Obama and the Practice of Medicine, by Scott Gottlieb WSJ: “Why is the president convinced so many doctors and patients are making irrational decisions?”
Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy, by Charles MurrayAEI’s Charles Murray argues that the incidence (and relative burden) of both income taxes (e.g., the top 1% of American households pay more in federal income taxes than the bottom 95% combined) and payroll taxes (the social security portion of which is regressive) is obscured by withholding at the workplace. He argues that ending withholding and replacing it with quarterly payments of estimated taxes would be good for democracy by promoting a common understanding that we all pay a share of the costs of government.
Will They Still Love Him Tomorrow?, by Daniel HenningerWSJ: “President Everyman is starting to look like a salesman for the superstate.”
Finance and Economics
Remembering the Reagan Bull Market, by Jason TrennertWSJ: “In 1982, interest rates, inflation and taxes were all heading down. That’s hardly the case now.”
While the statement “we already ration health care; we just let the market do the rationing” is certainly true, it doesn’t logically support rationing by government fiat. Ms. McArdle notes that the same (self-evident) statement can be made about virtually any other good; e.g., “We already ration food; we just let the market do the rationing”, or “We already ration gasoline; we just let the market do the rationing”, or “We already ration cigarettes; we just let the market do the rationing.” Duh!
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):
Catastrophes
Nations Focus On Disaster Planning
WSJ: “Two major earthquakes in Asia refocused attention on incomplete efforts to improve emergency planning after a tsunami killed more than 200,000 people in 2004.”
Economics
Wonky Talk about Carbon Taxes, by Greg Mankiw
My favorite econblogger provides a succinct explanation of the welfare economics of income taxes and carbon taxes.
Finance
Obama Unveils Derivatives Plan
WSJ: “The Obama administration detailed a sweeping plan to more closely oversee the giant market for derivatives.”
Banking on a Rescue
James Freeman’s review of Lawrence G. McDonald’s new book entitled “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense,” which portrays Lehman Brothers in crisis as it headed toward collapse last fall.
As the author notes, “It’s remarkable that in the current debate over how to control health care costs so little attention is being given to the important results of our 10-year experiment with consumer driven health plans.”