“It’s safer to break up the biggest banks than have the feds guarantee them against failure.”
The Price for Fannie and Freddie Keeps Going Up, by Peter Wallison
“Barney Frank’s decision to ‘roll the dice’ on subsidized housing is becoming an epic disaster for taxpayers.”
Foreign Policy
A Cold-Blooded Foreign Policy, by Fouad Ajami
“No despot fears the president, and no demonstrator in Tehran expects him to ride to the rescue.”
Health Care Reform
Thoughts on Health Care Reform, by Steve Lansburg
“…insurance is not part of the solution; it’s part of the problem.”
Impermissible Ratemaking in Health-Insurance Reform: Why the Reid Bill is Unconstitutional, by Richard Epstein
“At this point, there is a near mathematical certainty that the scheme of health insurance market regulation contemplated by the Reid bill will reduce the risk-adjusted rate of return below the level needed to keep these firms in the individual and small-group health-insurance markets. I am not aware of a single provision in the Reid Bill that looks to ensuring a minimum rate of return. And there are countless provisions in the bill that impose new obligations to cover services while eliminating the revenue sources to deal with them. It is just this combination of regulatory programs that leads the CBO to treat private health insurance issuers as part of a federal program—as though they have been subject to de facto nationalization.”
Once Patients Pay, Health Costs Will Fall
“The push to reform the system is going in exactly the wrong direction. Instead of minimizing patient involvement in payment for treatment, Washington should be seeking to increase patients’ role.”
Public Policy
Are Taxes the Root of Unhappiness?, by Allysia Finley
“States with the highest taxes also rank as the unhappiest.”
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Culture
The Miser versus the Entrepreneur, by Jay Richards
“Why is Ayn Rand so popular today?”
Economics
Happy 99th Birthday, Ronald Coase, by Steve Landsburg
Keynes vs. Hayek: Late Economists’ Hip-Hop Legacy
Finance
Two Decades Later: Nikkei and Lessons from the Fall, by Vaclav Smil
“Twenty years ago this week, Japan’s Nikkei index reached its historic peak of 38,916. There are lessons from the fall for America and the world.”
Foreign Policy
2009: The year of living fecklessly, by Charles Krauthammer
“On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not just reject President Obama’s latest feckless floating nuclear deadline. He spat on it, declaring that Iran “will continue resisting” until the United States has gotten rid of its 8,000 nuclear warheads.”
Health Care Reform
The Real Consequences of Health Insurance Overhaul, by Scott Harrington
“Why we will see increased health insurance costs and a radical shift toward expanded government control of health insurance and medical care.
“Many investors realize that stocks have been among the worst investments of the past decade. But they may not realize quite how bad the decade was, because most people forget about the effects of inflation.”
“The U.S. stock market is wrapping up what is likely to be its worst decade ever. In nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history, no calendar decade has seen such a dismal performance as the 2000s.”
“Many investors realize that stocks have been among the worst investments of the past decade. But they may not realize quite how bad the decade was, because most people forget about the effects of inflation.”
“The U.S. stock market is wrapping up what is likely to be its worst decade ever. In nearly 200 years of recorded stock-market history, no calendar decade has seen such a dismal performance as the 2000s.”
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Art, Music, and Culture
The High Cost of Ignoring Beauty, by Roger Scruton
“Architecture clearly illustrates the social, environmental, economic, and aesthetic costs of ignoring beauty. We are being torn out of ourselves by the loud gestures of people who want to seize our attention but give nothing in return.“
Health Care Reform
Senate Preparing for Cloture on Health Care, by Megan McArdle
We Already Know Why Healthcare Overhaul Will Fail, by John Calfee
“The healthcare overhaul is shaping up as the highest-risk legislation in modern times.“
Highly Recommended
The decade in news photographs, from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” blogsite
“Call it what you will, “the noughties”, “the two-thousands” or something else, the first decade of the 21st century (2000-2009) is now over. Looking back on the past ten years through news photographs, it becomes clear that it was a dramatic, often brutal decade. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks and wars were by far the most dominant theme. Ten years ago, Bill Clinton was ending his final term in office, very few had ever heard of Osama bin Laden, the Taliban ruled Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein still ruled Iraq – all that and much more has changed in the intervening time. It’s really an impossible task to sum up ten years in a handful of photographs, but below is my best attempt at a look back at the last decade – feel free to let me know what I missed in the comments below. (50 photos total)”
Religion
Christianity Caused the Crash?, by Greg Forster
“A screaming headline in the Atlantic magazine blames Christianity for the recent economic turmoil. In fact, changing economic attitudes among Christians did contribute to the problem—just not in the way the Atlantic believes.“
“LIKE our doctor facing a mysterious illness, economists should remain humble and open-minded when considering how best to fix an ailing economy. A growing body of evidence suggests that traditional Keynesian nostrums might not be the best medicine.”
Health Care Reform
The ‘Cost Control’ Bill of Goods
“How Peter Orszag and the White House sold a health-care illusion.”
Politics and Public Policy
Congress’s Long-Term Care Bomb, by Scott Harrington
“The public is growing wary of the cost of ObamaCare. Yet there is one budget-busting provision that hasn’t received the attention it deserves: a new long-term care entitlement.”
The New Socialism, by Charles Krauthammer
“Socialism having failed so spectacularly, the left was adrift until it struck upon a brilliant gambit: metamorphosis from red to green. The cultural elites went straight from the memorial service for socialism to the altar of the environment. The objective is the same: highly centralized power given to the best and the brightest, the new class of experts, managers and technocrats. This time, however, the alleged justification is not abolishing oppression and inequality but saving the planet.”
Apparently not, and for some rather surprising reasons, according to Ms. McArdle. Also, as is evident from this graphic from her article, the rate of change in the trendlines for and against has begun (since November) to increase at “alarming” rates…
ObamaCare Keeps Falling in the Polls, by John Fund
“A business ad campaign could turn the tide even in the House.”
Politics
ObamaJobs: Uncle Sam’s Hiring Hall, by Daniel Henninger
“The U.S. can’t have new entrepreneurs and tax them too.”
Obama Moves Toward Center Stage, by Peggy Noonan
“If he’s going to bow to something, it might as well be reality.”
For what it’s worth, I am one of 4 Baylor professors “mentioned” in an article entitled “Honorable Mentions” which appears in the current issue of Baylor Magazine.
Just in time for Christmas, here is a 5 minute, 52 second clip from the “Christmas at Baylor” DVD produced and directed by David Byrd in December 2003. Enjoy!