Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Foreign Policy
Obama Contra Niebuhr, by Joseph Loconte
“Supporters of President Obama’s ‘moral realism’ are unaware of many elements of Reinhold Niebuhr’s political theology.“
Health Care Reform
The Health Lady Has Yet to Sing, by Kim Strassel
“ObamaCare is still no sure thing.”
The High Cost of No Price, by Veronique de Rugy
“Economists have shown that if a good’s price is zero or decreasing, then the demand for this good will likely increase. In 2008, consumers were only directly responsible for 11.9 percent of total national healthcare expenditures, down from 43 percent in 1965, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This means that someone other than consumers pays roughly 88 percent of all healthcare costs, giving consumers little incentive to mind costs and much incentive to over-consume.”
Politics
Slug the Obama Story ‘Disconnect’, by Peggy Noonan
“He and the public are on different pages, if not in different books.”
One year out: President Obama’s fall, by Charlkes Krauthammer
“What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama’s approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent — and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president’s second year.”
Public Policy
The Green Con Job, by Dustin Chambers and Dan Ervin
“The U.S. economy is sensitive to high energy prices. An aggressive push toward green power would result in the net loss of millions of jobs. There is a better way forward.“
“In responding to the attempted bombing of an airliner on Christmas Day, Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced the feelings of many when she said that to prevent such situations, “I’d rather overreact than underreact.” This appears to be the consensus view in Washington, but it is quite wrong. The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction.”
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Economics
Secrets of the Economist’s Trade: First, Purchase a Piggy Bank, by Justin Lahart
“Economists are often cheapskates.”
The Economy
Uncertainty and the Slow Recovery, by Gary Becker, Stephen Davis, and Kevin Murphy
“A recession is a terrible time to make major changes in the economic rules of the game.”
Financial Crisis
Error vs. Fraud, by Alex Pollock
“How do groups of intelligent, sophisticated bankers, investors, borrowers, entrepreneurs, and traders find themselves caught together in the recurring bubbles and busts?“
“While so many of our institutions have failed, we can repair them. The first step is to take personal responsibility.”
Welcoming 2010, from the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” blogsite
“People all around the world gathered in groups large and small last night to usher out the previous year, and welcome the arrival of 2010. Under a rare New Year’s Eve Blue Moon, crowds watched fireworks, cheered, made resolutions, and counted down to midnight. 2010 is the year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac, signifying a year of bravery and courage. Collected here are some photographs of people across the earth as they welcomed the new year in many different ways. (38 photos total)”
“The estate tax is now gone, one of the goals of President Bush. But under current law, it will come back next year.”
Viral video: Unions, liberals caused downfall of Detroit, by Mark Smith (Detroit Free Press)
Terrorism
A terrorist war Obama has denied, by Charles Krauthammer
“Janet Napolitano — former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security — will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: “The system worked.” The attacker’s concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son’s jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers.”
“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.
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.”
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Economics and Public Policy
An Empire at Risk, by Niall Ferguson
“We won the cold war and weathered 9/11. But now economic weakness is endangering our global power.”
Finance
Fama Lecture: Masters of Finance
“From the American Finance Association’s “Masters in Finance” video series, Eugene F. Fama presents a brief history of the efficient market theory. The lecture was recorded at the University of Chicago in October 2008 with an introduction by John Cochrane.”
Foreign Policy
Obama’s hollow speech on Afghanistan, by Charles Krauthammer
“We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills — for 18 months. Then we start packing for home.”
Game Theory
Game theory on Colbert Report – mutually assured destruction, by Presh Talwalkar
Game theory in Numb3rs: hide and seek, by Presh Talwalkar
Health Care Reform
Kill the bills. Do health reform right., by Charles Krauthammer
“The United States has the best health care in the world — but because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health-care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions.”