Regardless of how we structure the financing of health care — mandatory private insurance in the Affordable Care Act, government-run single-payer, vouchers, or our current muddle — we are going to face the challenge that the cost of health care…
Category: Other
The real health care issue: cost growth
As we get closer to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, we near a welcome time in which public debate may center on the actual outcomes of the legislation rather than speculation — or its destruction. Perhaps these outcomes…
Reports of home prices are merely indicators
“So what are we, chopped liver?” a disgruntled friend asked in reaction to a report indicating that while home prices had risen 17.2 percent over July 2012 for the Twin Cities metro area, they actually dropped for St Anthony Park,…
U.S.-Brazil cotton debacle will take a toll
Despite news reports about Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Brazil, few Americans are paying much attention to the current bobble in our relations with that giant country. Nevertheless, the event illustrates the degree of ongoing dysfunction in our…
A return to barebones regulation is ill-advised
As our nation becomes more densely populated, we impinge on each other more. What economists call “external costs,” where the actions of one person make another person worse off, become more common. Economic theory and much economic history make clear…
Fed chairman should be clear of Wall Street ties
Barack Obama’s choice to replace Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve Board is important, but key issues as to why it is important are being ignored. That may lead to the wrong person getting the job. The first…
Lessons from a cartel’s collapse
Optimists say that every cloud has a silver lining, and it isn’t hard to find one in the potash industry upheaval last week that sent the stock of Mosaic Co., the Plymouth-based fertilizer giant, down by a fourth. What is…
Fed chair soap opera does the nation no good
A senior Fed official I knew nearly 20 years ago once compared Alan Greenspan to a streetwalker in his tireless campaigning for the Reagan administration to appoint him to replace Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve chairman. Reportedly, today it might…
A trip to market is a trove of lessons
Economics is the study of how humans decide to use scarce resources, either as individuals or as groups. Once you know some of the basic concepts, you should be able to see how these play out in your daily life.…
Does Goldman’s aluminum scheme foil free markets?
A recent New York Times article suggesting that Goldman Sachs’ ownership of a significant fraction of aluminum warehousing capacity hurts consumers caused quite a stir in the financial press and in the economics blogosphere. It also led key members of…