Responding to an op-ed by Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick calling his state’s plan a “Health-Reform Model,” the president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Dr. Angela Gardner, cites: A study just published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine shows a 9% increase in emergency room visits since the commonwealth [of Massachusetts]‘s universal health-care...
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The Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) has proposed a plan to regulate the pay of bank employees by allowing the Fed to reject compensation schemes it views would encourage excessively risky behavior. Regardless of whether one thinks bankers’ compensation should be regulated, the Fed should not be doing this. The Fed’s major responsibility is controlling...
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Using data just released from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Cato’s Chris Edwards has built this chart vividly illustrating the upshot of America’s love affair with big government under Bush and continuing under Obama—average federal compensation is now more than double the average in the private sector: Meanwhile, the trend of government jobs increasing...
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“[Euthanasia] is what any State medical service has sooner or later got to face. If you are going to be kept alive in institutions run by and paid for by the State, you must accept the State’s right to economize when necessary …” The Ministry of Fear (New York: Penguin Books [1943] 2005, p....
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I’ve seen lots written in the past year on the Federal Reserve Bank’s (Fed’s) expansion of the monetary base, but almost nothing written about changes in the Fed’s policy to target its funds and support toward specific institutions. Prior to Bernanke’s reign as Chairman, the Fed acted in a way that was neutral toward...
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To the great astonishment of all of us who believed the U.S. government incapable of making an intelligent foreign and defense policy decision, the Obama administration has decided to terminate the U.S. plan to place anti-missile missiles in Poland and related radars in the Czech Republic. The plan had mightily provoked the Russian government, which not...
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As an instructor of online history courses, I have many students overseas (Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Saudi Arabia). The Internet connects them to me (and to the rest of us). The stories I could relate are fascinating and make teaching online courses all the more rewarding. Moreover, as an instructor I know that I’m helping those...
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I debated with myself whether I should even post this blog, because the statement I made in the title seems so obvious. Yet that’s what Sen. Max Baucus has proposed, and it’s under serious consideration. President Obama has forecast annual budget deficits in excess of a trillion dollars as far out as forcasts are...
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The always-excellent William Easterly has a great post entitled “How the British Invented ‘Development’ to Keep the Empire and Substitute for Racism.” After doing a lot of reading on the development of ideological justifications for slavery in the US and after searching through the papers of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention...
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Obama supports extending provisions of the Patriot Act that are about to expire. I know. Big surprise. He is also planning to bring back Combatant Status Review Tribunals, which were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court as they were used at Guantanamo, and instate them at Bagram. He’s also invading other countries, in this...
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