Jobs Created or Saved…Again

It looks like the Obama Administration’s brilliant political jujutsu move of using “jobs saved or created” is making its way around some of the economics blogs again. First up is Brad DeLong’s attack on Allan Meltzer. Meltzer wrote the following, There is no greater recognition of the failure of the stimulus program to create jobs than the efforts to ...

Political Control of Government Motors

Back when talks about bailing out General Motors started one potential issue was that GM would “encouraged” to make decisions based on political considerations vs. a sound business plan. Looks like there is evidence for such concerns with this story of how Montana’s Congressional Representative and two Senators are pushing to get a contract reinstated with a Montana palladium ...

Recession Over?

While it is good news that the economy grew last quarter I think claims that the recession is over are premature. Why? Because I think the last quarter’s numbers are due to gimmicks by the Obama Administration as was discussed last night on OTB Blog Radio and also when looking at this post by Dave Shuler at the ...

Efficient Market Hypothesis

Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School looks at the claims that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is the cause of the current crisis and rejects these claims. The main part of his argument is, But is the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) really responsible for the current crisis? The answer is no. The EMH, originally put forth by Eugene Fama of ...

Multiple Choice: Economics

The New York Times has an interesting multiple choice question regarding how to spend money to help stimulate the economy, If you wanted to help the economy and you had $14 billion to bestow on any group of people, which group would you choose: a) Teenagers and young adults, who have an 18 percent unemployment rate. b) All the middle-age long-term jobless who, ...

The Great Green Jobs Claim

I periodically hear this during presidential campaigns and when various elected officials are trying to push a green policy, often in response to global warming. Because of [insert environmental problem here] we need to pursue a policies that will promote [insert one or more alternative fuel/energy sources here]. And not only will it address [the environmental problem noted above], but ...

Health Care Reform Tax on Low Income Earners

James Capretta does a back of the envelope calculation on the Baucus health care reform bill and concludes that it would be like having a 70% marginal tax rate on the low income. According to CBO, family coverage in 2016 is likely to cost about $14,400 under the so-called “silver option” in the health-care reform plan sponsored by Senate Finance Committee ...

Professional Failure

Or this post could be titled how doctors routinely fail to predict illnesses, diseases and injuries. It strikes me that this is one of the main problems with health care in this country. If only doctors could get better at practicing their art then we might not have such a problem with run away health care costs. ...

Fire Chief Shot in Court Over Tickets

Yes, that headline is not an exaggeration. The Chief of the Jericho Fire Department went to court and was shot by the police for disputing two tickets requiring two trips to the court house. JERICHO, Ark. – It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire ...

Would the Real Tyler Cowen Please Stand Up?

Tyler Cowen has written several posts in favor of the bailouts. His argument goes something like this: Note that even when the Fed "bails out" a large investment bank, or insurance company, they are checking a chain reaction which would likely spread to some commercial banks, thus bringing in deposit insurance as well, not to mention further bankruptcies. And ...

Its the Costs, Stupid

In the last several posts on health care it is often pointed out that health insurance companies engage in dubious practices. For example, they’ll deny coverage for the most trivial of reasons. Many posting comments focus on this issue as well as others such as quality of care, the moral nature of providing health care, and so forth. ...

Obama’s Op-Ed on Health Care

President Obama, seeing that he is taking a beating in the polls, and that health care is starting to founder took to the pages of the New York Times to lay out the case for health care reform. I think he did a rather bad job of it. He could have done it with far, far fewer ...

Buh-Bye Public Option

The Obama Administration may be dropping the public option requirement from its health care agenda. PHOENIX — The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama’s call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate. Along ...

Life Expectancy in the U.S.

Is it the poor health care system, or is the U.S.’s poor showing in life expectancy statistics due to something else such as behavioral or social factors? These are the questions that Samuel Preston, Jessica Ho asks and try to answer. Life expectancy in the United States fares poorly in international comparisons, primarily because of high mortality rates above ...

Preventive Medical Care: Really Worth It?

Is preventative medical care really worth it? I can see how eating a sensible diet, exercising, and such could lead to health care savings overall, but these are all things that don’t really need to involve medical care.[1] How about those preventative measures that do involve the medical industry? The CBO says, “Hang on a minute there…” Preventive ...