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 'friedman'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:25:26 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952802&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7P-Tmi7yAsU%2F By David BoazSomeone called Stephen Metcalf writes at Slate of his horror at finding in “an otherwise quite groovy loft” in New York’s SoHo “not one but two copies of something called The Libertarian Reader.” Given that he manages to lump not just Paul Ryan and South Park but Sarah Palin into the libertarian basket, you can appreciate his dismay. Metcalf puts Robert Nozick at the center of his argument, understandably enough. My colleague Tom Palmer says that academic critics almost always cite one chapter of one book, Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, and declare that they have grappled with libertarian ideas. Still, it’s a good book and worth grappling with, and it did have an impact, as Metcalf notes: I like to think that when Nozick publishe... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952802 Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:01:22 +0100 4952802 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4862514&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBrZgMjl4-q0%2F By Mark A. CalabriaThere’s a great piece in the spring issue of The Independent Review on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke by San Jose State Professor Jeffrey Rogers Hummel.  Although a bit long, its well worth the read for anyone wanting to understand both Bernanke’s thinking and his actions during and since the financial crisis. First, Prof. Hummel discusses the differences between Bernanke’s and Milton Friedman’s explanations for the Great Depression.  Those that debate whether Bernanke’s actions, especially the quantitative easings, would be approved of by Friedman will get a lot out of this discussion.  From this comparison, you get the point that Friedman was concerned about overall credit conditions and liquidity, whereas Bernanke is less focuse... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4862514 Tue, 24 May 2011 19:15:18 +0100 4862514 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4758740&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FAL-eC2nmqmc%2F By George Scoville New research suggests that there has been more monetary and macroeconomic instability since the Federal Reserve’s inception than in the decades preceding it. New thinking about the usefulness of government programs will help us from restore fiscal balance and economic well-being in America. New geopolitical circumstances should make us wonder: why are we still a part of NATO? New Deal-era jurisprudence may soon be overturned as challenges to the Affordable Care Act reach the U.S. Supreme Court. New means of funding public roads will increase efficiency by confronting drivers with the costs of using them, and reducing congestion: Reminder: If you’re in the DC area, please join us this Friday at 4:00 p.m. Eastern for a special sneak preview of Free or Equal a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4758740 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:01:48 +0100 4758740 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734047&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FvoPyCqGdCOY%2F By George Scoville Higher deficits and debt mean we must confront entitlements and re-think the way government insurance creates perverse incentives that increase our dependence. Higher gas prices have nothing to do with Wall Street speculators. Higher polemics against limited government aren’t going to restore our fiscal sanity. Higher taxes on soda will have little, if any, effect on our waistlines. Please join us one week from tomorrow, on Friday, April 29 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern for a special sneak preview of Free or Equal, a documentary from Free to Choose Media. In this one-hour film, Cato Senior Fellow Johan Norberg retraces Milton Friedman’s steps from the trailblazing 1980 documentary Free to Choose to see how economic liberalization has transformed societies around the w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734047 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:44:51 +0100 4734047 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734335&cid=t_207042_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FqwDzB8_NkyA%2F There’s an excellent article in the New York Times (Eighty Years Along, a Longevity Study Still Has Ground to Cover) about a very worthy new book based on a fascinating series of research studies: The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study is the book where UC-Riverside researchers Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin draw key lessons from an eight-decade-long Stanford University Terman study of 1,500 people. Quotes from the article: - Many assume biology is the critical factor in longevity. If your parents lived to be 85, you probably will, too. Not so, Dr. Friedman said. “Genes constitute about one-third of the factors leading to long life,” he said. “The other two-thirds have to do with lifestyles and chance…The k... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734335 Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:19:47 +0100 4734335 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4714725&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJEepNZs3JeA%2F By David RittgersThe Wall Street Journal law blog has a piece up on how the budget crisis is impacting public defenders: Funding constraints have prompted states and counties to lay off public defenders, hold the line on salaries, and reduce the amount defenders can spend case investigators and staff training, the WSJ reports. Public defenders maintain that they should be insulated from budget cuts for two reasons, the first being that they were sorely underfunded before the recession came along.  Secondly, they point to the fact that states have a duty, enshrined in Gideon v. Wainwright, to provide indigent criminal defendants with the right to counsel. Stephen J. Schulhofer and David Friedman recently published a Cato Policy Analysis, Reforming Indigent Defense that proposes a free mark... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4714725 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:29:23 +0100 4714725 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4696689&cid=t_207042_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2011%2F04%2F09%2Fthe-longevity-project-an-interview-with-howard-s-friedman%2F We present many examples showing that this is how the long-lived participants lived. However if your coworkers are making you miserable, and you do not have the adequate resources to do your job properly, then it is time to look for a new job when possible. 3. Also interesting to me was the discussion of marriage. It’s not necessarily that a person is married, but the quality of relationships in his/her life. What are some characteristics of a healthy marriage that lead to longevity? Dr. Friedman: We are still looking in more detail at the characteristics of a healthy marriage. We know that divorced men fared poorly in terms of their future health and longevity. We know that the overall marital satisfaction of the man is more important to the future health of both the men and the wom... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4696689 Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:26:07 +0100 4696689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664154&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgBtYpzGrZ2c%2F By Cato EditorsToday marks the 75th birthday of one of the greatest champions of liberty in American history, Walter E. Williams.  Like his good friend the late Milton Friedman, Williams is a brilliant economist who specializes in making economics understandable to the layperson.  The John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Williams has long been an adjunct scholar at Cato.  He is the author of nine books, one of which, South Africa’s War Against Capitalism, Cato published in 1989.  No sooner did Williams publish his autobiography this year, Up from the Projects, than he published a terrific new book, out this month, Race & Economics:  How much can be blamed on discrimination?  Like many Cato scholars, he is a member of... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664154 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:50:57 +0100 4664154 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4501651&cid=t_207042_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F66Ia9bwWS-8%2F In probably the biggest news of the day at HIMSS, we got the following tweet spreading quickly through the Twittersphere: #bbpBox_39359393585700864{background:#9AE4E8 url(http://a3.twimg.com/a/1297983335/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) no-repeat !important;padding:20px;}#bbpBox_39359393585700864 p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px !important;margin:0 !important;min-height:48px;color:#333333 !important;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px}#bbpBox_39359393585700864 p.bbpTweet a {color:#0084B4 !important}#bbpBox_39359393585700864 p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px !important;padding-top:12px !important;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6}#bbpBox_39359393585700864 p.bbpTweet sp... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4501651 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:29:06 +0100 4501651 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455252&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F8cho0RTmMwM%2F By David Boaz"Google is under siege in Washington like never before," Politico reports. In an interview with POLITICO, a Google spokesman argued that a cabal of antitrust lawyers, lobbyists and public relations firms is conspiring against the Internet search giant. The mastermind? Google says it’s Microsoft. Maybe it’s irony, or maybe it’s payback. In the 1990s, Microsoft was the tech industry wunderkind that got too big for its britches — and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, then an executive at Sun Microsystems and later Novell, helped knock the software titan down a peg by providing evidence in the government’s antitrust case against it. . . . But there are also increasing calls from some Silicon Valley competitors and Washington-based public interest groups for the Justice Departm... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455252 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:57:00 +0100 4455252 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4411503&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FDjnAj2SgJBM%2F By Jim HarperBen Friedman helpfully supplies more information to go with my positive reaction to the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to scrap color-coded threat warnings. Our colloquy leaves somewhat open what should replace color-coding. Because most threat warnings are false alarms, and because exhortations to vigilance will tend toward the vagueness of the color-coding system, Ben hopes “DHS winds up being tighter-lipped.” His points are good ones, but they don’t dissuade me from my belief that DHS should “begin informing the public fully about threats and risks known to the U.S. government.” The right answer here centers on who is better at digesting threat information—experts in the national security bureaucracy or the public? The... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4411503 Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:33:18 +0100 4411503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4377556&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0aU0e_DPTwA%2F By Michael F. CannonToday is the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, where he implored, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”  People are commemorating the anniversary in various ways.  Google is paying tribute to JFK’s address in its logo: I thought it might be worth reprinting Milton Friedman’s assessment of JFK’s memorable line, taken from the introduction to Friedman’s 1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom: IN A MUCH QUOTED PASSAGE in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage cent... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4377556 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:45:41 +0100 4377556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265676&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FdlT-0rOnbDE%2F By Mark A. CalabriaWhile listening to NPR this morning, I was subjected to yet another economist claiming that we cannot have inflation in an environment of such high economic slack.  Setting aside the fact that perhaps this economist missed the 1970s, this is a vital question to examine, because it is the foundation of so much of Bernanke and the Federal Reserve’s current thinking.  That is, the notion that inflation is always and everywhere the result of an over-heating, or excess demand, economy. One of the measures commonly followed by the Fed, and others of the slack-restrains-inflation school, is the measure of capacity utilization rate.  Setting aside some of the problems with this measure, are increases in capacity utilization associated with increasing inflation, as w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265676 Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:22:26 +0100 4265676 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4233160&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSyBUHJBF-AM%2F By Jason KuznickiThis month at Cato Unbound, Daniel Klein touches on a topic I’ve long found fascinating — Where do property rights come from? Although he doesn’t answer directly, he does challenge one popular modern idea, namely that property rights are merely grants of permission by the state, which retains a residual ownership. This idea, which Klein terms “overlordship,” I find disturbingly popular among my left-of-center friends. While the state is certainly tasked with enforcing the claims commonly called property rights, I have a hard time agreeing that the claims themselves — as opposed to their enforcement — are produced only, or primarily, by the state. Consider three objections. First, there have been plenty of societies where the state ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4233160 Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:47:20 +0100 4233160 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074024&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5v9OuZ4Vkyw%2F By Justin LoganBill Kristol has a plan to help the US military George F. Will has called neoconservatism “a spectacularly misnamed radicalism” whose adherents are “the most radical people in this town.”  (It is a shame that the Heritage Foundation has fallen so far from its sensible opposition to the neoconservative vision and evidently bought into the neoconservative program in toto.) Like other radicals, however, they are pretty good at politics, which is clear from reading their latest offering, a talking points document [.pdf] produced by the “Defending Defense” initiative intended to demonstrate that U.S. military spending is not that large and should not be cut. I have several things to say about the document, but all of the internet sniping and providing adversa... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074024 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:06:10 +0100 4074024 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3993872&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FeIxj6Ka_4Uo%2F By Juan Carlos HidalgoQuoting great classical liberal minds such as Milton Friedman, Gary Becker and Mario Vargas Llosa, Spain’s former drug Czarina Araceli Manjón-Cabeza endorsed drug legalization today in a compelling op-ed [in Spanish] published in El País, Spain’s leading newspaper. Just a week earlier, Felipe González, Spain’s former Primer Minister, also came out in support of drug legalization. Manjón-Cabeza takes particular aim at the UN International Narcotics Control Board for its criticisms of the different decriminalization and harm-reduction policies implemented in recent years in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Spain, among other countries. She calls the INCB’s views “inadmissible.” She concluded by calling prohibition a “savage and inefficient instrument tha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3993872 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:02:44 +0100 3993872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3929216&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FBp2yAZnzcZo%2F By David BoazI once went to another Washington think tank to hear an advertised lecture by David Friedman, “author and professor of law and economics at Santa Clara University.” The great libertarian author of The Machinery of Freedom, speaking at a liberal-establishment Washington think tank? Cool. So I showed up early, took a seat by the wall, and was crushingly disappointed to discover that the speaker was in fact some other David Friedman, who was decidedly no libertarian, and I was pinned in and couldn’t leave. They told me later that an intern got the wrong bio off the web. Always blame the intern. So anyway, I just wanted Cato-at-Liberty readers to notice that our new paper “Reforming Indigent Defense: How Free Market Principles Can Help to Fix a Broken Syst... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3929216 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:06:37 +0100 3929216 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3924888&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7haUacb_mtQ%2F By Tim LynchWe know that most of the people arrested and prosecuted in our criminal courts are indigent.  We also know that indigent legal representation is scandalous in many places around the country.  What to do?  The conventional remedy to this problem has been a plea to spend more money on our overburdened public defender organizations.  However, a new Cato paper takes a fresh look at this subject and proposes an entirely new model for the delivery of indigent legal services — defense vouchers that will empower defendants to choose their own attorneys.  Authors Stephen Schulhofer and David Friedman explain how such a system could be implemented and why it can be expected to provide an effective cure for the major ills of indigent defense organization. From the Executive Su... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3924888 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:29:49 +0100 3924888 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3718377&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5vs-YmLC2Xk%2F By David BoazJohn Stossel, usually seen on Fox Business Network, will have a special on the Fox News Channel this weekend, well targeted to Independence Day: “What’s Great about America.” He’ll interview Dinesh D’Souza and immigrant businessmen, among others. Saturday and Sunday, 9 p.m. ET both nights. Fox News is on lots more cable systems than Fox Business, so if you don’t get Fox Business, this is your chance to see Stossel. Tonight at 9 p.m., I think it’s a rerun of his recent show on Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, featuring . . . me. Along with Johan Norberg, Tom Palmer, and Bob Chitester. For some of my own thoughts on what’s great about America, see this article. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3718377 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:50:33 +0100 3718377 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3648473&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHG1JUaWRRlY%2F By David BoazTom Palmer, Johan Norberg, and I are among the guests tonight on Stossel on the Fox Business Network. John Stossel interviews us all about the work and impact of Milton Friedman, especially his book Free to Choose, published 30 years ago. Political theorist Benjamin Barber provides the anti-Friedman counterpoint. Watch Stossel Thursdays at 8 p.m. and 12 midnight, Saturdays at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., and Sundays at 10 p.m. (all times eastern). (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3648473 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:59:25 +0100 3648473 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3621651&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F0aYUNIeHWdM%2F By Gene HealyMy Washington Examiner column this week looks at the bipartisan conniption over President Obama’s “responsibility” for the Gulf oil spill: It’s “taking so doggone long,” Sarah Palin wailed, for Obama “to dive in there” (literally?). “Man, you got to get down here and take control!” James Carville screeched. “Tell BP, ‘I’m your daddy!’ ” When Hurricane Katrina hit, liberals who had spent years calling President Bush a tyrant suddenly decided he wasn’t authoritarian enough when he hesitated to declare himself generalissimo of New Orleans and muster the troops for a federal War on Hurricanes. Now the party of “drill, baby, drill” — the folks who warn that Obama’... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3621651 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:13:19 +0100 3621651 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3592196&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FGpYjJuTxPnw%2F By Michael F. CannonThe following excerpt from Jeffrey Friedman’s article in the January/February 2010 issue of Cato Policy Report, though about the financial industry rather than health care reform, captures why so many critics of ObamaCare are comfortable describing it as socialism: What I am calling social democracy is, in its form, very different from socialism. Under social democracy, laws and regulations are issued piecemeal, as flexible responses to the side effects of progress — social and economic problems — as they arise, one by one…. The case-by-case approach is supposed to be the height of pragmatism. But in substance, there is a striking similarity between social democracy and the most utopian socialism. Whether through piecemeal regulation or central planning,... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3592196 Mon, 24 May 2010 14:21:37 +0100 3592196 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3581587&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2WW2ZrJanck%2F By David BoazGeorge Will, whose speech at the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty Dinner can be heard here, writes today about Rand Paul’s victory in Kentucky: Democrats and, not amazingly, many commentators say Republicans are the ones with the worries because they are nominating strange and extreme candidates. Their Exhibit A is Rand Paul, winner of Kentucky’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. Well. It may seem strange for a Republican to have opposed, as Paul did, the invasion of Iraq. But in the eighth year of that war, many Kentuckians may think he was strangely prescient. To some it may seem extreme to say, as Paul does, that although the invasion of Afghanistan was proper, our current mission there is “murky.” But many Kentuckians may think this... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3581587 Thu, 20 May 2010 15:33:07 +0100 3581587 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3581598&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJqoFb0obcIs%2F By Ilya ShapiroFriend-of-Cato and 2010 Milton Friedman Prize Dinner keynote speaker George Will published an excellent column today about a case under review at the Supreme Court, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn: The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools — including religious schools. Yes, here we go again. The question — if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question — is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government “establishment of religion.” The i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3581598 Wed, 19 May 2010 15:56:13 +0100 3581598 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577388&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSeDO2TlxIt4%2F By Walter OlsonLast week Paul Krugman seized on the Gulf oil spill as another occasion to bash libertarians in general and the great Milton Friedman in particular. On Friday David skewered the Times columnist over his odd rhetorical ploy of treating politicians’ failure to follow Friedman’s principles as a refutation of those principles. Now economist Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution reports that Krugman also completely misunderstands the current set of laws governing oil spill liability: The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), which is the law that caps liability for economic damages at $75 million, does not override state law or common law remedies in tort (click on the link and search for common law or see here). Thus, Milton Friedman’s preferred remedy for corporate ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577388 Tue, 18 May 2010 18:13:09 +0100 3577388 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3549287&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FZmuerkudeZY%2F By Steve H. HankeReportage in today’s New York Times (“Consensus For Limits to Secrecy At the Fed” by Sewell Chan) indicates that more auditing of the Fed is probably in the cards. Prof. Milton Friedman and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan would have most certainly agreed with the thrust of the Senate (S. 604) and House (H.R. 1207) bills sponsored by Senator Bernard Sanders and Representative Ron Paul, respectively.  These bills would partially lift the shroud of secrecy draped over the Fed. Prof. Milton Friedman weighed in on central bank independence in a 1962 essay, “Should There Be an Independent Monetary Authority?”  Prof. Friedman’s conclusion: “The case against a fully independent central bank is strong indeed.”  As for letting in so... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3549287 Mon, 10 May 2010 16:19:17 +0100 3549287 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3460150&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FD7rZVs1uk7E%2F By Cato EditorsAkbar Ganji, an Iranian writer and journalist who spent six years in a Tehran prison for advocating a secular democracy and exposing government involvement in the assassination of individuals who opposed Iran’s theocratic regime, has been named the 2010 winner of the Cato Institute’s Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. Ganji may be best known for a 1999 series of articles investigating the Chain Murders of Iran, which left five dissident intellectuals dead. Later published in the book, The Dungeon of Ghosts, his articles tied the killings to senior clerics and other officials in the Iran government, including former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ganji was arrested for spreading propaganda against the Islamic system and “damaging national ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3460150 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:01:30 +0100 3460150 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3366292&cid=t_207042_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fonc-i-trust It's my nature to question authority. Whether it's religion, politics, or even my local administrative leadership, authority figures must earn my trust. Earning that trust is not easy. As folks who work closest with me know, I believe that much of Dilbert is based on true case studies. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3366292 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:36:52 +0100 3366292 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3294571&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FyFANnnmATFg%2F By Neal McCluskeyIn a shocking development, U.S. Secretary of Arne Duncan embraced the ideas of Milton Friedman today, championing the funding of students instead of schools! Unfortunately, it was in the context of higher education — Duncan and his boss have done all they can to destroy school choice elsewhere — and he completely misrepresented what Friedman said about higher ed, suggesting that the Nobel Laureate somehow endorsed the federal Direct Loan Program: We will end the loans under the Federal Family Education Program and make them directly to students — just as economist Milton Friedman proposed 50 years ago, and just as the Department of Education has been doing since 1993 through the Direct Loan Program. Were Milton Friedman still with us, I think he w... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3294571 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:44:13 +0100 3294571 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3243778&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7-cltnhzY64%2F By David BoazDoes the government know what it’s doing, can it know what it’s doing, in financial regulation? In the latest issue of Cato Policy Report, Jeffrey Friedman doubts it: You are familiar by now with the role of the Federal Reserve in stimulating the housing boom; the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in encouraging low equity mortgages; and the role of the Community Reinvestment Act in mandating loans to “subprime” borrowers, meaning those who were poor credit risks. So you may think that the government caused the financial crisis. But you don’t know the half of it. And neither does the government…. Omniscience cannot be expected of human beings. One really would have had to be a god to master the millions of pages in the Federal Register — ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3243778 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:36:49 +0100 3243778 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3223243&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FWEP-EMuW2WY%2F By David BoazIn the Washington Post and many other papers today, in re the State of the Union: Obama’s leitmotif is: Washington is disappointing, Washington is annoying, Washington is dysfunctional, Washington is corrupt, verily Washington is toxic — yet Washington should conscript a substantially larger share of GDP, and Washington should exercise vast new controls over health care, energy, K-12 education, etc. Mark your calendar for May 13, when George Will keynotes the biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty Dinner here in Washington. I anticipate similarly acerbic analysis. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3223243 Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:01:41 +0100 3223243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3115283&cid=t_207042_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2Fu1KKsgS2luA%2F Mike Friedman, Purdue’s chief executive, and Howard Udell, the drugmaker’s chief counsel, are fighting a decision by the US Human and Health Services department that prevents them from working at companies that do business with federal agencies for 12 years. And as Corporate Counsel notes, Udell is the first general counsel to face this situation. The case stems from the May 2007 settlement between the US Attorney for Western Virginia and three top execs at Purdue Frederick - including Udell and Friedman - over the misbranding of the OxyContin painkiller. The government claimed Purdue Frederick misled patients, regulators and doctors about the drug’s addictive risks. All totaled, Purdue and the three execs paid $634 million in fines (background here). The Purdue Frederick... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3115283 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:53:12 +0100 3115283 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056619&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4HstzyfpOnc%2F Today’s Politico Arena asks: The WH Jobs Summit: “A little less conversation? A little more action? ( please)” My response: Today’s White House “jobs summit” reflects little more, doubtless, than growing administration panic over the political implications of the unemployment picture.  With the 2010 election season looming just ahead, and little prospect that unemployment numbers will soon improve, Democrats feel compelled to “do something” — reflecting their general belief that for nearly every problem there’s a government solution.  Thus, this summit is heavily stacked with proponents of government action.  This morning’s Wall Street Journal tells us, for example, that “AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is prop... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056619 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:15:37 +0100 3056619 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2862464&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FzqF1IuaYnrM%2F In the New York Times this weekend, columnist Thomas Friedman wrote, “[W]e may be tired of this ‘war on terrorism,’ but the bad guys are not. They are getting even more ‘creative.’” On September 26th, the New York Times reported in a story by Scott Shane: Many students of terrorism believe that in important ways, Al Qaeda and its ideology of global jihad are in a pronounced decline — with its central leadership thrown off balance as operatives are increasingly picked off by missiles and manhunts and, more important, with its tactics discredited in public opinion across the Muslim world. Who’s right? Should we be more concerned or less? Well, the statements are not inconsistent. But unlike the analysts cited in the news story, columnist Friedman uses ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2862464 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:26:30 +0100 2862464 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2857399&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F_Uyj3oXiUxo%2F My colleague Chris Edwards called the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program the “Dumbest Program Ever.”  Given that Chris is familiar with more than a few dumb government programs, that’s quite a statement. Today, the Washington Post provides more evidence that he might be right: After the shopping binge inspired by the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” incentive program ended, U.S. auto sales plunged in September and the industry sunk back to the depths from which it started, figures released Thursday showed… The results raised doubts from some economists about the effectiveness of the $3 billion federal program as a stimulus. Alan Blinder, a Princeton professor who was among the first to push an auto sales incentive program i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2857399 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:15:33 +0100 2857399 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778387&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fa49WOEq6Lxg%2F Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column today would be astonishing in its incoherence if only Friedman hadn’t long ago sapped us of our ability to be astonished by his incoherence. Like many capital-’d’ Democrats, Friedman has soured on democracy for failing to deliver on his policy wish list. Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. Why does Friedman say the United States has one-party democracy? Because the Republican Party is effectively opposing the Democratic Party’s agenda! Not even kidding. Get this: The fact is, on both the energy/climate legislatio... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778387 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:11:09 +0100 2778387 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2712066&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F2oG1UXMFu88%2F Rose Friedman, co-author of several books with her late husband and Nobel laureate economist Milton, passed away this morning. Rose and Milton co-wrote Free to Choose the wonderful book that formed the basis of Milton’s PBS television series, as well co-writing their joint auto-biography “Two Lucky People.” She was intimately involved in the school choice movement both before and after Milton’s passing, as co-founder of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation for School Choice, ably led by Robert Enlow. Rose and Milton were not just skilled economists who cared about kids, they were a charming couple. At a casual policy event a decade ago, they shared a single armchair to ensure that there would be enough seats for everyone. They weren’t just models of co... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2712066 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:03:38 +0100 2712066 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2605952&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FncNKyS6AZqw%2F Since the mid-1990s, the Defense Department has been legally required to review its strategy and force structure every four years, producing what’s called the Quadrennial Defense Review. The result has been a series of vacuous documents that commingle vague, unsubstantiated claims about great historical shifts underway (think Tom Friedman but without the empirical rigor) with threat inflation. There is no evidence that these documents have produced much beyond wasted time and effort. Naturally, the Department of Homeland Security decided to produce a quadrennial homeland security review, which is underway. Last week, ForeignPolicy.com reported that the State Department will get in on the act with a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.  Apparently grand strategy documents ha... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2605952 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:36:04 +0100 2605952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2375842&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F43-Z_HibELo%2F This month’s issue of Cato Unbound has drawn an extraordinarily hostile response from a couple of mainstream online publications. Writing at Salon, Michael Lind inferred, mistakenly, that our interest in Seasteading and other radical libertarian projects was due to our disappointment that Republicans lost in the 2008 election. Because this issue was my idea, I feel I can speak effectively to the charge. As I see things, it was basically impossible to cast either John McCain or Barack Obama as a libertarian. Neither of them shared the policy goals of the Cato Institute to any appreciable degree. Speaking as a private individual, I didn’t vote for either of them, and I don’t regret my choice. I found both Democrats and Republicans profoundly unappealing this election cycle.... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2375842 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:53:34 +0100 2375842 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2306711&cid=t_207042_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5EhWkUiN9m4%2F This month’s Cato Unbound continues our tradition of stirring up controversy. The lead essay is by Patri Friedman, who challenges the advocates of liberty as follows: I deeply yearn to live in an actual free society, not just to imagine a theoretical future utopia or achieve small incremental gains in freedom. For many years, I enthusiastically advocated for liberty under the vague assumption that advocacy would help our cause. However, I recently began trying to create free societies as my full-time job, and this has given me a dramatic perspective shift from my days of armchair philosophizing. My new perspective is that the advocacy approach which many libertarian individuals, groups, and think tanks follow (including me sometimes, sadly) is an utter waste of time. Argument has ref... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2306711 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:48:17 +0100 2306711 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1894928&cid=t_207042_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F10%2F21%2Fblame-the-patient%2F When a patient or client isn’t doing better in psychotherapy, sometimes a therapist may fall back onto that old familiar refrain, “Well, the patient just isn’t doing the work. He’s to blame for his lack of progress in getting better.” Dr. Richard Friedman describes this strategy in a thoughtful article in yesterday’s New York Times. It’s not uncommon for a psychotherapist, when faced with a client who doesn’t seem to be improving after months (or even years) of therapy, to blame the patient. They aren’t trying. They’re not doing their homework. They don’t really want to get better. There’s a dozen different reasons a therapist will come up with depending upon the specific client. More often than not, though... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1894928 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:34:21 +0100 1894928 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1883308&cid=t_207042_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F10%2F16%2Fdebating-the-stages-of-grief-death-and-dying%2F Pages: 1 2 Next »     Single Page When researchers have a disagreement about what the research shows, most usually either submit a letter to the editor, or an editorial to the journal in question. Sometimes they’ll go one step further and even design an experiment to reproduce the effects of the previous research in question. But rarely do they turn to a magazine to call into the question of a peer-reviewed research study. And especially not one published in the prestigious medical journal JAMA. So you have to wonder what led Russell Friedman and John W. James to publish their treatise against the traditional and well-accepted stages of grief in the latest issue of Skeptic magazine, calling into question the results of the Yale Bereavement Study (YBS). The Y... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1883308 Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:18:54 +0100 1883308 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1376876&cid=t_207042_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F271406696%2F Amid the ongoing debate over antidepressants is a point that, sometimes, gets overlooked. And that is the extent to which these drugs may affect psychological development and even identity. That’s the issue raised in a thoughtful essay by Richard Friedman, a psychiatry professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. “Most of my patients, who are adults, developed their psychiatric problems after they had a pretty clear idea of who they were as individuals. During treatment, most of them could tell me whether they were back to their normal baseline,” he writes in The New York Times. But then there Julie, 31, who had been on one antidepressant or another nearly continuously since she was 14, experienced serious depression and survived several suicide attempts. “Julie cou... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1376876 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:51:21 +0100 1376876 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=865682&cid=t_207042_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F155473383%2F Marianne Skolek is angry, and she won’t rest until the individuals who she believes are responsible for her daughter’s death are punished. In her view, those individuals are the execs at Purdue Pharma, which sells OxyContin. In 2002, her 29-year-old daughter was prescribed the painkiller for a herniated disk and wound up dying of heart failure, leaving behind a 6-year-old son. Since then, she set up a web site - oxydeaths - to rally others who lost loved ones to the painkiller. She testified before a Senate committee. And she traveled to Virginia earlier this year in an unsuccessful bid to convince a federal judge to sentence three Purdue execs to jail time. The parent company and the execs had already agreed to pay a combined $634.5 million in fines. So now, Skolek is going af... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=865682 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:04:58 +0100 865682 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=637784&cid=t_207042_117_f&fid=34612&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedoctorweighsin.com%2Fjournal%2F2007%2F5%2F23%2Fwho-is-afraid-of-immigration.html In case you were asleep in the last 10 years, here are two news items: The U.S. is getting progressively more stupid in science and engineering.We are shooting ourselves in the foot by making the problem even worse.The grim factsThe facts are well-known.· Our educational system is in a shambles. Our children score consistently low in international tests in math and science. Some third world countries are ahead of us. · We are not graduating nearly enough engineers and scientists to satisfy the needs of the technology and biotechnology industries. · Several technology companies stated that they opened research and engineering centers in countries like Israel, India, and China not because salaries are lower there, but because those countries could provide the brain power... The Doctor Weighs In blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=637784 Thu, 24 May 2007 04:17:10 +0100 637784