Did you ever wonder why there is no WalMart equivalent in health care? I have. While the current emphasis in the health care reform effort has been on expanded coverage, it is health care costs which need to be addressed in the long run before only the most well to do [...]
Archive for the ‘Commerce’ Category
WalMart and Health Care
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Public, Steve S., tagged health care costs, signaling on November 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Modesty and the male-female dynamic
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Culture, Ethics, Franklin Evans, Lifestyle, Man, Sex, Woman, tagged cosmetics, fashion, modesty, sexual attraction, sexual signals on November 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I thought to put a little punning in the subject line, but this is such a basic and important topic that I went (perhaps too far) toward the scholarly tone. Dear reader, I am not a scientist… but I have read and do read, and I have a substantial advantage over many of my gender: [...]
And Then There’s Mod
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, Woman, tagged clothing, ModCloth, vintage clothing, women's clothing on November 4, 2009 | 3 Comments »
While at the American Conservative web site a few minutes ago, the bottom half of this banner ad from the right margin, from a very nice women’s vintage-clothing site caught our eyes, such that the memory of the items we read page left is now history (scroll down to elbow level – the model’s, not [...]
U.K. Breaking Up Big Banks
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Public, Steve S., World, tagged Splitting up banks, United Kingdom on November 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I forgot to reset the alarm clock, so I was up early and scanning the news. Via Baseline Scenario I learned from the WSJ that the UK is breaking up its big banks. Key quotes….
The U.K.’s top treasury official Sunday said the government is starting a process to rebuild the country’s banking [...]
Assessing the Economy: What We Need To Do
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., World, tagged Japan's lost decade, breaking up banks on October 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Baseline Scenario people have redone their assessment and forward looking policy recommendations here. Simon Johnson was past head of the IMF and has a lot of insight into international economics. There is a little bit to like and dislike in his recommendations for everyone. His comparisons with our economy and Japan’s during [...]
Moral Hazard as the Goal
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., World, tagged central banking, Justice, moral hazard on October 29, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Steve Waldman at Interfluidity has a (via Cowen) great piece up on central banking. Key quotes……
The Greenspan/Bernanke doctrine can be summed up by three familiar words, “Yes We Can!” Greenspan famously concluded that we can “mop up” asset price bubbles after they burst, rather than interfering with the dynamic whereby asset [...]
Public Option with Opt Outs
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Health Care Proposals, Nation, Politics, Steve S., tagged Opt outs on October 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
My priorities for health care reform were costs, portability, opt out options for individual states and universal coverage, in that order. I knew it was unlikely that any of those other than broadened coverage was very likely. There is a big group of people who think that we should insure everyone [...]
Unemployment Graph of the Day
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged ideology, lagging indicator, unemployment on October 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Via Thoma , the following graph of unemployment should be kept in mind when assessing the economy. Two points:
1) No matter what we are promised by the Obama administration, unemployment is most likely going to continue and probably worsen. We should expect this to be worse than in our usual bubble deflating recession.
2) This is [...]
The New Economics
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Changing economic theory, simplify on October 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Joseph Stiglitz, via Thoma, has a nice piece up on the future of economics. Key quotes…..
But there is, in fact, a much greater diversity of ideas within the economics profession than is often realized. This year’s Nobel laureates in economics are two scholars whose life work explored alternative approaches. Economics has generated a wealth of [...]
The Taj Mahal of Medicine
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Health care spending, lavish facilities on October 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
As I noted in an earlier post, I have been reading more on international health care, starting with T.R. Reid’s The Healing Of America. One of the things which has struck me in my readings has been the emphasis on keeping down costs in the rest of the world. Words [...]
On libertines, lap dances, and really creepy pop song lyrics
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Sex on October 24, 2009 | 7 Comments »
The Libertine: The one thing this movie surprised me by lacking was a sexy Johnny Depp. You’d think that Johnny Depp as a famous rake in the court of Charles II would be, oh, sensual, enticing. But in fact, by the time the movie got to the actual sex scenes, all I could think was [...]
Health Insurance Company Profits
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged not-for-profit, health insurance, profits, denial of care on October 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Suppose, arguendo, that physicians are engaged in best practice medicine. Assume that hospitals and other care providers are doing the same. What then would insurance company profits mean? Profits are supposed to act as a signal for investors. What would that tell us? Would it mean, since the care provided would essentially [...]
“(Don’t) try my product”
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Education, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Scott Lahti, Technology, tagged John Scherer, Martin Short, Nathan Thurm, Video Professor on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
John Scherer and Billy Mays are the reasons our TV has so many dents in it. – commenter yazd, FreeRepublic.com
Never buy anything advertised on television. – DSL., Notes to Self, 1962-
After noticing one too many times John “Video Professor” Scherer laugh sheepishly on his ads after saying his name, we found this after searching on him; [...]
International Medicine
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., World, tagged Comparing care, Health costs on October 21, 2009 | 5 Comments »
I have finally got around to reading T.R. Reid’s The Healing Of America. It is well written and readable as it describes other health care systems around the world and tries to apply it to the problems we face in our system. To be accurate, Reid points out that we do [...]
Ratings Agencies Abetted Crisis
Posted in Commerce, Ethics, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged causes of crisis, economic crisis on October 19, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Via Thoma, this article from McClatchy documents how Moody’s, one of the bond ratings agencies, played a key part in our financial crisis. Key quotes…….
A McClatchy investigation has found that Moody’s punished executives who questioned why the company was risking its reputation by putting its profits ahead of providing trustworthy [...]
Using Immigration to (Re)Inflate Housing
Posted in Commerce, MI, Politics on October 19, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Recently read an interesting proposal by John Mauldin: use immigrants to prop up the housing market. After all, if housing is deflating because supply exceeds demand at current prices, we can avoid attempting to balance supply & demand via lower housing prices by increasing demand.
I’d read earlier proposals (*) along such lines, but Mauldin’s addressed [...]
Assume a Can Opener
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., Technology, World on October 17, 2009 | 3 Comments »
The title above is the punch line to, arguably, the best known joke about economists. It came to mind when I read Paul Romer’s comments on one of this year’s winers of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Elinor Ostrom. Much was made of her being the first woman to win the prize. Romer notes that [...]
Righting on the Metro
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, Technology, tagged automobiles, conservatives, mass transit, William Lind, Paul Weyrich on October 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
William Lind and the late Paul Weyrich present a Reagan-to-Reykjavik*/Forward-Into-the-Past
*Just like Nixon-to-China, ‘cept with paler skin and pickled herring in place of rice
reassessment of the sacred American mythos that pits the car culture (“freedom”) against mass transit (“socialism”) [tip: The American Conservative]:
Conservatives and Mass Transit: All Aboard?
BOOK REVIEW: The road less traveled…
Derivatives and Transparency
Posted in Commerce, Community, Ethics, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged derivatives, exchanges, markets on October 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The Wall Street Journal reports the the House Financial Services committee approved a measure that would require that most derivatives be traded on an open exchange. Key quotes…..
The derivatives bill will bring these complex financial products — privately negotiated contracts used by financial institutions and companies to hedge interest-rate, commodity and credit [...]
The Worst Bosses of All Time
Posted in Commerce, Scott Lahti, tagged bosses on October 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Could be fun working for some of these colossal R-souls, if only for a day, just for the fun of looking them squarely in the eye and inviting them, stylishly and with exquisite control, to enjoy complimentary carnal congress with their own selected portals and egresses. I loved the vivid no-nonsense phrases ending the final [...]
Why Are There Poor People?
Posted in Commerce, Ethics on October 16, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Beck’s comment on my last post inspires this query. “[T]he existence of our poor,” says Beck, “emerges from a massively systemic problem with the way our political and economic systems are structured.” It also triggers my recall of an old album of comedian Bill Cosby about the joys of a college education, [...]
Financial Regulation and the Media
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Ethics, Media, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged entitlement, Record pay on Wall Street on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Two recent articles make it clear that we are fighting an uphill battle in trying to effectively regulate the financial sector. First, we have yesterday’s report by the Wall Street Journal noting that major U.S. banks are on track to pay their employees $140 billion, a new record. Key quotes……
Workers at 23 [...]
The 70% Solution
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged Health Care, tax increase, taxes on October 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
This article by James Capretta has been getting a lot of play amongst blogs. Key quotes….
As incomes rise, however, the Baucus bill cuts the value of the entitlement. A family with an income at twice the poverty line, or $48,000 in 2016, would get $9,072 in federal assistance for coverage — [...]
Private Insurance Spending
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Nation, Public, Steve S. on October 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
I somehow missed a very helpful piece on insurance company spending by Uwe Reinhardt. Key quotes…..
In March 2008, the Council of Affordable Health Insurance took aim at state regulations that would require companies selling health insurance in the non-group market to spend at least 70 percent of collected premiums on [...]
Worst Cities Pick Democrats
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged Democrats, poverty, Republican, voting on October 13, 2009 | 10 Comments »
I was working at the smaller hospital today. People there are very pro-Republican. If you work there, it is assumed you are anti-Obama and listen to Limbaugh and Hannity. The circulating email they quoted today claimed that America’s ten poorest cities have had Democratic Mayors for a very long time. [...]
