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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
Too Big Even to Consider Failing
As with many folks in the financial and legal world, I'm finishing up Andrew Ross Sorkin's entertaining new best-seller, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves (Viking...
Will Obama address this key health care finance issue?
Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen penned this insightful NY times op-ed over the weekend that addresses the problem of the elephant in the parlor in regard to Obama's proposed reform of America's dysfunctional health care finance system: MEDICARE expenditures threaten to...
Clear Thinking to begin the week
Former Cardinals and Pirates outfielder Andy Van Slyke from this recent interview ($) in Baseball Prospectus: "Well, [former Astros pitcher] Mike Scott, to me, is the best pitcher to ever pitch in the big leagues. I went 1-for-38 against...
Defining Health Insurance
All sorts of interesting debates regarding reform of the American health care finance are breaking out across the blogosphere, which is a good thing. Those discussions prompted one of the best thinkers on health care finance reform -- Clear...
Rationing health care
One of the common complaints heard regarding government-controlled, single payor health care finance systems is that they ration care in a manner that often results in long delays for even routine procedures. However, as this MedPage blog post points...
Refracting Enron myopia
One of the more entertaining aspects of the current Wall Street financial crisis has been reading how some of the business columnists have been interpreting it. Take, for example, Houston Chronicle business columnist, Loren Steffy. You may remember him...
Thoma v. Kling on health care finance
Mark Thoma started the discussion, then Arnold Kling took issue, then Thoma responded to Kling and then Kling responded to Thoma (Megan McArdle chimes in, too). Before you know it, the posts provide a very good overview and debate...
The Usual Suspects
Given the recent turmoil in the financial markets, it's a bit hard to keep up with the morality plays and the villains. After the Enronesque fall of Bear Stearns, the villains of the moment were the two Bear Stearns...
The block of the chip passes away
Arnold Kling of EconLog has long been a Clear Thinkers favorite, particularly in the area of health care finance. That was the subject of this recent post regarding Arnold's coordination of health care for his elderly father, Merle Kling,...
Arnold Kling's Medicare experience
As I've noted many times, EconLog's Arnold Kling is doing some of the best writing and thinking about health care and health care finance issues in the U.S. right now. In his latest TCS op-ed, Kling describes the care received...
The government and health care finance reform
EconLog's Arnold Kling is one of America's best thinkers on economic issues relating to the U.S. health care finance system (previous posts here), so this recent TCS Daily op-ed is required reading for anyone interested in the proper role of...
An expensive illusion
As I've noted several times previously, EconLog's Arnold Kling is among the clearest thinkers in the U.S. on reform of the health care finance system. He has been addressing health care finance issues again this week, first in this podcast...
Kling on GMU Economics
Arnold Kling provides this interesting TCS Daily op-ed on the innovative George Mason University Economics Department, whose members have done a remarkable job over the past several years promoting the understanding of economics issues through the blogosphere. As Kling noted...
How to correct what went wrong in subprime
Clear Thinkers favorite James Hamilton provides this interesting post on Princeton professor Alan Blinder's NY Times Sunday op-ed in which Blinder makes the common sense observation that we first have to figure out what went wrong in the subprime mortgage...
Kling's Iron Trilemma
Following on this post from ealier this week in regard to American's currently failed system of health care finance, Arnold Kling follows with another one: . . . Kling's Iron Trilemma. We want: --what I call insulation, where consumers enjoy...
The Universal Distraction
As noted in these earlier posts, Arnold Kling continues to provide an enormous amount of lucid analysis on what ails America's health care finance system. In this TCS Daily op-ed, Kling makes two excellent points, the first regarding tax treatment...
An important distinction in the health care finance debate
Clear Thinkers favorite Arnold Kling, who appears to be everywhere these days in regard to discussions over reform of America's health care finance system, reminds us in this Washington Times op-ed of an important distinction in the health care finance...
More Kling on health care finance
Clear Thinkers favorite Arnold Kling continues in this TCS op-ed to provide his typically insightful analysis on what is needed to reform America's health care finance system. He concludes: "[R]eal health care reform in the United States will not happen...
Five big health care issues
EconLog's Arnold Kling, who is doing some of the best thinking these days on reforming America's dysfunctional health care finance system, identifies in this TCS Daily op-ed the five big questions in health care: 1. What will we do about...
A first-rate health care finance proposal
The Bush Administration announced over the weekend that President Bush will propose a common sense reform of the health care finance system during his upcoming State of the Union Address -- extension of the tax deductibility of health coverage to...
More on health insulation policies
This previous post reported on Arnold Kling's insightful Cato Unbound piece in which he explains how America's health care finance system is being undermined by health "insulation" policies rather than real health insurance. Kling's article has provoked three excellent responses,...
Health "insulation" policies are the problem
EconLog's Arnold Kling is doing some of the best thinking and writing on America's broken health care finance system these days. In this lucid Cato Unbound article, Kling channels one of this thoughts from his book Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking...
Divided over powerful government
The late Milton Friedman commented recently that he had concluded that the best political make-up for the federal government was one that had the greatest likelihood to develop gridlock because of the damaging policies that the government enacts when one...
An Enronesque public scam
This NY Times article reveals a scam that New York AG ("attorney general" or "aspiring governor," take your pick) Eliot Spitzer won't touch with a ten-foot pole: Every year since 1999, New York City has reported that it has all...
LBJ on Ee-co-nomics
Thanks to Arnold Kling for pointing out this Robert Skidelsky review of Richard Parker's new book, John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics (Farrar, Straus 2005), which contains the following earthy observation on economics from the late Lyndon...
We don't really want true health insurance
Clear Thinkers favorite Arnold Kling has been doing extensive research on health care finance issues over the past couple of years and, as noted in this insightful TCS Daily op-ed, he is coming to the conclusion that one of the...
Throwing money at All the King's Men
John Fund explores in this OpinionJournal piece the risk that long-standing Louisiana elements of corruption are likely to hijack a good part of the extraordinary amount of federal aid that will be flowing into the state in the wake of...
Tom DeLay said what?
This Washington Times article refers to House Majority Leager Tom DeLay's recent comments regarding the Bush Administration's record on government spending: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared...
Comparing the British and American health care systems
David Asman is an anchor at the Fox News Channel and host of "Forbes on Fox." In this must read piece for anyone interested in the differences between a centralized and a decentralized health care finance system, Mr. Asman compares...
More Econoblog -- Social Security reform
The Wall Street Journal ($) is continuing its interesting Econoblog series, in which the WSJ hosts two experts in economics debating hot issues of the day. In this most recent segment, bloggers Arnold Kling and Max Zwicky debate the merits...
Make consumer health insurance tax deductible
In this Wall Street Journal ($) op-ed, economists John Cogan, Glenn Hubbard and Daniel Kessler make their pitch to make all health insurance tax deductible, not just employer-provided health insurance. This earlier post noted Messrs. Cogan, Hubbard, and Kessler's earlier...
Arnold Kling on the Four Myths of Social Security
In this Tech Central Station essay, Arnold Kling of EconLog does a good job of explaining four myths about Social Security: The Pension Myth, the Transition Cost Myth, the Baby Boomer Myth, and the Medicare Myth....
Observations on Bush's convention speech
Arnold Kling has this excellent analysis of President Bush's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. And Professor Maule has some insightful comments on the President's proposals regarding income tax simplification. Sigh....
Clear thinking on Social Security and Health Care Finance
In this TCS Central piece, Arnold Kling addresses what he would like to hear President Bush say in his upcoming speech accepting the Republican nomination for President. On the key issue of financing Social Security and health care, Mr. Kling...
Kling on health care finance reform
Arnold Kling is thinking about health care finance again, and that's a good thing. The entire article is well worth reviewing, as Mr. Kling does a particluarly good job of summarizing the defects in the America's health care finance system:...
The addictive nature of governmental subsidies
Edward Lotterman is a Twin Cities-based economist who writes a column for the Twin Cities Pioneer. In this column, Mr. Lotterman points out that the original good intentions of governmental subsidies have, over the decades, generated obsolescence: News about subsidies...
Revisiting the 1970's - Are we better off?
Arnold Kling provides this excellent TCS article in which he forcefully reminds us that the standard of living for the vast majority of Americans is far better now than it was 30 years ago. The entire article is a must...
Reaganomics in context
In this Tech Central Station op-ed, Arnold Kling places Ronald Reagan's economic policies into the context of his presidency, and corrects several misconceptions regarding those policies. First, Mr. Kling puts the economic problems that confronted Reagen into the context from...
Milton Friedman interview
This Fox News interview with Milton Friedman provides the usual dose of Professor Friedman's provocative thoughts about economic freedom and the costs of governmental interference in markets, but also provides the following common sense analysis on why shifting health care...
A logical SPR policy
Blogging time is restricted for a couple of days, but Arnold Kling's TCS piece on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is quite good, as is his blog's follow up piece. Arnold sums up his theory regarding the SPR as follows: It...
Backwardation of oil prices
Don't miss Arnold Kling's analysis over at EconLog regarding the phenomenom known as backwardation energy prices. Arnold explains backwardation by using the example of current and future prices of oil: As of May 20th, the June 2004 futures contract for...
The Health Care Market
Arnold Kling at EconoLog carries on an interesting discussion of health care finance with Steve Verdon in which Arnold makes the following common sense observation: A free-market but compassionate health care system would provide vouchers for catastrophic insurance coverage, but...
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