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 ...

Obama Spoils System Champ

A USA Today report that "Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships" and in fact has done so at "a rate higher than any president in more than four decades" combined with  story in The Hill that ...

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 ...

Resource Allocation and Health Care

Over at his web site Dave has put up a post discussing how resources are allocated. I've touched on this very briefly in comments and a post or two, but nothing this extensive. As such, go read it, it's good. Here is a snippet, Despite the author’s attempt to assuage concern by pooh-poohing the idea of rationing, rationing or ...

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 ...

Get Married Or Leave Town

In answer to James' query below about when a state or county have forced unmarried people not to live together, meet Olivia Shelltrack, Fondray Loving and their three children. Welcome to Wednesday afternoon at 12475 Parkwood Lane in Black Jack, Mo.: In his room on the second floor, 8-year-old Cortez Loving wages an intergalactic battle with dozens of action figures; next ...

Controlling Medicare Costs—IMAC

The CBO has analyzed some of the suggested methods for controlling health care costs, and the Independent Medicare Advisory Council (IMAC) in particular. The findings so far is not all that good, In particular, CBO reviewed draft legislation transmitted to the Congress by the Administration on July 17, 2009, titled the Independent Medicare Advisory Council Act of 2009. CBO estimates ...

Health Care Reform Costs

Via Greg Mankiw comes this quote from Michael Kinsley But people, even liberals, are starting to get unnerved by the cost of all this. We now talk of trillions the way, even a few months ago, we spoke of billions. In mid-June, the Senate health committee put out its version of reform and was horrified when the Congressional Budget Office figured ...

More on Administrative Costs

I actually like this article by Ezra Klein. Often I've found his articles lacking in understanding of economics, an appreciation for incentives, etc. But this looks quite good. Well balanced and displaying a healthy skepticism about why Medicare's adminstative costs are lower and if we can get such low costs in general for health care and if ...

Efficiency and Administrative Costs

For the sake of argument let us assume that Medicare’s administrative costs are lower than those of the typical health insurance company. Does this imply that Medicare is more efficient than the private company? I’ve been skeptical of this view point since one thing I’ve learned in economics is that firms want to maximize profits. You ...

Looking At Medicare Administrative Costs

Are they lower? This article by the Heritage Foundation makes an interesting point. Medicare beneficiaries are by definition elderly, disabled, or patients with end-stage renal disease. Private insurance beneficiaries may include a small percentage of people in those categories, but they consist primarily of people are who under age 65 and not disabled. Naturally, Medicare beneficiaries need, on average, more ...

Repeating History

Looks like Reps. Barney Frank and Anthony Weiner want both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to loosen lending standards for condos. Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said. In March, ...

Why Voting Doesn’t Always Give the Best Result

This article on how the International Olympic Committee picks host cities is a great way of demonstrating the problems with voting and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. In selecting a host city, the IOC, acting like a papal conclave, takes a series of votes until a candidate receives a majority. Each of the 100-plus IOC members gets one vote, and after every round ...

Now We’re In A Position To Really Accelerate

With the economy apparently not responding to the stimulus President Obama is trying to reassure the nation that everything is on track. At least that is the story of this article. WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama assured the nation his recovery plan was on track Monday, scrambling to calm Americans unnerved by unemployment rates still persistently rising nearly ...