident Obama has been saying that if the United States government can find and eliminate Osama bin Laden after ten years of searching, it can do anything: Already, in several appearances since the raid, Obama has described it as a reminder that “as a nation there is nothing that we can’t do,” as he put it during an unrelated White House ceremony Monday. On Sunday night, during his first comments about the operation, he linked it to American values, saying the country is “once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to.” This is, of course, nonsense. Finding bin Laden, difficult as it proved to be, was an incomparably simple task compared to using coercion and central planning to bring about desired results in defiance of economic reality. You ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4813253 Wed, 11 May 2011 14:01:13 +0100 4813253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758735&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Ftma19HnNJy0%2F By Tad DeHavenA Deloitte survey of 527 executives at mid-market companies (annual revenues of between $50 million and $1 billion) found “tempered optimism” that the economic recovery will continue. However, the survey also found significant concern over government fiscal and regulatory policies. A whopping 50 percent cited federal, state, and local debt as the greatest obstacle to U.S. growth in the coming year. Lack of consumer confidence (39 percent) and rising health care costs (33 percent) came in second and third. Lest anyone construe the executives’ concern about government debt as implied support for tax increases, high tax rates came in fourth at 30 percent. Government austerity, which can include tax increases, and infrastructure needs came in at 15 and 9 percent, respective... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758735 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:54:59 +0100 4758735 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664142&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1TDXomJZ2s0%2F By Tad DeHavenToday the Cato Institute placed an ad in major newspapers highlighting specific spending cuts that policymakers should make to restore our country's fiscal sanity and economic stability. Our public call for policymakers to demonstrate leadership on spending cuts comes in the midst of the on-going battle on Capitol Hill over funding the government for the remainder of fiscal 2011. A graphic at the top of the ad measures the $61 billion in cuts that Republicans have proposed against fiscal 2011 estimates for total spending, the deficit, and interest on the debt. As the graphic shows and the ad notes, it is clear that “leaders and members of both parties are in deep denial about the fiscal emergency we face.” There are news reports that Republican and Democrat negotiators ar... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664142 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:07:14 +0100 4664142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4631611&cid=t_186160_133_f&fid=35452&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphictruth.com%2F2011%2F03%2Ffuck-off.html (Source: Graphictruth) Graphictruth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4631611 Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:02:00 +0100 4631611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592369&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F6l3b7Oy1uew%2F By George Scoville How can we have an "adult conversation" on the budget if the White House won't release its budget and deficit projections to the public? A new guide to India's uneven spread of economic freedom could help state-level policymakers there improve the welfare of citizens there. "When the Cato guy tells you someone is corrupting the idea of HSAs, pay attention." Despite having the bully pulpit, and despite touting opinion polls in favor of reform, the Obama administration finds it necessary to use taxpayer funds to tell Googlers what's best for them. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has doubled down on the social issues truce--Cato's John Samples talked about this on Friday on the Cato Daily Podcast: Monday Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog (Source: C... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592369 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:17:19 +0100 4592369 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4580956&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F03%2F13%2Fstaying-happy-in-bad-times%2F A year and a half ago, USA Today published an interesting article as a kind of wrap-up of the four-day annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Among the happiness talk was how to stay chipper in this economy. My friend, Robert Wicks, attended and was interviewed for the article. Here is his section in the article (I still get giddy when I recognize my friends among the experts): Simplicity is a silver lining to the downturn, says psychologist Robert Wicks. “In the up economy, people were successful, but in many cases, they were missing their lives,” says Wicks, a psychology professor at Loyola University Maryland in Columbia and author of Bounce: Living the Resilient Life. “They weren’t spending time really enjoying themselves and weren’t spe... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4580956 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 10:34:11 +0100 4580956 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4536051&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPzWOR-NmY5s%2F By Daniel J. MitchellHere's a new mini-documentary from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, narrated by Natasha Montague of Americans for Tax Reform, that explains why the process of tax competition is a critical constraint on the propensity of governments to over-tax and over-spend. The issue is very simple. When labor and capital have the ability to escape bad policy by moving across borders, politicians are more likely to realize that it is foolish to impose high tax rates. And they oftentimes compete for jobs and investment by lowering tax rates. This virtuous form of rivalry helps explain why so many nations in recent years have lowered tax rates and adopted simple and fair flat tax systems. Another great feature of the video is the series of quotes from winners of the Nobel Prize... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4536051 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:41:13 +0100 4536051 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4507353&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F02%2F22%2Ftending-the-family-heart-our-new-parenting-book%2F Tending the Family Heart is a new e-book by Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker that seeks to affirm the importance of family and validate the simple things parents can do every day to nurture the “heart part” of their family. The effects of the current economic recession and a divisive political climate, as well as changes in family structure and the ever-growing use of personal electronic devices are isolating family members from one another. Tending the Family Heart provides practical ways for parents to counteract these affects by building and nurturing warmth and connection within their family. “The ‘heart part’ of a family is what transforms the very ordinary and repetitious tasks of daily life into expressions of mutual support and care,” says Dr. Hartwell-Walker. “Parents will ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4507353 Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:30:49 +0100 4507353 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477695&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FK3uc-XQxohY%2F By Tad DeHavenThe George W. Bush administration ushered in a new era of big government. The Obama administration has built on Bush's profligacy, and the president's new fiscal 2012 budget proposal would further cement the trend. Spending as a percentage of GDP has increased dramatically since the surplus years of the late 1990s. As the chart shows, the president’s budget once again seeks a permanently high level of federal spending as a share of the economy: While the numbers drop from their stimulus- and recession-induced highs, it is not because the president has suddenly decided that he desires a less active government. Rather, optimistic economic assumptions largely account for the slight retrenchment. Tax increases and optimistic economic assumptions explain the projected rise in r... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477695 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:04:15 +0100 4477695 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4459943&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNc9YdlUADS8%2F By Michael F. CannonWashington Post blogger Ezra Klein asks of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) Medicare voucher proposal (co-authored with former Congressional Budget Office director Alice Rivlin): Why are the cost savings in his bill possible, while the cost savings in the Affordable Care Act aren't?...when it comes to the ACA, Ryan firmly believes that seniors will quickly and successfully force Congress to reverse any reforms that degrade their Medicare experience. That's a fair enough concern, of course. What's confusing is why it isn't doubly devastating when applied to Ryan-Rivlin. Set aside that Klein violates Cannon's First Rule of Economic Literacy: Never say costs when you mean spending.  And that he uses the word "affordable" to describe ObamaCare. There are two reasons why the M... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4459943 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:21:21 +0100 4459943 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455254&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBPMWdSKAd5w%2F By Tad DeHavenPresident Obama will release his budget blueprint for fiscal 2012 next week. If an op-ed penned by his budget director, Jacob Lew, in Sunday’s New York Times is any indication, the administration intends to continue fiddling while the government’s finances burn. The title of the piece, “The Easy Cuts Are Behind Us,” is a real head-scratcher. Lew’s “easy cuts” are an apparent reference to the $20 billion in savings the president proposed in his previous budgets. Considering that the president proposed total spending of $3.8 trillion last year, $20 billion in gross cuts was an insignificant gesture to say the least. In reality, the Bush administration passed the spending baton to the Obama administration two years ago and it promptly sprinted off like Usain Bolt. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455254 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:53:57 +0100 4455254 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445775&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFtl1ksAqnmc%2F By David Boaz"Cat groomers, tattoo artists, tree trimmers and about a dozen other specialists across the country . . .  are clamoring for more rules governing small businesses," reports the Wall Street Journal in a front-page story today. "They're asking to become state-licensed professionals, which would mean anyone wanting to be, say, a music therapist or a locksmith, would have to pay fees, apply for a license and in some cases, take classes and pass exams." And despite all the talk about deregulation and encouraging entrepreneurship, "The most recent study, from 2008, found 23% of U.S. workers were required to obtain state licenses, up from just 5% in 1950," according to Morris Kleiner of the University of Minnesota. The Cato Institute has been taking on this issue for decades. In 198... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445775 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:25:47 +0100 4445775 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4446032&cid=t_186160_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FqZDR45Q5V5o%2F A trade deal being negotiated between Canada and the European Union could cost Canadians another $2.8 billion annually in drug costs - notably, by delaying the availability of lower-cost generics in Canada by about 3.5 years - if certain proposals are cemented, according to a new report commissioned by generic drugmakers. During the talks, the EU has sought various changes in Canadian laws and regulations governing intellectual property concerning brand-name meds. These include extending the term of patent protection by up to five years if drugs are bogged down in the regulatory approval process; lengthening the period of data exclusivity from eight years to 10 years or more; and strengthening notice of compliance regulations by adding an appeals process. The upshot is that Canadian payers... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4446032 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:24:19 +0100 4446032 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4394592&cid=t_186160_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FdGcGAXSLcBQ%2F The Council on the Ageing Society is one of the Global Agenda Councils created by the World Economic Forum in 2008. It addresses global issues associated with our ageing society and has the task of challenging prevailing assumptions, monitoring trends, proposing solutions, devising strategies, and making public policy proposals. It is composed of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders, including our very own Alvaro Fernandez. The first report of the Council on the Ageing Society was published this month in Global Policy. In this first publication the Council presents the basic principles that will guide its views, actions and policies in the coming years. We emphasise the power of knowledge as a policy tool. Evidence-based information about individual... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4394592 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:34:07 +0100 4394592 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4382740&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3xiNhYx3chE%2F By Tad DeHavenOne positive outcome of the recession, as the states struggle to find revenue to spend, is that state subsidies to businesses are facing increased scrutiny. This week the New York Times reported that states are looking at reducing or ending programs that hand out taxpayer money to television and movie producers. In Pennsylvania, some last-minute handouts from outgoing governor Ed Rendell are under fire, including a $10 million state grant to rehabilitate a former Sony plant for new tenants. According to the Commonwealth Foundation’s Nate Benefield, this is the fourth time Pennsylvania taxpayers have subsidized the site: Sony moved out in 2007, despite getting more than $40 million in corporate welfare under Gov. Robert P. Casey to come to Pennsylvania, then another $1 mill... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4382740 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:26:27 +0100 4382740 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4382745&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9wSMvVbYa4I%2F By Jim Harper(HT: Schneier) Here’s a refreshingly careful report on cybersecurity from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s “Future Global Shocks” project. Notably: “The authors have concluded that very few single cyber-related events have the capacity to cause a global shock.” There will be no cyber-”The Day After.” Here are a few cherry-picked top lines: Catastrophic single cyber-related events could include: successful attack on one of the underlying technical protocols upon which the Internet depends, such as the Border Gateway Protocol which determines routing between Internet Service Providers and a very large-scale solar flare which physically destroys key communications components such as satellites, cellular ba... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4382745 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:55:15 +0100 4382745 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4360953&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FzsZHyKEouIs%2F By Malou InnocentThe sudden collapse of the Tunisian government on Friday underscores the turmoil toward which the Muslim world  seems inescapably drifting.  As I wrote earlier today at The National Interest Online: Today, as during the Cold War, policy makers in Washington seem to expect economic growth to act as a substitute for political liberty, thereby ignoring the instinctive desire for freedom. Despotic leaders love to adopt pseudo-economic “reforms” to mask their coercive measures and perpetuate the status quo, but in the end, the institutionalized oppression imposed by ruling elites cannot be appeased in that way. Time will tell whether Tunisia and its neighbors evolve toward a freer and more prosperous future. But either way, human history confirms that fundamental change i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4360953 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 20:36:26 +0100 4360953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4343130&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fobesity-on-the-rise-in-developing-nations%2F2011.01.13 Emerging economies must act immediately to halt rising obesity rates before the epidemic becomes as severe as it is in first-world countries, according to new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD report was published in the Lancet. It characterizes the prevalence of obesity in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Obesity rates were found to vary dramatically across these six countries. In Mexico, a stunning 70 percent of adults were reported to be overweight or obese. Nearly half of all Brazilians, Russians and South Africans fell into these categories. China and India had a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity, but were moving rapidly in the wrong direction, according to the OECD. Developing nations don’t have eno... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4343130 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:00:26 +0100 4343130 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4337939&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhealthcare-repeal-how-would-it-affect-coverage-and-cost%2F2011.01.11 [Soon] the new GOP-controlled House of Representatives will be voting on and is expected to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – lock, stock, and barrel. There is virtually no chance the repeal bill will get through the Senate, though, which maintains a narrow Democratic majority, and President Obama would veto it if it did. But let’s say that the seemingly impossible happened, and the ACA was repealed. What would the impact be on healthcare coverage, costs, and the federal deficit? In a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary estimates of the impact of repeal on the deficit, uninsured, and costs of care, and found that it would make the deficit worse, result in more uninsured persons, and higher premiu... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4337939 Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100 4337939 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294611&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8gXsFsWep00%2F By Daniel GriswoldMany Americans believe the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high because U.S. multinational companies have been outsourcing and offshoring jobs to low-wage countries at the expense of jobs at home. And they believe this in part because politicians and the media tell them it’s so, even though it isn’t. Consider this story today from the Associated Press under the provocative headline, “Where are the jobs? For many companies, overseas.” Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn’t anyone hiring? Actually, many American companies are–just maybe not in your town. They’re hiring overseas, where sales are surging and the pipeline of orders is fat. More than half of the 15,000 people that Caterpillar Inc. has hired this year were out... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294611 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:59:12 +0100 4294611 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294612&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fecq--hx6Qew%2F By Juan Carlos HidalgoLast August I warned about the troubling signs coming from Panama’s president Ricardo Martinelli. Elected in 2009 on a free market platform, Martinelli has quickly embraced interventionist economic policies (particularly a sharp increase in public spending) that sooner or later will take a toll on Panama’s macroeconomic stability. More worryingly, I pointed at a disturbing pattern of cronyism, erosion of democratic checks and balances, and harassment of the media emanating from the Martinelli administration. A cable released by Wikileaks this week seems to confirm many of these fears. Dated August 2009 and signed by then U.S. Ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson, it describes Martinelli’s “autocratic tendencies” such as asking the U.S. government for help... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294612 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:18:36 +0100 4294612 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294636&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmeasuring-gnh-gross-national-happiness%2F2010.12.26 This evening, when I fin­ished clean­ing up the kitchen after our fam­ily din­ner, I glanced at the cur­rent issue of the Econ­o­mist. The cover fea­tures this head­line: the Joy of Grow­ing Old (or why life begins at 46). It’s a light read, as this so-influential mag­a­zine goes, but nice to con­tem­plate if you’re, say, 50 years old and won­der­ing about the future. The article’s the­sis is this: Although as peo­ple move towards old age they lose things they treasure — vitality, men­tal sharp­ness and looks — they also gain what peo­ple spend their lives pur­su­ing: Happiness. Fig. 1 (above): “A snap­shot of the age dis­tri­b­u­tion of psy­cho­log­i­cal well-being in the United States,” Stone, et al: PNAS, May 2010 (y-axis: “WB&... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294636 Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:00:44 +0100 4294636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265692&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQeA2kvjDLrs%2F By Chris EdwardsJapan has announced that it will cut its corporate tax rate by five percentage points. Japan and the United States had been the global laggards on corporate tax reform, so this leaves America with the highest corporate rate among the 34 wealthy nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is not a good position for us to be in. Most of the competition faced by U.S. businesses comes from businesses headquartered in other OECD countries. America also competes with other OECD nations as a location for investment. Our high corporate tax rate scares away investment in new factories, makes it difficult for U.S. companies to compete in foreign markets, and provides strong incentives for corporations to avoid and evade taxes. The chart shows KP... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265692 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:59:48 +0100 4265692 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4258866&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fjudge-rules-healthcare-reform-unconstitutional%2F2010.12.14 A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that healthcare reform is unconstitutional and expects the Obama administration to honor that ruling while it’s being appealed. But states and private companies are continuing to plan and budget for it nonetheless. The court ruled that Congress exceeded its constitutional powers in compelling Americans to buy health insurance. Judges elsewhere have ruled the law is valid or dismissed the cases on procedural grounds, while a judge in Florida will hear another case later this week. In the meantime, though, employers and healthcare companies have to continue adjusting to the reform law’s many provisions. States will continue to set up their health insurance exchanges, and they’ve already budgeted for the additional 16 million people who ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4258866 Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:00:00 +0100 4258866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4253115&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJUZ16IwmECU%2F By David BoazJournalists talk endlessly these days about the need for more consumer spending to revive the economy, and for government programs to juice consumer spending. Economist Steven Horwitz takes on the assumption that spending is the key to economic activity: One of the most pernicious and widespread economic fallacies is the belief that consumption is the key to a healthy economy.  We hear this idea all the time in the popular press and casual conversation, particularly during economic downturns.  People say things like, “Well, if folks would just start buying things again, the economy would pick up” or “If we could only get more money in the hands of consumers, we’d get out of this recession.”  This belief in the power of consumption is also what has guided much of e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4253115 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:02:34 +0100 4253115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4225220&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FX_lmTB5KmcU%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning that the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent last month. As you can see from the chart, the White House claimed that if we enacted the so-called stimulus, the unemployment rate today would be about 7 percent today. It’s never wise to over-interpret the meaning on a single month’s data, and it’s also a mistake to credit or blame any one policy for the economy’s performance. But it certainly does seem that the combination of bigger government and more intervention is not a recipe for growth. Maybe the President should reverse course and try free markets and smaller government. After the jump is a helpful six-minute tutorial. How’s that Stimulus Working, Mr. President? is a post fro... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4225220 Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:31:49 +0100 4225220 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4219744&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmedicares-deficit-effect-on-the-economy%2F2010.12.01 Medicare poses a deficit problem, note some very influential analysts. A former Congressional Budget Office head and a former Medicare chief chime in on the scope of the program’s impact on the economy, and the difficulties of trying to scale it back. Yet, a presidential commission is considering just that among other measures. The 18-member, bipartisan commission released its report weeks ago and was scheduled to have voted today on a shocking scope of deficit-trimming measures that included changes to military spending, Social Security and Medicare, among other areas. But they deferred the vote until Friday to try to garner more votes from members who are also currently elected officials. The panel needs 14 votes and substantive approval from its roster of Congress members to gain ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4219744 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0100 4219744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4219724&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fb62q3LyCjcs%2F By Johan NorbergThe financial crisis and global warming have reinforced an age-old criticism of our traditional ways of measuring wealth, and a number of alternative indexes have been proposed that would instead measure people’s well-being and environmental sustainability. There are problems with using GDP. It involves an incredible amount of guesswork; and even if it were perfect, it would be bizarre to use production of goods and services as the only yardstick to evaluate our societies. But finding problems is one thing; it is something completely different to find an alternative that is better. Any sort of well-being index would require agreement on what well-being is, and there is a risk that governments would be tempted to find a one-size-fits-all standard and try to make us all wea... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4219724 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:58:36 +0100 4219724 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4219725&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FtoxT0OW_Sag%2F By Alan ReynoldsIn The New York Times, Robert H. Frank of Cornell University repeated his perpetual argument that high tax rates on the rich do no harm to demand (not supply) because the rich can just draw down savings, year after year,  to pay more taxes yet maintain a showy lifestyle.   Then he resorts to the old trick of asserting there is no “credible” evidence that tax disincentives and distortions have any ill effects on the economy. Frank asks, rhetorically, if an increase in top tax rates might reduce economic growth.  And he replies, “There’s no credible evidence that it would.”   This is a timeworn trick among people too intellectually lazy to look for a single academic study or statistical fact.   As I have shown before, Mr. Frank has a history of abusing b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4219725 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:23:47 +0100 4219725 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4200603&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F11%2F25%2Fhappy-thanksgiving-2010%2F If it’s November and you live in the U.S., chances are you’re going to find yourself eating some turkey today. Happy Thanksgiving! At this time of the year, it’s also traditional to give thanks for what we have. We’re a nation of bounty and plenty, even during these tough economic times. Most of us have the luxury of having a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs, and warmth in the cold. These are simple things we take for granted everyday. But I want to really thank you for reading Psych Central’s World of Psychology blog all year long. This has been the 10th year I’ve regularly been blogging, and it’s 10 years I’ve really enjoyed. So thank you for reading. I also want to thank our members, because without people who’ve made the ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4200603 Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:29:59 +0100 4200603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4197158&cid=t_186160_111_f&fid=36048&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAHeartyLife%2F%7E3%2FrxggHep1GVs%2F photo: Thinkstock Do you find that you’re often confused by what your underlings are trying to tell you? Your driver, your cook — they make these scrunched-up faces and you just don’t know what they’re feeling. We get it. The reason for your clueless behavior could be your ability to be self-sufficient. A new study showed that people of a lower socio-economic standing were better at figuring out other people’s feelings than those from the upper class. Researchers think this is because poorer people rely on the help of others more than people with money do. That makes sense. But there’s an interesting twist: When people from the upper classes were made to feel like they had a lower soco-economic status than they really did, they got better at understanding em... A Hearty Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4197158 Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:50:25 +0100 4197158 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4124988&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FN0d3BALkRh8%2F By Michael D. TannerWith Tuesday’s election widely predicted to bring a near-historic shake-up of the political establishment, here are some things we can say for certain even before the first results are tallied: This election will be a win for economic conservatives, not social conservatives.  Not surprisingly given the economic climate, economic issues dominated the campaign, with social issues barely registering.  This was particularly helpful for Republicans, since economically conservative, socially moderate suburban voters, who backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008, switched to Republicans this year. There is a lesson here for Republicans in the future. In the months leading up to the election, we have heard a great deal about the so-called “civil war” in the Republican Party.�... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4124988 Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:13:22 +0100 4124988 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4118897&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FL3TRisx-TMU%2F By Ilya ShapiroFive years ago, in the landmark property rights case of Kelo v. New London, the Supreme Court upheld the forced transfer of land from various homeowners by finding that “economic development” qualifies as a public purpose for purposes of satisfying the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause.  In doing so, however, the Court reaffirmed that the government may not “take property under the mere pretext of a public purpose, when its actual purpose was to bestow a private benefit.” State and federal courts have since applied that pretext standard in widely differing ways while identifying four factors as indicators of pretext: evidence of pretextual intent, benefits that flow predominantly to a private party, haphazard planning, and a readily identifiable beneficiary.  More... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4118897 Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:47:46 +0100 4118897 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4105670&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhealth-insurance-new-survey-reveals-record-number-of-uninsured%2F2010.10.24 Last month the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual survey on health insurance coverage. The results were startling, yet few politicians seemed to take notice: – The number of people with health insurance declined for the first time ever in almost two decades. In fact, as reported by CNN this is the first time since the Census Bureau started collecting data on health insurance coverage in 1987 that fewer people reported that they had health insurance: “There were 253.6 million people with health insurance in 2009, the latest data available, down from 255.1 million a year earlier.” The percentage of the population without coverage increased from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent. – Almost 51 million U.S. residents had no health insurance coverage at all, a record high, ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4105670 Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:00:00 +0100 4105670 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4045079&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEfdT3MN1wKo%2F By Chris EdwardsI blogged about how Canadian government spending cuts since the mid-1990s coincided with strong economic growth. Let’s take a closer look at the spending cuts. The chart shows Canadian federal spending from 1984 to 2009 in actual, or nominal, dollars. Spending includes all “discretionary” and “entitlement” programs, as we would call them, but excludes interest payments. (Data are here). Spending peaked in the early 1990s, and it relied on massive deficit finance. As a result, interest costs were spiralling out of control. The prime minister and his finance minister–members of the center-left Liberal Party–decided to reverse course and start cutting. They cut spending from $123 billion in in 1995 to $111 billion in 1997,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4045079 Fri, 08 Oct 2010 01:41:00 +0100 4045079 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4031214&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FaA8MvUZ4l0Q%2F By Jason KuznickiThis month’s Cato Unbound features a lead essay by economist and polymath Deirdre McCloskey. Though she’s been professionally associated with the Chicago School, her ideas are anything but predictable, and she’s been one of the strongest critics of the mainstream of her discipline. Economic activity, she argues, is driven primarily by forces outside of conventional economic theory. Sure, there’s supply and demand, and we all know the story, and there’s nothing terribly wrong with it, at least as far as it goes. Elaborations on the model aren’t wrong either — externalities, transaction costs, asymmetrical information, problems of coordination and public goods — these too are fine, as far as they go. Where she disagrees is in ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4031214 Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:56:22 +0100 4031214 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4025610&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMII5tKb42w0%2F By David BoazFree-marketers often point to the varying success of pairs of countries — the United States vs. the Soviet Union, West vs. East Germany, Hong Kong and Taiwan vs. China — to illustrate the benefits of markets over planning, regulation, and socialism. Some even point out the closer but real differences in GDP per capita between the United States and Western Europe. In his 1984 book Endless Enemies (p. 380) Jonathan Kwitny added the less familiar pairs “Morocco versus Algeria, Malaysia versus Indonesia, Thailand versus Burma, Kenya versus Tanzania.” Now Rama Lakshmi reports in the Washington Post that we can see the results of two systems of political economy in one country: It didn’t take long for the first athletes arriving in New Delhi last week f... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4025610 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:23:37 +0100 4025610 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4025652&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F10%2F02%2Fgetting-sober-hope-in-the-rooms-and-online%2F Recovering alcoholics say there is magic to be found in the rooms of their support groups. I have experienced and benefited from that, but, like others can’t name the exact ingredient of the meetings that has healing faculties. Tara Handron, a playwright and actress, does as good of a job as anyone I’ve known, at uncovering why and how recovering alcoholics are able to stay sober when they spill their guts between four walls. The other night I attended her one-person performance, a 60-minute play, that discards clichéd portrayals of recovery and relies on complex characters and richly layered stories to expose the raw emotions so many alcoholic women experience. Tara’s back-to-back portrayals of over 20 female alcoholics of various ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic ... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4025652 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:47:41 +0100 4025652 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4018160&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyR11yQMw_ls%2F By Mark A. CalabriaAn argument often heard for keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or some sort of subsidy for mortgages, is the desire to keep the 30 year fixed rate mortgage “affordable.” The 30 year fixed certainly has some merits – which borrowers should be willing to pay for – but it also has the downside of reducing the impact of monetary policy in stabilizing the economy. Generally interest rates go down in a recession and up in an expansion.  Part of this is the reaction of the Federal Reserve, which tends to cut rates in a recession, but part is also the fact that the demand for credit also declines in a recession and increases in an expansion. If borrowers moved to adjustable rate mortgages, then in recessions they would likely see a reduction in their mo... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4018160 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:43:19 +0100 4018160 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013137&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FGw1wIjQHXrQ%2F By Michael F. CannonIn a previous post, I promised to address the negative spin that the Kaiser Family Foundation put on its annual Employer Health Benefits Survey, released this month.  I do so in an op-ed that ran today at the Daily Caller.  An excerpt: The Kaiser Family Foundation recently issued its annual survey of employer-sponsored health benefits, declaring: “Family Health Premiums Rise 3 Percent to $13,770 in 2010, But Workers’ Share Jumps 14 Percent as Firms Shift Cost Burden.” That’s half-right — but the other half perpetuates a myth about employee health benefits that stands in the way of real health care reform…. [Y]ou pay the full cost of your health benefits: partly through an explicit $4,000 premium and partly because your wages are $9,770 lower than ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013137 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:07:03 +0100 4013137 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013259&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F09%2F28%2Ffeds-award-26-2-million-for-mental-health-care%2F All too often, I find myself writing about how mental health care fails in the U.S. It’s an easy story to write — during hard economic times, health care (especially for the poor and indigent) often takes a big hit from the government. So it’s always refreshing to write a different story. Especially one where the feds step up and fund not just a good idea, but a great one. The hero in this instance is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the funding mechanism is the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund. Forty-three agencies share in the $26.2 million booty (most receiving about $500,000). The goal of the funding? To help better integrate primary care into the mental health services they offer. Yes, you heard me right — help... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013259 Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:01:57 +0100 4013259 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4003244&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0rJN-rH7ys4%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThere’s a wise old saying about “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” But perhaps we need a new saying along the lines of “don’t subsidize the foot that kicks you.” Here’s a good example: American taxpayers finance the biggest share of the budget for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is an international bureaucracy based in Paris. The OECD is not as costly as the United Nations, but it still soaks up about $100 million of American tax dollars each year. And what do we get in exchange for all this money? Sadly, the answer is lots of bad policy. The bureaucrats (who, by the way, get tax-free salaries) just released their “Economic Survey of the United States, 2010” and it contains ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4003244 Mon, 27 Sep 2010 11:14:02 +0100 4003244 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3993876&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FCTE5BRJ0G84%2F By Marian L. TupyProfessor William Easterly, the economic development expert from New York University, has written an excellent comment for the Financial Times online. He writes, “The Millennium Development Goals [summit that wraps up in NY today] tragically misused the world’s goodwill to support failed official aid approaches to global poverty and gave virtually no support to proven approaches. … But current experience and history both speak loudly that the only real engine of growth out of poverty is private business, and there is no evidence that aid fuels such growth.” At the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, we have continuously emphasized the power of trade to help the poor escape poverty. Unfortunately, politicians in rich countries find it easier to waste billions ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3993876 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:17:53 +0100 3993876 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3976487&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F-Sb79C4_7uY%2F By Michael F. CannonI must be losing my touch. I’ve let nearly two months pass without responding to Ezra Klein’s defense of RomneyCare, ObamaCare, and other centrally planned health care systems.  (For those who want to get up to speed: his original post, my reply, and his response.)  So here goes. Klein notes that he and I had each used flawed measures of RomneyCare’s impact on health insurance premiums in Massachusetts.  Fair enough.  But Klein ignores the study I cited by John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard, and Dan Kessler, which estimates that RomneyCare increased premiums in Massachusetts by 6 percent.  The CHK study has limitations, but it is the best estimate available.  I hope Klein addresses it. Klein’s fallback position is that even if RomneyCare increases p... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3976487 Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:50:05 +0100 3976487 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3961809&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FM2IgRCfBeas%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI touched a raw nerve with my post about Fidel Castro admitting that the Cuban model is a failure. Matthew Yglesias and Brad DeLong both attacked me. DeLong’s post was nothing more than a link to the Yglesias post with a snarky comment about “why can’t we have better think tanks?” Yglesias, to his credit, tried to explain his objections. This leads Daniel Mitchell to post the following chart which he deems “a good illustration of the human cost of excessive government.”…this mostly illustrates the difficulty of having a rational conversation with Cato Institute employees about economic policy in the developed world. Cuba is poor, but it’s much richer than Somalia. Is Somalia’s poor performance an illustration of the human costs of ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3961809 Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:50:15 +0100 3961809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3957902&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSVng0wQj6Eg%2F By Alan ReynoldsI was a bit critical of Laura Tyson’s New York Times article on “Why We Need a Second Stimulus.” Apparently I wasn’t nearly critical enough. The Nation and National Public Radio are advising President Obama to “stop listening to infrastructure-phobic advisers like Larry Summers and start taking counsel from Laura Tyson, a member of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board who argues that $1 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed over the next five years.” At The Atlantic, senior editor (and Boston Globe columnist) Joshua Green thinks Laura Tyson’s article “underscored what a loss it is for the Obama administration that it couldn’t manage to find a place for her on its economic team.” Mr. Green can’t imagine why a Berkeley professor who ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3957902 Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:22:27 +0100 3957902 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3946433&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F9rJ3SVWQgKI%2F By Mark A. CalabriaOn Labor Day, President Obama announced his plan for an additional $50 billion in spending, mostly on transportation.  An area Obama specifically mentioned was more spending for bridges, playing on the widely held perception that America’s bridging are falling apart.  While clearly there are bridges that are greatly in need of repair and represent a threat to passenger safety, what has been the overall trend in bridge quality?  In one word:  improving. According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics only about 1 in ten bridges today can be characterized as “structurally deficient”, this is, in need of serious repair.  This may sound high, but it is down from 1 in four back in 1990.  As one can tell from the accompanying chart, the percen... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3946433 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:57:07 +0100 3946433 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924886&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFgIpiK3-ZtI%2F By Daniel GriswoldA Pew Hispanic Center report released today confirms what has been widely known, that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has dropped sharply since 2007. The real argument is over what’s behind the decline. According to Pew’s Jeffrey Passel and D’Vera Cohn, the annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants dropped by two-thirds during 2007-09 compared to 2000-05. That plunge has contributed to an overall decline in the total number of illegal immigrants in the United States from a peak of 12 million in March 2007 to 11.1 million in March 2009. Pew calls this “the first significant reversal in the growth of this population over the past two decades.” Advocates of more restrictive immigration policies have been quick to credit increased enforc... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924886 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:06:32 +0100 3924886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3911683&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FlTZULwHrnwU%2F By Daniel IkensonAs usual, Dan Griswold does an excellent job today correcting fallacies about trade and the trade deficit that continue to be perpetuated in the mainstream media (particularly at the Washington Post).   I just want to add my two cents without belaboring any of Dan’s succinctly-made points.  (Besides, I’ve harped on and on and on and on and on about the problem of trade reporting this year.) It’s a shame that so much time and energy has to be diverted to cleaning up messes left by reporters and editors, who should know better by now. The bottom line is that neither imports nor trade deficits cause U.S. job loss or slower economic growth.  If anything, the charts below (all compiled from BEA and BLS data) support the conclusion that imports and the trade deficit ris... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3911683 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:12:48 +0100 3911683 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889073&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FK_iyByceMTc%2F The news that China has surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy has generated a lot of attention. It shouldn’t. There are roughly 10 times as many people in China as there are in Japan, so the fact that total gross domestic product in China is now bigger than total gross domestic product in Japan is hardly a sign of Chinese economic supremacy. Yes, China has been growing in recent decades, but it’s almost impossible not to grow when you start at the bottom — which is where China was in the late 1970s thanks to decades of communist oppression and mismanagement. And the growth they have experienced certainly has not been enough to overtake other nations based on measures that compare living standards. According to the World Bank, per-capita GDP (adjusted... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889073 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:35:43 +0100 3889073 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858138&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUmTu15HUr5o%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI’m still dealing with the statist echo chamber, having been hit with two additional attacks for the supposed sin of endorsing Reaganomics over Obamanomics (my responses to the other attacks can be found here and here). Some guy at the Atlantic Monthly named Steve Benen issued a critique focusing on the timing of the recession and recovery in Reagan’s first term. He reproduces a Krugman chart (see below) and also adds his own commentary. Reagan’s first big tax cut was signed in August 1981. Over the next year or so, unemployment went from just over 7% to just under 11%. In September 1982, Reagan raised taxes, and unemployment fell soon after. We’re all aware, of course, of the correlation/causation dynamic, but as Krugman noted in January, &#822... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858138 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:39:11 +0100 3858138 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858142&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FcCf6h1Zwm2w%2F By Tad DeHavenThe Bureau of Economic Analysis latest release of industry compensation levels shows that the average federal worker ranks up at the top along with employees in the finance and energy industries. That’s not exactly popular company these days. The BEA presents compensation data for 72 industries that span the U.S. economy. Figure 1 shows the 20 industries with the highest levels of average compensation, which includes wages and benefits. It also shows the average for all U.S. private industries and the average for the industry with the lowest compensation. (The names of the industries have been simplified in some cases). Federal civilian workers have the sixth highest average compensation of the 72 industries: As yesterday’s post showed, federal employee compensation has ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858142 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:25:42 +0100 3858142 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3854512&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FfyZ0zcA79Hk%2F By Tad DeHavenThe Bureau of Economic Analysis has released its annual data on compensation levels by industry. The data show that the pay advantage enjoyed by federal civilian workers over private-sector workers continues to expand. This state of affairs is a thumb in the eye of the private sector, which continues to struggle with high unemployment. Many private sector employees have been forced to take pay and benefit cuts while continuing to fund generous federal employee compensation with their taxes. Figure 1 looks at average wages. In 2009, the average wage for 1.95 million federal civilian workers was $81,258, which compared to an average $50,462 for the nation’s 101 million private sector workers (measured in full-time equivalents). The figure shows that the federal pay advantage ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3854512 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:29:20 +0100 3854512 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831344&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FjX1tb2UVmdw%2F By Ilya ShapiroOregon officials told a 7-year-old with a lemonade stand that she needed to obtain a temporary restaurant license or incur a fine. I’m rendered speechless, but Josh Blackman exploits the “teaching moment”: If you are generally opposed to any notion of the right to pursue an honest living, ask yourself, why does it bother you so much that this little girl cannot sell lemonade. Then, ask yourself what you think about other regulations that stifle the entrepreneur. This story does not tug on our heart strings simply because she is adorably selling lemonade for 50 cents a cup (suggested price) at a fair. It tugs on our heart strings because the state is unnecessarily clamping down on this little girl’s ability to make some money. More from Tim Sandefur. (... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831344 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:12:25 +0100 3831344 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831345&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FMOuHxxoY74g%2F By Daniel J. MitchellIf I was organized enough to send Christmas cards, I would take Richard Rahn off my list. I do one blog post to call attention to his Washington Times column and it seems like everybody in the world wants to jump down my throat. I already dismissed Paul Krugman’s rant and responded to Ezra Klein’s reasonable criticism. Now it’s time to address Derek Thompson’s critique on the Atlantic’s site. At the risk of re-stating someone else’s argument, Thompson’s central theme seems to be that there are many factors that determine economic performance and that it is unwise to make bold pronouncements about Policy A causing Result B. If that’s what Thompson is saying, I very much agree (and if it’s not what he’s trying... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831345 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 12:12:02 +0100 3831345 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3822899&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDc5ya4UeZwE%2F By Daniel J. MitchellI seem to have touched a raw nerve with my post earlier today on my International Liberty blog,  comparing Reagan and Obama on how well the economy performed coming out of recession. Both Ezra Klein and Paul Krugman have denounced my analysis (actually, they denounced me approving of Richard Rahn’s analysis, but that’s a trivial detail). Krugman responded by asserting that Reaganomics was irrelevant (I’m not kidding) to what happened in the 1980s. Klein’s response was more substantive, so let’s focus on his argument. He begins by stating that the recent recession and the downturn of the early 1980s were different creatures. My argument was about how strongly the economy rebounded, however, not the length, severity, causes, and character... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3822899 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:53:36 +0100 3822899 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3812955&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVM3_86BS7lA%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThe federal government is capable of enormous waste, which obviously is bad news, but the worst forms of government spending are those that actually leverage bad things. Paying exorbitant salaries to federal bureaucrats is bad, for instance, but it’s even worse if they take their jobs seriously and promulgate new regulations and otherwise harass people in the productive sector of the economy. In a previous video on the economics of government spending, I called this the “negative multiplier” effect. One of the worst examples of a negative multiplier effect is the $100 million that taxpayers spend each year to subsidize the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is an international bureaucracy that publishes lots of i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3812955 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:54:28 +0100 3812955 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3786987&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Farticle-boasts-new-birth-centers-luxury-hotel-amenities%2F2010.07.25 Here’s the Minneapolis Star Tribune headline: “Buffalo birthing center has the latest amenities.” And here’s an excerpt: Starting in August, new mothers will have a chance to multi-task in style in Buffalo, Minn. The local hospital is unveiling its new birth center, where every patient room will be equipped with an iPod docking station, a flat-screen TV and DVD player, a soaking tub, rocking chair and refrigerator — oh, and a place for the baby to sleep, too. Buffalo Hospital has spent $7.1 million to turn its old labor and delivery unit into a state-of-the-art facility to appeal to a new generation of patients. At maternity wards around the country, that increasingly means catering to patients and families as if they’re at “a luxury hotel,” ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3786987 Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:00:31 +0100 3786987 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3730033&cid=t_186160_133_f&fid=35452&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.graphictruth.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fbuy-democrat-i-mean-invest-in-democracy.html The Washington Post says that the US financial sector is divesting itself of investments in Democratic futures.A revolt among big donors on Wall Street is hurting fundraising for the Democrats' two congressional campaign committees, with contributions from the world's financial capital down 65 percent from two years ago.Donations to Democratic Candidates have fallen precipitously, making this a watershed moment for those with a venture capital approach to democracy.The opportunity now exists for Centre-left coalitions to step in and replace this money. I'm talking to everyone here. This is a potential game-changer. Large chunks of reliable cash are vital to maintaining a Democratic majority, and in order to maintain that cash flow... well, there's an old saying I remember from wa... Graphictruth blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3730033 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:02:00 +0100 3730033 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3718380&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_qZfqtnCi-s%2F By Daniel IkensonSteven Pearlstein’s ready for the nuclear option.  With the conviction of a man who knows he won’t be held accountable for the consequences of his prescriptions, Pearlstein says the time has come for action against China.  Hopefully, those whose fingers are actually near the button will recognize Pearlstein’s suggestion for what it is: an outburst of frustration over what he considers China’s insubordination. In his Washington Post business column yesterday, Pearlstein criticizes U.S. policymakers for blindly adhering to the view that China will inevitably transition to democratic capitalism, while they’ve excused market-distorting protectionism, mercantilism, and state dominance over the economy in China.  Pearlstein writes: Up to now, a succession of adminis... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3718380 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:31:44 +0100 3718380 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714165&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsgMQt2rrrkY%2F By Michael F. CannonIn a recent Wall Street Journal oped, Carnegie-Mellon economist Allan Meltzer explains how ObamaCare is delaying economic recovery: Two overarching reasons explain the failure of Obamanomics. First, administration economists and their outside supporters neglected the longer-term costs and consequences of their actions. Second, the administration and Congress have through their deeds and words heightened uncertainty about the economic future. High uncertainty is the enemy of investment and growth… Mr. Obama has denied the cost burden on business from his health-care program, but business is aware that it is likely to be large. How large? That’s part of the uncertainty that employers face if they hire additional labor… Then there is Medicaid, the medical... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714165 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:02:38 +0100 3714165 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714447&cid=t_186160_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F1qoiyO53RnY%2F Hello, everyone. How are you today? We are motoring along here on the Pharmalot corporate campus, where the heat has lifted and the birds are singing our song. Just the same, another busy day lies ahead. Your schedules, no doubt, are equally daunting. So please join us for the mandatory cup of stimulation and a bit of news of the world. Dig in and have a great day… Biogen To Hire George Scangos As CEO (Bloomberg News) Celegene To Buy Abraxis For $2.9 Billion (Associated Press) Pfizer Gets Incentives To Stay In Virginia (Richmond Times-Dispatch) Sanofi-Aventis Pays $75M For TargeGen (Bloomberg News) A Fix For The Avandia Mess (Forbes) Genzyme Expects More Cerezyme, Fabrazyme Shortages (Reuters) Sanofi-Aventis To Build New Plant In Saudi Arabia (InPharma-Technologist) Bristol-Myers Con... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714447 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:47:29 +0100 3714447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3701668&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Fblisstree-video-of-the-day-7%2F There are a lot of crappy things going on in the world right now. From oil spills to financial turbulence to wars that seem to drag on forever, and everything in between, it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing we can do about anything. Turns out, some problems are a lot easier to fix than you might think. So here’s your dose of inspiration for the day. It’s called The Girl Effect: Post from: BlissTree The Girl Effect: (Inspirational) Video of the Day (Source: Breastfeeding 1-2-3) Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3701668 Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:00:53 +0100 3701668 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3695550&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLpOi2PFO104%2F By Tad DeHavenDuring a recent CNBC debate on federal spending, I argued that government policies are creating uncertainty in the business community. Businesses are reluctant to invest or hire because they’re concerned that the president’s big government agenda will mean higher taxes and more onerous regulations. I mentioned that every business owner I’ve spoken with has expressed this concern. In fact, the owner of the TV studio I was in told me that he wants to hire more employees but is afraid he may have to turn around and fire them later on thanks to Washington. My debate opponent dismissed my argument on the basis that “you cannot conduct macroeconomic policy by anecdote.” Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence to support my concern beyond what I’ve heard from folks in... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3695550 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:38:42 +0100 3695550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3683604&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FX7Wb0F5sF7o%2F By Ilya ShapiroOur friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation have filed another important suit in the battle for the right to earn an honest living.  PLF senior attorney (and Cato adjunct scholar) Tim Sandefur has the scoop: Michael Munie is a St. Louis businessman who’s been in the moving business since he was 16 years old. He has a federal license that lets him move people’s household goods from one state to another. And he has a state license that allows him to move things within St. Louis. But he’s not allowed to move things from St. Louis to anywhere else in Missouri unless he gets permission from his competitors first. That’s right—Missouri law dictates that whenever a person applies for a license to run a moving business, the state’s Department of Tran... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3683604 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:10:46 +0100 3683604 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3676635&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Ffilm-review-christy-turlington-tackles-womens-health-issues-with-no-woman-no-cry-documentary%2F This post originally appeared on our sister site TheGloss, and was written by TheGloss Editor-in-Chief Lilit Marcus. During the opening sequence of her documentary No Woman No Cry, Christy Turlington admits that she’s led a pretty charmed life, but something happened the day that she gave birth to her daughter and there were complications: “I went from invincible to powerless.” Though Turlington got medical care and both she and her daughter were fine, she realized how fortunate she was to have access to quality maternity care. The experience sent her on a new kind of journey, not only of motherhood but of a mission to learn about maternal health around the world and try to raise awareness about women’s health issues. Her travels took her from Bangladesh to Guatemal... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3676635 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:29:12 +0100 3676635 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3671667&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FprkUzeHU1-8%2F By Gerald P. O'DriscollTwo articles in today’s Wall Street Journal deal with the housing sector.  They complement each other. Journal reporters note that “Industry Speeds Recovery, And Housing Slows It Down.”  The story notes that that “ground-breaking for new homes and applications for building permits both plunged last month.”  Meanwhile, U.S. industrial output showed strong growth in May. Bravo for both numbers, which are inter-related.  The headline (over which reporters have no control) reflects conceptual confusion.  U.S. industrial production is strong at least in part because construction of new homes is weak.   The bloated home sector is no longer absorbing a disproportionate share of economic resources.  The new homeowners tax credit has m... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3671667 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:08:14 +0100 3671667 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3629623&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FRW1uWDdOyV0%2F By Steve H. HankeProf. Paul Krugman asserts in his New York Times column of May 31st that “Both textbook economics and experience say that slashing spending when you’re still suffering from high unemployment is a really bad idea — not only does it deepen the slump, but it does little to improve the budget outlook, because much of what governments save by spending less they lose as a weaker economy depresses tax receipts.” While Prof. Krugman and most other fiscalists believe this to be self-evident, it is not.  Indeed, this fiscalist dogma fails to withstand the indignity of empirical verification.  Prof. Paul Krugman’s formulation fails to mention the state of confidence.  This is an important oversight.  As Keynes himself put it: “The state of conf... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3629623 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:16:13 +0100 3629623 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3617820&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FQ-sWvHPK748%2F By David BoazPaul Krugman writes today, “Both textbook economics and experience say that slashing spending when you’re still suffering from high unemployment is a really bad idea.” I can’t speak for the particular textbooks Krugman reads, but Cato Policy Report just looked at the most significant example of slashing spending in American history — the quick, sharp spending cuts after World War II. Economists Jason Taylor and Richard Vedder find: the “Depression of 1946″ may be one of the most widely predicted events that never happened in American history. As the war was winding down, leading Keynesian economists of the day argued, as Alvin Hansen did, that “the government cannot just disband the Army, close down munitions factories, stop building... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3617820 Mon, 31 May 2010 16:07:47 +0100 3617820 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607814&cid=t_186160_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FEr0E-HGqV_8%2F The Free Trade Agreements being negotiated between the US and other nations has come in for some criticism by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which is a group body of independent experts that is charged with monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by participating nations. And in a new report, the CECSR notes that the intellectual property obligations included in the Free Trade Agreement between the US and Colombia may hurt access to medicines and recommends a revision of the IP provisions. “The Committee is concerned that bilateral and multilateral trade agreements signed by (Colombia) may affect the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular of disadvantaged and marginali... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607814 Fri, 28 May 2010 12:30:24 +0100 3607814 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607483&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJZDMtZXK4H8%2F By David BoazMichael Crowley, late of the New Republic and now with Time magazine, writes thoughtfully about Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and libertarianism. Crowley notes that Rand Paul, “more politically flexible than his father,” has plenty of unlibertarian positions. But both of them are tapping into a real strain in contemporary politics: But he, like his father, also knows well that a genuine libertarian impulse is astir in America…. polls show an uptick in both social permissiveness and skepticism of government intervention….[Ron Paul] has already waited a long time — and it appears the country is moving his way. This is a current trend, but it’s also deeply rooted in the American political culture. As David Kirby and I wrote in “The Libertarian Vote&#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607483 Thu, 27 May 2010 16:17:29 +0100 3607483 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3585593&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FlcBbCg8vZf8%2F By Daniel IkensonIn honor of World Trade Week—and for its decreed purpose of educating Americans about trade—this post is about U.S. trade policy working at cross-purposes with other policies or goals of the administration. So numerous are these examples of trade policy dissonance, that a committed wonk could devote an entire website to the task of documenting them. If the administration were serious about making trade policy work—rather than just paying it lip service—it would compile its own exhaustive list of laws, regulations, policies, and practices that actually undermine its stated objectives of facilitating economic growth, investment, and job creation through expanded trade opportunities. Then, it would make the changes necessary to ensure that our policies are paddling in... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3585593 Thu, 20 May 2010 21:11:06 +0100 3585593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3585596&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fw_6bVPmLuzg%2F By Daniel IkensonIn a Cato paper released earlier this month, I argued that the glacial pace of America’s economic recovery and its growing public debt juxtaposed against China’s almost uninterrupted double-digit annual economic growth and its role as Congress’s sugar daddy have bred insecurity among U.S. opinion leaders, many of whom now advocate a more strident approach to China, or emulation of its top-down approach. I cite, among others, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who is enamored of autocracy’s capacity to facilitate China’s singularity of purpose to dominate the industries of the future: One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3585596 Thu, 20 May 2010 19:10:12 +0100 3585596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577511&cid=t_186160_125_f&fid=34820&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dentalblogs.com%2Farchives%2Fadministrator%2Fdr-radz-on-the-aacd-meeting%2F Two weeks ago, I attended the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry’s annual meeting in Dallas. Traffic is up, people are happy, and the positive atmosphere I noticed in January and February has continued. It’s especially good to see because there are more dentists at the AACD meeting who focus on elective procedures in their practices. The  temperature showed that things in even cosmetic dentistry are looking up. When you see patients coming back for elective services, it indicates consumer confidence and a positive trend. The one piece of technology that I saw (and had already purchased) was Discus’s new diode laser, the NV,  that’s extremely small and cordless. The booth was crowded, but I took my friends over to show them because I  am so pleased with my NV laser. It’s gr... dental blog for dentists about dentistry blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577511 Wed, 19 May 2010 13:41:56 +0100 3577511 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3560203&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHFo3Fa8c0Ek%2F By Neal McCluskeyMark Schneider, a former National Center for Education Statistics commissioner and current American Enterprise Institute scholar, has put together a very insightful — and disturbing — four-part blog series on the oft-cited Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and its creator, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Basically, Schneider writes, the much-hyped PISA figures very prominently in the “international benchmarking” of coming national curriculum standards — which the Obama Administration is coercing states to adopt — despite the paucity of meaningful evidence that doing well on PISA actually translates into desirable educational outcomes. Now, Schneider throws out some debatable stuff him... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3560203 Thu, 13 May 2010 15:23:52 +0100 3560203 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3549267&cid=t_186160_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F05%2F10%2Finternational-journal-of-epidemiology-2010-vol-39-no-2%2F This article aims to describe educational inequalities in overweight and obesity across Europe, and to explore the contribution of level of socio-economic development to cross-national differences in educational inequalities in overweight and obese adults in Europe. An NHS Athens password is required to access this article online, alternatively contact the library for a copy of the article. Filed under: Current Awareness, E-Journals, Journals Tagged: Inequalities, International Overview, Obesity, Overweight, Socio-economic Development, Socioeconomic Factors (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3549267 Mon, 10 May 2010 09:53:24 +0100 3549267 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515339&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FOzLA9q35N5o%2F By David BoazTim Carney has a blog post at the Examiner that’s worth quoting in full: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued its 2009 congressional scorecard, and once again, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex. — certainly one of the two most free-market politicians in Washington — gets the lowest score of any Republican. Paul was one of a handful of GOP lawmakers not to win the Chamber’s “Spirit of Enterprise Award.” He scored only a 67%, bucking the Chamber on five votes, including: Paul opposed the “Solar Technology Roadmap Act,” which boosted subsidies for unprofitable solar energy technology. Paul opposed the “Travel Promotion Act,” which subsidizes the tourism industry with a new fee on international visitors. Paul opposed the largest spending bill in history, Obama’s $... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515339 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:24:48 +0100 3515339 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515340&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhwL7bGKw9zM%2F By Neal McCluskeyWith the first round of the so-called “Race to the Top” having produced just two winning states — and those states appearing to have won primarily because they were able to get teachers’ unions to sign onto their reform proposals – there seems to be a growing backlash against RTTT. For one thing, several states are not applying for the second round of RTTT grants. Apparently, many just don’t think jumping through all the RTTT hoops is worth it, especially when, as a welcome new Economic Policy Institute briefing paper illustrates, who wins and who loses is pretty arbitrary. Perhaps the more interesting new ojection to RTTT, though, is that it is, frankly, illegal. So writes the Brookings Institutions’ Grover J. “Russ&#... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515340 Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:04:47 +0100 3515340 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3499055&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3GnUg6nJ_qE%2F By David BoazRecently I wrote an article arguing that there never was a golden age of liberty and that in particular libertarians should not hail 19th-century America as a small-government paradise, at least not without grappling with the massive problem of slavery. Jacob Hornberger, author of an article that I criticized, responded in Reason, and I then responded here. Meanwhile, an interesting discussion took place on a email list of libertarian scholars, and I’m pleased to have gotten the permission of several participants to include some of that discussion here: Aeon J. Skoble: The ideals of freedom which led to the tangible improvements [Boaz] mentions – I’m concerned that those ideals are eroding/have eroded.  Example: say you have a robust theory of rights, but your soci... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3499055 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:05:32 +0100 3499055 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3499060&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FxARgsuAF3WM%2F By Chris MoodyToday is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a time to highlight and discuss ways to work toward a cleaner planet. Cato’s energy and environment research promotes policies that would help protect the environment without sacrificing economic liberty, goals that are mutually supporting, not mutually exclusive. Why we should thank capitalism for environmental gains: “It is businessmen — not bureaucrats or environmental activists — who deserve most of the credit for the environmental gains over the past century and who represent the best hope for a Greener tomorrow.” Finding the right balance: “Today, America’s environment is cleaner—and Earth Day has indeed helped ensure that. …We should renew our promise to keep the environment clean�... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3499060 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:44:45 +0100 3499060 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3487278&cid=t_186160_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FihXLJrEOwjw%2F My teeth aren’t perfect. I drink coffee, I prefer stain-inducing red wine to white, and I didn’t wear my retainers as a teenager. But thanks to a mother obsessed with keeping me pearly and cavity-free, I got braces to reel back my buck teeth, received bi-annual fluoride treatments to keep fillings at bay, and endured pricey whiteners to abate a Diet Coke-tinted grin. For that, I’m eternally grateful. After all, who doesn’t enjoy hearing “I really like your smile” on a first date, or getting compliments over the din of the dental hygienist’s plaque grinder? Nobody ever told me that I landed a job thanks to my awesome incisors, but according to researchers at Columbia University, my teeth may be adding to my paycheck. In a study published by the Nati... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3487278 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:00:17 +0100 3487278 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3403868&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FIF4mb5ideWY%2F By Daniel IkensonOrganized labor’s trade “think tank” in Washington, the Economic Policy Institute, claims that currency manipulation is a major cause of the U.S. trade deficit with China, which (along with other unfair trade practices) accounted for 2.4 million American job losses between 2001 and 2008. EPI has been making similar claims for years, getting lots of media attention for its hyperbole, and providing smoke bombs for charlatan politicians to hurl into the discussion to obscure the public’s understanding of trade.   For starters, as conveyed in this new paper, I am skeptical about the relationship between currency undervaluation and the trade account. EPI’s methodology (to use the term loosely) is not to be taken seriously, though, because it deri... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3403868 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:20:41 +0100 3403868 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3395112&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F3XDrt0gUkyE%2F By Daniel GriswoldLost in the buzz last week over health care was the news that the broadest measure of the U.S. trade deficit fell sharply in 2009 from the year before. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. current account deficit plunged from $706 billion in 2008 to $420 billion last year — the smallest deficit since 2001. I’ve been waiting for a few days now for the usual trade deficit hawks to hail this development as great news for millions of Americans looking for work. In years when the trade deficit was rising, it was common practice for the labor-union-friendly Economic Policy Institute to publish detailed studies showing that larger trade deficits caused the U.S. economy to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs each year. For example, according to an October... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3395112 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:25:33 +0100 3395112 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374106&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUA3h7xM7mE4%2F By Michael F. CannonThe Associated Press reports: Buyers, beware: President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul will lower premiums by double digits, but check the fine print… The [Congressional Budget Office] concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they’d reach without the legislation… “People are likely to not buy the same low-value policies they are buying now,” said health economist Len Nichols of George Mason University. “If they did buy the same value plans … the premium would be lower than it is now. This makes the White House statement true. But is it possibly misleading for some people? Sure.” Nichols’ comments are also m... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374106 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:51:05 +0100 3374106 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3326964&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYhuAB56NSM4%2F By Ian VasquezAlthough some comparisons between Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake in January and Chile’s 8.8 quake this weekend have attributed the massive differences in devastation and lives lost (230,000 vs. some 700 respectively) to different enforcement of building codes and planning, the real reason for Chile’s superior ability to endure the disaster has everything to do with its vastly higher level of economic freedom, reliable rule of law, and the much higher level of prosperity that results. Here are three good articles that make those points: Bret Stephens on “How Milton Friedman Saved Chile” John Stossel on “A Tale of Two Quakes” Anne Applebaum, “Chile and Haiti: A Look at Earthquakes and Politics” And here’s a piece I wrote on Haiti explaining how economic freedom ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3326964 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:17:37 +0100 3326964 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3318670&cid=t_186160_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2FPI5ODijK5mE%2F AA is the guide to my Higher Power Recovery gives many benefits such as those related in the 12 promises of recovery. Each and every member of any 12 Step Fellowship has things they value. One day I began to think about what I liked about recovery. I excluded the 12 Steps, Traditions and Promises and came up with a simply worded list. This was my list on that day. 12 Things I like about recovery No more domestic violence No fear of the police Economic stability Better libido and sexual enjoyment A Higher Power that helps me in all of life Better relationships with family Wake up without a hangover – every day A Fellowship that is my second family Clear, rational thinking No deep, crippling depression No chronic, hurtful anger or resentments I can laugh at myself. That was couple of... Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3318670 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:46:00 +0100 3318670 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3311657&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FnlG5RPwb1-c%2F By Tad DeHavenA couple weeks ago Orson Swindle, an assistant secretary of commerce for economic development in the Reagan Administration, was kind enough to send me news articles from his days battling policymakers over porky Economic Development Administration projects. In a 1989 Insight article, Orson gave a nice summation of one of the problems with special interest spending: The minute you fund a program you’ve just created a constituency group. Before long, they will be organized and have a staff here in Washington, which is paid from dues from the members who get their money from the federal government. And those go up and lobby to keep the money going. It’s a classic microcosm of what’s wrong with government. The National Association of Development Organizations is a perfect e... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3311657 Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:29:12 +0100 3311657 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3302295&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FkCsNBMSpO9A%2F By Daniel J. MitchellLike the sequel to a horror film, the politicians in Washington are talking about just passed another stimulus proposal. Only this time, they’re calling it a “jobs bill” in hopes that a different name will yield a better result. But if past performance is any indicator of future results, this is bad news for taxpayers. By every possible measure, the first stimulus was a flop. But don’t take my word for it. Instead, look at what the White House said would happen. The Administration early last year said that doing nothing would mean an unemployment rate of nine percent. Spending $787 billion, they said, was necessary to keep the unemployment rate at eight percent instead. So what happened? As millions of Americans can painfully attest, the jobless rate actually c... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3302295 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:03:38 +0100 3302295 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3302300&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFpznxafE8rw%2F By Daniel GriswoldI’ve become a fan over the years of the annual Economic Report of the President, released around this time each year by the Council of Economic Advisers. The more than 100 tables in the back of the book provide an invaluable picture of the economy over many decades, covering all the major indicators from output and employment to interest rates and trade. Each report also contains chapters explaining the economic thinking behind administration policies. Chapter 10 of the latest report focuses on “Fostering Productivity Growth through Innovation and Trade.” For critics of trade, it offers sound economic reasons why trade raises U.S. productivity and, thus, over the long run, U.S. living standards. One of ways trade promotes growth is “Firm Productivity.” Economist... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3302300 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:05:20 +0100 3302300 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3302301&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUlrJncUoTZw%2F By Chris Moody How the stimulus raised unemployment. Price controls have failed in the past and there is no reason to think they will work now. So why is the president proposing price controls on health care? Michael Tanner: “Attempts to control prices by government fiat ignore basic economic laws — and the result could be disastrous for the American health-care system.” Does this federal government policy make me look fat? Be honest. (Yes). So, President Obama wants a presidential commission on the budget deficit. Isn’t that a little bit like W.C. Fields asking for a commission on sobriety? Podcast: “POTUS and Price Controls in Health Care” featuring Michael F. Cannon. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3302301 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:56:20 +0100 3302301 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3302302&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FVaC4Z9KX-wk%2F By Tad DeHavenThe District of Columbia is providing tax incentives for a parking garage at a new Harris Teeter grocery store.  This follows a District subsidized parking garage boondoggle that opened at a Columbia Heights mall in 2008.  Whether it’s a parking garage, bike rack, or any other commercial transportation activity, government should remain neutral. If Harris Teeter believes a 150-car parking garage is in the best interests of the company’s bottom line, it should pay for it itself. Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook.  If the District or any other city wants to encourage economic development, it should seek lower taxes across the board, and remove costly regulatory barriers. H/T Chris Moody (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3302302 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:32:22 +0100 3302302 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3298299&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FpC3lrUL4_ts%2F By Jason KuznickiA few follow-ups on the post by David Boaz, below. Libertarians are basically a sect of conservatives, say John Zogby & Zeljka Buturovic in the National Review Online. That’s because libertarians care more about economics than about foreign policy, cultural, or other issues: Let us for a moment [assume] that a person’s ideology is solely determined by his policy views. And let us also assume that social and economic liberties can largely be disentangled and that libertarians are as close to liberals on social issues as they are to conservatives on economic ones — a view implicit in the argument for liberaltarianism. Still, our data show that different aspects of ideology are not equally important for a person’s ideological identity, and, somewhat ironic... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3298299 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:00:45 +0100 3298299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283513&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FGWP-H_AollQ%2F By Chris Moody A few things you might not know about rail travel: “Automobiles in intercity travel are as energy efficient as Amtrak. Cars are getting more energy efficient, while boosting Amtrak trains to higher speeds will make them less energy efficient.” The list goes on… Quiz Time! Which was the only country in the 27-nation European Union to register economic growth without going through a recession last year? The answer might surprise you. Unionized teachers refuse to work 25 minutes more a day, so Rhode Island town fires all of them. Arnold Kling on Haiti, poverty, and capitalism. Podcast: This is what happens to American jobs when you have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283513 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:42:29 +0100 3283513 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3279959&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FaO94pvlz-nw%2F By Tad DeHavenMy house has been on the market for a month and it has drawn a lot more looks than I expected. I’ve been quizzing realtors as they come through, and each one tells me the same story: the government is single-handedly propping up the demand for housing. In addition to the homebuyer tax credit and government-induced low mortgage interest rates, most sales are being done with Federal Housing Administration backing. As a seller, I’m looking to get out before the tax credit expires and interest rates starting ticking upward. But when I do sell, I certainly won’t be looking to buy a house, particularly since I’ll be selling at a loss. If my situation is representative of other current sellers, the housing market could be in for another tumble if the government crutches are ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3279959 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:41:32 +0100 3279959 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3275775&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8uQUlgvRGDM%2F By David BoazIn the Wall Street Journal, Ian Buruma puts Google’s conflict with China in its historical context: the long struggle by China’s leaders to have the benefits of knowledge and trade from around the world without loosening their own hold on the Chinese people: One way of dealing with this problem was to separate “practical knowledge” from “essential” culture, or ti-yong in Chinese. Western technology was fine, as long as it didn’t interfere with Chinese morals and politics. In practice, however, this was not feasible. Political ideas came to China, along with science, economics, and Western religion. And they did help to undermine the old established order. One of these ideas was Marxism, but once Mao had unified China under his totalita... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3275775 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:06:46 +0100 3275775 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3235828&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fcaw7UitGmus%2F By Daniel IkensonDuring his SOTU address last week, the president declared it a national goal to double our exports over the next five years.  As my colleague Dan Griswold argues (a point that is echoed by others in this NYT article), such growth is probably unrealistic. But with incomes rising in China, India and throughout the developing world, and with huge amounts of savings accumulated in Asia, strong U.S. export growth in the years ahead should be a given—unless we screw it up with a provocative enforcement regime. The president said: If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. Ah, the enforce... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3235828 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:46:09 +0100 3235828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3231450&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYsUdwzn3Ljo%2F By Cato EditorsGlobalization holds tremendous promise to improve human welfare but can also cause conflicts and crises. How will competition for resources, employment, and growth shape economic policies among developed nations as they attempt to maintain productivity growth, social protections, and extensive political and cultural freedoms? In a new study, Cato scholar Jagadeesh Gokhale offers policy recommendations for developed nations to reduce globalization’s negative effects and, indeed, harness it for solving economic challenges. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3231450 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:47:15 +0100 3231450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3227724&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fprsdk9LrZyY%2F By Alan ReynoldsPolitifact.com looked into a remark from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., that “Democrats have been considerably more effective at creating private-sector jobs.” The statement was rated true, as a purely statistical matter.  Yet the poltifact researcher did a good job questioning the significance of his own figures.  He noted, correctly, that the president usually “deserves less credit for the good times — and less blame for the bad times.”  And he added that job figures can be driven by outside factors such as oil price shocks, demographic changes or soldiers coming home after World War Two.  He wryly noted “how surprised we are that Eisenhower, who presided over the ‘happy’ 1950s, managed an anemic half-percent job growth per year, while Jimmy &#8... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3227724 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:46:48 +0100 3227724 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3216566&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FEmoAYlv-QkA%2F By Tad DeHavenIt’s become standard fare for senior government leaders to declare that any and all subsidies are good for economic growth. Two weeks ago it was the Economic Development Administration’s John Fernandez. This week it’s USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. From GovExec.com: In his speech, Vilsack called the increase in supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits “an economic driver” that helps truckers, grocery stores and farmers. Those benefits, which used to be known as food stamps, have gotten the most funding of any USDA program. Vilsack also cited increased funding to bring high-speed Internet service to rural America; accelerated implementation of the energy title of the farm bill; and USDA investments in small,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3216566 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:48:58 +0100 3216566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3204840&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Ff2PsNEkFQuA%2F By Daniel J. MitchellThis new video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity explains how last year’s so-called stimulus was a flop – and also reveals why politicians are pushing for another big-government spending bill. Interestingly, since last year’s stimulus was such a disaster, the redistributionists in Washington are calling their new proposal a “jobs bill.” But as I say in the video, this is akin to putting perfume on a hog. For further background, here is a video explaining why Keynesian economics is wrong and another predicting (in advance!) that last year’s stimulus would be a mistake. And just in case anyone actually wants the economy to grow faster, here’s one about policies that actually increase prosperity. (Source: Cato-at-liber... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3204840 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:11:28 +0100 3204840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200422&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7-W2odQL9mg%2F By Chris Moody How  unions will get a  sweetheart deal if the health care overhaul passes — and everyone else the shaft. Is it time to put Social Security reform back on the table? The mysterious ways of Fannie and Freddie. The G.O.P.’s next move on health care: “The challenge for Republicans is not to try to ‘do’ things just like the Democrats but a little less expensively or with a little less bureaucracy, but to present an agenda of personal and economic liberty as a positive alternative… [Republicans] will have to show that this time they are in favor of something positive. It’s called freedom.” Shattering the conventional wisdom: “Evidence is now flooding in from both America and England that obesity is the epidemic that never wa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200422 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:15:46 +0100 3200422 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197604&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FeDCvZPAciXU%2F By Tad DeHavenThe U.S. Department of Commerce’s $400 million Economic Development Administration provides grants and loans to state and local governments, nonprofit groups, and businesses in regions that are supposed to be economically distressed. The EDA is a relic of the 1960s belief that the federal government can solve the problems of distressed urban centers. Its legacy is one of wasteful and politicized spending. Former EDA director Orson Swindle called it a “congressional cookie jar,” and the legendary anti-pork Democrat Senator William Proxmire argued that it “deserves to die.” But the EDA did not die and its spending is as wasteful as ever. The EDA’s current administrator, John Fernandez, recently gave a speech on economic development under the Obama administration: Ov... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197604 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:10:47 +0100 3197604 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193933&cid=t_186160_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Fwhat-era-are-our-intuitions-about.php Well, just the way I asked it, our gut feelings about the economically powerful are obviously not a product of hunter-gatherer life, given that such societies have minimal hierarchy, and so minimal disparities in power, material wealth, privileges of all kinds, etc. Hunter-gatherers don't even tolerate would-be elite-strivers, so beyond a blanket condemnation of trying to be a big-shot, they don't have the subtler attitudes that agricultural and industrial people do -- these latter groups tolerate and somewhat respect elites but resent and envy them at the same time.So that leaves two major eras -- agricultural and industrial societies. I'm going to refer to these instead by terms that North, Wallis, & Weingast use in their excellent book Violence and Social Orders. Their framework for... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193933 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:36:00 +0100 3193933 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3182312&cid=t_186160_131_f&fid=34994&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnxp.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Fmodel-of-history-of-human-misery.php In the comments below I was outlining a simple model which really is easiest to communicate with a chart. I removed the labels on the Y and X axes because the details don't matter, the X axis is simply "time," and the Y axis simply reflects the magnitudes of the three trendlines. The key is to focus on the relationship between the three. I've labeled for clarity, but more verbal exposition below....For most of the human history we've been hunter-gatherers. But over the past 10,000 years there was a switch in lifestyle, farming has emerged independently in several locations, and filled in all the territory in between. One truism of modern cultural anthropology is that this was a big mistake, that hunter-gatherer lifestyles were superior to those of peasant farmers, less miserable with much ... Gene Expression blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3182312 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:24:00 +0100 3182312 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3178836&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F16%2Flaw-and-economics-primer%2F Situationist Contributor Jon Hanson, Kathleen Hanson, and Melissa Hart, have recently posted their outstanding introduction to law and economics (to be published in Dennis Patterson’s forthcoming volume, “Compantion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory) on SSRN.  The chapter includes a brief discussion of the emergence of economic behavioralism and situationism, and it is now available to download for free here.  Here’s the abstract. * * * This chapter provides an introduction to the history, uses, methods, strengths, and limits of law and economics. It begins by examining the role of positive and normative approaches to law and economics. To examine the positivist thesis – that the law does in fact tend toward efficiency – the chapter discussed and analyze... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3178836 Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:01:52 +0100 3178836 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3171876&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FbUl0GoKWReI%2F By David BoazFormer secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright writes in Parade magazine that 20 years after the Berlin Wall, “We Must Keep Freedom Alive.” A commendable sentiment, but the article is a bit confused, notably in that it seems to use “freedom” and “democracy” interchangeably. But as Fareed Zakaria and Tom Palmer, among others, have demonstrated, they’re not the same thing. Freedom is the right and ability of individuals to make the important decisions about their lives. Democracy — especially constitutional democracy, with separation of powers, the rule of law, and constraints on government — can be the most effective way to protect liberty. But democracy isn’t liberty, and we shouldn’t confuse the relationship... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3171876 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:15:10 +0100 3171876 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153354&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLE3EQtuGuQk%2F By Daniel GriswoldThe Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center released a new study this morning that finds comprehensive immigration reform would boost the U.S. economy by $189 billion a year by 2019. The bottom-line results of the study are remarkably similar to those of a Cato study released last August. Titled “Raising the Floor for American Workers: the Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” the CAP study was authored by Dr. Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda of the University of California, Los Angeles. It finds that legalizing low-skilled immigration would boost U.S. gross domestic product by 0.84 percent by raising the productivity of immigrant workers and expanding activity throughout the economy. Using a different general-equilibrium model of the U.S. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153354 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:19:45 +0100 3153354 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3145954&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fvr0GqyAs3oE%2F By Ilya ShapiroWhen lawyers and other commentators say that a court did not properly explain its decision, it’s typically for hyperbolic effect. But, in a bizarre move, a court in the failed great state of Michigan has dismissed an economic liberty case brought by our friends at the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation for reasons the court quite literally did not explain.  The court simply denied the plaintiffs’ complaint and that was that. Home-based day care owners Sherry Loar, Michelle Berry, and Paulette Silverson have all been taxed by the Michigan Department of Human Services because, according to the state, they are somehow employees of the state and (further!) must pay union dues.  because this baseless assertion comes directly from the state DHS, an executive department,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3145954 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:44:59 +0100 3145954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3139098&cid=t_186160_109_f&fid=36089&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthesituationist.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F01%2F04%2Flaw-and-economics-primer%2F Situationist Contributor Jon Hanson, Kathleen Hanson, and Melissa Hart, have recently posted their outstanding introduction to law and economics (to be published in Dennis Patterson’s forthcoming volume, “Compantion to Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory) on SSRN.  The chapter includes a brief discussion of the emergence of economic behavioralism and situationism.  Here’s the abstract. * * * This chapter provides an introduction to the history, uses, methods, strengths, and limits of law and economics. It begins by examining the role of positive and normative approaches to law and economics. To examine the positivist thesis – that the law does in fact tend toward efficiency – the chapter discussed and analyzes the famous Hand Formula developed by Judge Learne... The Situationist blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3139098 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:01:52 +0100 3139098 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3136721&cid=t_186160_151_f&fid=35818&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FRecoveryIsSexycom%2F%7E3%2FNSjL-PNpNUw%2F What are the social and economic effects of gambling addiction? In 1998 the National Gambling Impact Study Commission funded a study to determine the overall cost to society posed by problem and pathological gamblers in the United States. The results showed that approximately $5 billion was lost annually, with an additional $40 billion in lifetime costs for [...] (Source: Recovery Is Sexy.com) Recovery Is Sexy.com blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3136721 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:17:17 +0100 3136721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3100782&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn0ZyswQ2VcI%2F By Chris Moody Helping out the “Wall Street fat cats:” Bankers are responding to the incentives generated by the economic policies of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. How charter schools can save states big education dollars. Doug Bandow:  “Congress has spent the country blind, inflated a disastrous housing bubble, subsidized every special interest with a letterhead and lobbyist, and created a wasteful, incompetent bureaucracy that fills Washington. But now, legislators want to take a break from all their good work and save college football.” In case you missed it last week, watch Cato’s Jerry Taylor on the premier episode of Stossel. Podcast: “Urban Planners Romanticize Immobility“ (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3100782 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:27:50 +0100 3100782 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096832&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYC84ZLvXw_U%2F By Tad DeHavenU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan recently gave a speech in New York in which he spoke of a “new direction in housing.” If there’s one constant with cabinet secretaries, it’s that they all promise that their department will be new and improved. The following are a few of Donovan’s lines that deserve comment. The Federal Housing Administration is providing another critical bridge to economic stability…And with nearly half of first-time buyers using FHA loans, it is clear that the FHA has been central to recovery. Thanks to his predecessor, Alphonso Jackson, who was “absolutely emphatic about winning back our share of the market,” the FHA’s willingness to pick up the subprime lending slack when the housing bubble burst ha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096832 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:55:24 +0100 3096832 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096854&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FJnxa9J6fDsQ%2F The following guest post by Dr. Gunther L. Faber, CEO of The HealthStore Foundation®, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series. Context: Lack of Access to Quality Basic Healthcare:  The market for drugs and basic healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa is large and fragmented, with millions lacking adequate access to basic healthcare and low quality standards prevailing in many existing private and public facilities.  This leads to unacceptable statistics, including 2007 under-5 mortality rates of 12.1% in Kenya[1] and of 18.1% in Rwanda.[2] Furthermore, throughout the world 10 million children die each year, almost two out of three from a short list of easily preventable or treatable diseases and illnes... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096854 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:51:23 +0100 3096854 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079337&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cgdev.org%2Fdoc%2FGHA%2FStart_with_a_Girl-Annex1.pdf The following guest post by Miriam Temin, Health & Social Policy Professional and Co-Author, Start With a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health, with contributions by Sandy Stonesifer, Program Coordinator at the Center for Global Development, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series. Miriam Temin has 12 years of experience in Africa, the United States, and Europe working on HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, and social protection with donors, UN agencies, and non-profit organizations. Previously, Temin was a senior AIDS policy advisor at UNICEF headquarters, where she brought greater attention to children affected by HIV/AIDS through research, advocacy, and technical assistance. The recent at... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079337 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:14:27 +0100 3079337 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3079323&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUKClRcE7WKw%2F By Chris EdwardsThe expansion in government and poor state of the economy got me thinking about how government growth is reflected in measured gross domestic product. So here is a wonky look at the treatment of government in the Bureau of Economic Analysis GDP data. Data notes: By “government,” I mean total federal, state, and local. For 2009, I’m using the average of second and third quarter data. All data from BEA Tables here. GDP measures total production. In 2009, government production was 20.7 percent of U.S. GDP.  Government production is roughly the sum of government value-added (the stuff it produces itself) and government purchases. The first item, government value-added, was 12.4 percent of GDP and mainly consists of employee compensation. For exampl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3079323 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:37:11 +0100 3079323 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075498&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F3YSllfd10Kw%2F The following post by Debbie Myers, Founder of Virtuarte, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series. Deborah E. Myers has more than 25 years of experience in international economic development, including advocacy, public policy and developing strategic partnerships. She has worked with major corporations, governments, non-government organizations, and international organizations to find solutions to problems facing the people and governments in the developing world. Events in Life often force you to step back and review where you are. In 2007 this is exactly what happened to me. I had spent the last 15 years working for three different multinational corporations, the last one for six years. As is often... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075498 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:02:09 +0100 3075498 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075453&cid=t_186160_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F12%2F10%2Fhealth-statistics-quarterly-2009-no-44%2F Title: Social inequalities in female mortality by region and be selected causes of death, England and Wales, 2001-03 Skinny: Fifth in a series of articles reporting mortality using the final version of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC). Reports on social inequalities in female mortality and is the first official compilation of detailed mortality statistics for women based on the NS-SEC. The results demonstrate a strong socio-economic effect on the mortality of women in all regions. (Print subscription held at Fade Library) Posted in Adults, Health Economics, Journals, Mortality, Public Health, Statistical Data Tagged: Mortality, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), Social Inequality, Statistics, Women (Source: Fade Library) Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075453 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:09:54 +0100 3075453 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075479&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FmhO10FsBKMQ%2F By Mark A. CalabriaA recent policy forum here at Cato discussed the role of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in the financial crisis.  While the forum focused on the federal push for ever expanding homeownership to marginal borrowers, the analysis did not touch directly upon the question of whether CRA lending undermines bank safety. Fortunately this is a question that one economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas bothered to ask.  While his research findings were available before the crisis, they were clearly ignored. In a peer-reviewed published article, appearing in the journal Economic Inquiry, economist Jeff Gunther concludes that there is “evidence to suggest that a greater focus on lending in low-income neighborhoods helps CRA ratings but comes at the expense of s... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075479 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:53:35 +0100 3075479 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063254&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2Fs5FTtAEJp-Y%2F The following post by Glenna Crooks, PhD, founder and President of Strategic Health Policy International, Inc, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series. Glenna Crooks solves some of the toughest health care problems of our times by distilling chaos and complexity into recognizable and easily digestible, action-oriented insights. Her clients, businesses and governments around the world, have used her Centricity Principle™ approach to create successful organizational, national and global transformational strategies. It has been long recognized that the growth of a nation’s economy improves the health of its people. The converse is also true. Improving health is an economically wise and productive inv... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063254 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:09:52 +0100 3063254 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056617&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FP1wbE-cyLCA%2F That is one of the conclusions in my new paper, “Made on Earth: How Global Economic Integration Renders Trade Policy Obsolete.” For hundreds of years, trade policy has been premised on the assumptions that exports are good, imports are bad, and the interests of domestic producers are tantamount to the “national interest.” Though that mercantilist worldview has never been accurate, its persistence as a pillar of trade policy into the 21st century is especially confounding given the emergence and proliferation of disaggregated production processes, transnational supply chains, and cross-border investment. Those trends have blurred any meaningful distinctions between “our” producers and “their” producers and speak to a long chain of interdepende... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056617 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:57:28 +0100 3056617 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048103&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FxpXcVTHGauE%2F The following post by Robin Strongin, Creator of Disruptive Women in Health Care, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series. “As study after study has taught us, there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity or to reduce child and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health, including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation. That is why discrimination against women of all ages deprives the world’s children—all of them, not just the half who are girls—of the chance to reach their po... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048103 Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:05:29 +0100 3048103 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026661&cid=t_186160_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FLSdVyqDClYY%2F Looking for more commentary and analysis from Cato scholars? You can find their own blogs here: Daniel Griswold – Mad About Trade Jim Harper – Washington Watch & Tech Liberation Daniel J. Mitchell – International Liberty Patrick Michaels – World Climate Report Randal O’Toole – The Antiplanner David Boaz – DavidBoaz.com Malou Innocent – Huffington Post Julian Sanchez – JulianSanchez.com Gene Healy – GeneHealy.com Tom Palmer – TomGPalmer.com (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026661 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:37:15 +0100 3026661