Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Behavioral Economics

• Lessons from an Ad Man

Rory Sutherland wows a TED conference audience with a compelling and highly entertaining sixteen minute talk on advertising and aspects of behavioral economics.  I particularly enjoyed the “market research” segment toward the end of the video on Shreddies, Diamond Shreddies, and the Diamond Shreddies Combo Pack. Hat tip to Tutor2u!

Health Care Reform

• How an insurance mandate could leave many worse off, by Tyler Cowen

“Americans seem to like the idea of broadening health insurance coverage, but they may not want to be forced to buy it. With health care costs high and rising, such government mandates would make many people worse off.”

• Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls, by Arthur Brooks

“The health-care debate is part of a larger moral struggle over the free-enterprise system.”

• COBRA: Adverse Selection in Action, by Donald Marron
• The ‘Public Plan’ Delusion, by Robert Samuelson

“In the health care debate, the ‘public plan’ is all things to all people. For supporters, it would discipline greedy private insurers and make health coverage affordable. For detractors, it’s a way station on the path to a single-payer insurance system of government-run health care. In reality, the public plan is mostly an exercise in political avoidance: It pretends to control costs and improve access to quality care when it doesn’t.”

Politics

• ‘Man Up, Obama’ and Other Nonsense, by Joe Queenan

“Our liberal op-ed writers don’t think a president from Chicago is tough enough.”

• The ‘Public Plan’ Delusion, by Robert Samuelson

“In the health care debate, the ‘public plan’ is all things to all people. For supporters, it would discipline greedy private insurers and make health coverage affordable. For detractors, it’s a way station on the path to a single-payer insurance system of government-run health care. In reality, the public plan is mostly an exercise in political avoidance: It pretends to control costs and improve access to quality care when it doesn’t.”

Public Policy and Finance

• Learning to Love Insider Trading, by Donald Boudreaux

“Here’s a hot tip: Want to keep companies honest, make the markets work more efficiently and encourage investors to diversify? Let insiders buy and sell, argues Donald J. Boudreaux.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

The Economy

• What is the GDP Per Capita for Every Country?

This webpage features an interactive chart, based upon the 2008 CIA World Factbook, of per capita GDP for the vast majority of countries in the world.  According to this webpage, the average per capita GDP worldwide during 2008 was $15,162; in America, it was $47,000.  Liechtenstein was the highest, clocking in at $118,000, and Zimbabwe was the lowest, at $200.

Financial Crisis

• Preventing the Next Financial Crisis, by Allan Meltzer

“Don’t be fooled by the bond market. Banks are holding prices down because they can buy Treasurys with free money from the Fed.”

Health Care Reform

• Obama’s Doctor Shortage, by Allysia Finley

 “All of the president’s “fixes” will just create new problems.”

• Ill-Conceived Ranking Makes for Unhealthy Debate, by Carl Bialik

“In the Wrangle Over Health Care, a Low Rating for the U.S. System Keeps Emerging Despite Evident Shortcomings in Study”. Also see Mr. Bialik’s blog posting entitled “The Trouble With Ranking National Health-Care Systems” for a more technical version of this article.

Highly Recommended

• EconTalk: The Best Continuing Education Money Can’t Buy, by Austin Frakt

I completely agree with Mr. Frakt’s enthusiastic endorsement of EconTalk, Econtalk podcasts follow a “talk show” format; here is a very accurate self-description of Econtalk:

“The talk show features one-on-one discussions with an eclectic mix of authors, professors, Nobel Laureates, entrepreneurs, leaders of charities and businesses, and people on the street. The emphases are on using topical books and the news to illustrate economic principles. Exploring how economics emerges in practice is a primary theme.”

Politics

• The Chicago Way, by Kim Strassel

“The Chamber of Commerce is only the latest target of the Chicago Gang in the White House.”

• It’s His Rubble Now, by Peggy Noonan

“And the American people want him to fix it.”

• White House vs. Fox News, by Charles Krauthammer

“Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster. Now he’s put a horse’s head in Roger Ailes’s bed.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics and the Financial Crisis

• In the World of Banks, Bigger Can Be Better, by Charles Calomiris

“We can solve the too-big-to-fail problem without losing the benefits of a global financial system.”

• The jobs battle, by Keith Hennessey
• A Sickening Deficit, by Alex Brill and Amy Roden

“The ‘American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009’ (ARRA), was rushed through Congress on the grounds that fast-acting and temporary measures were needed to counteract the recession… All told, the Obama administration’s budget seeks to make at least 37% of ARRA’s spending and tax cuts permanent on an annual basis.”

Game Theory

• Fair division in homeowner association fees, by Presh Talwalkar

Miscellaneous

• Saturn at equinox, from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” blogsite

“Checking in with NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, our current emissary to Saturn, some 1.5 billion kilometers (932 million miles) distant from Earth, we find it recently gathering images of the Saturnian system at equinox. During the equinox, the sunlight casts long shadows across Saturn’s rings, highlighting previously known phenomena and revealing a few never-before seen images. Cassini continues to orbit Saturn, part of its extended Equinox Mission, funded through through September 2010. A proposal for a further extension is under consideration, one that would keep Cassini in orbit until 2017, ending with a spectacular series of orbits inside the rings followed by a suicide plunge into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017. (previously: 1, 2, 3). (23 photos total)”

Politics

• Fiddling While Rome Burns, by Jeffrey Miron
• Time for Inaction on Global Warming, by Pete DuPont

“Congress should consider the costs before passing ‘cap and trade.’”

• Does Obama Believe in Human Rights?, by Bret Stephens

“Human rights “interfere” with President Obama’s campaign against climate change.

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Art, Music and Culture

• The Good, the Bad and the Exaggerated in Michael Moore’s New Film, ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’

“Michael Moore’s movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, doesn’t pull any punches in its depiction of capitalism as the monster that is destroying America. Moore’s villains range from Wall Street bankers to Wal-Mart to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, while capitalism’s victims include those who are losing their jobs, their houses and, in some cases, their faith in a system that is supposed to reward hard work and playing by the rules. Knowledge@Wharton asked Kent Smetters, a professor of insurance and risk management at Wharton who describes himself as “generally right of center,” to review Capitalism: A Love Story.”

The Economy

• The Economy — Right Now

From Knowledge@Wharton, this article explains a new economic “…indicator of indicators that purports to measure the overall state of the economy on just about any given day.”

Finance

• Mortgages: Price Security for Home Sellers, by Bob Tedeschi

“Would you be willing to give away 1 percent of your home’s value if it meant not having to worry about losing more?”

Health Care Reform

• ‘Expert Panels’ Won’t Improve Health Care, by Norbert Gleicher

“Government reliance on medical studies will make it harder to discard false prophecies and dogmas.”

• ObamaCare’s Tax on Work

“Middle-income families will face a big marginal rate increase.”

Law

• Civilian Courts Are No Place to Try Terrorists, by Michael Mukasey

“We tried the first World Trade Center bombers in civilian courts. In return we got 9/11 and the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents.”

Public Policy

• Bloggers Mugged By Regulators, by Gordon Crovitz

“The FTC wants to police book reviews on Twitter.”

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics and the Financial Crisis

• It’s Smart to Delay Hiring Early in a Recession, by Casey Mulligan
• Another Entry for the Employment-Reducing Policies List, by Casey Mulligan
• The Banking System Is Still Broken, by Ann Lee

“Borrow from the Federal Reserve at zero and lend to Treasury for a profit. That’s some racket.”

• Barney Frank, Predatory Lender, by Peter Wallison

“Almost two-thirds of all bad mortgages in our financial system were bought by government agencies or required by government regulations.”

Health Care Reform

• Antitrust and Health Reform, by Austin Frakt

“Beating up on the insurers feels good but may not be the right medicine.”

Foreign Policy

• Israel’s Secret War on Hezbollah, by Ronen Bergman

“Iran’s proxy army in Lebanon will think twice before launching another round of missile attacks.”

• No Nobel Results From Obama Foreign Policy, by Charles Krauthammer

“About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama’s foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five had waited a few years, his Nobel worthiness would have been universally acknowledged.”

Politics

• There Is No New Frontier, by Peggy Noonan

“We are a nation fully settled by government. The terrain ahead is both crowded and costly.”

• The Reality Moment, by David Brooks

“Conservative politicians in Britain are treating voters as adults, offering not merely pain, but a different economic vision, and American Republicans should take a cue from their approach.”

Political Satire

• Carbon Is Forever, by Eric Felten

“In his De Gustibus column, Eric Felten wonders what James Bond would have to say about a new CIA directive on global warming.”

Statistics

• An Encyclopedia of Probability, by Carl Bialik