15 | October | 2012

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Image Credit: Sunwalk999 (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

The problem with Kaiser’s premium support study? Seniors are smarter than that—and so are health plans

Joseph Antos | October 15, 2012, 9:41 pm

Going to the supermarket with my mother was always a test of patience. She would carefully examine the produce, looking for defects that only she could see to make sure that she found the best head of lettuce or bunch … read more >

Carpe Diem

In Cuba’s new real estate market, ‘capitalist construction’ is a big selling point for apartments built in the 1940s and 1950s

Mark J. Perry | October 15, 2012, 4:46 pm

At the end of last year, the Cuban government started allowing its citizens to legally buy and sell real estate (mostly apartments) after several generations of a ban on private property and real estate sales. Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez explains … read more >

Carpe Diem

2012: The year of the housing recovery, updates

Mark J. Perry | October 15, 2012, 4:30 pm

1. DQNews — “The median price paid for a Bay Area home rose to its highest level in more than four years in September, the result of a slowly improving economy, low mortgage interest rates and shifts in market mix. … read more >

Carpe Diem

Markets in everything: $20 cardboard bicycle

Mark J. Perry | October 15, 2012, 4:09 pm

MOSHAV AHITUV, Israel (Reuters) – “A bicycle made almost entirely of cardboard has the potential to change transportation habits from the world’s most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, its Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni says. Once ready for … read more >

Pethokoukis

More on how to deal with Too Big To Fail

James Pethokoukis | October 15, 2012, 4:09 pm

A nice, simply explanation from Simon Johnson on why breaking up Too Big To Fail, Too Complex To Manage banks makes loads of sense: Daniel Tarullo, a governor of the Federal Reserve System, spoke for the first time last week … read more >

Image Credit: USAG-Humphreys (Flickr) (CC BY 2.0)

Foreign and Defense Policy, Defense

The human cost of sequestration

Tim Welter | October 15, 2012, 3:40 pm

If you are a policy wonk desperate for a reprieve from the endless stream of mind-numbing talking points, articles, blogs, newscasts, roundtables, panels – whatever – in the debate over how sequestration is going to impact our national security, please don’t … read more >

Economics

How the Nobel prize in economics can help you find love

Kevin Hassett | October 15, 2012, 3:08 pm

Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics today “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.” Their contributions address a simple concern—how to match different agents effectively. In an effort to … read more >

Image Credit: Nick Knupffer (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Economics, Pethokoukis

This new Kaiser study on premium support is going to be horribly, terribly misused

James Pethokoukis | October 15, 2012, 2:25 pm

The Kaiser Family Foundation is out with a study that examines the cost implications of layering a premium support system onto traditional Medicare, a principle supported by Mitt Romney. Now I doubt many partisans will get past the lede, like … read more >

Image credit: Oil rig (Wikimedia Commons)

Economics, Energy and the Environment

Energy credits fall prey to fraud, again

Kenneth P. Green | October 15, 2012, 2:16 pm

As a recent article in the New York Times points out, the invention of clean energy standards, which involve trading in “renewable energy credits,” are falling prey to fraud, and not in a small way: A Maryland man is awaiting … read more >

Image Credit: Gary Lerude (Flickr) (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Foreign and Defense Policy, China

In a year of transition, Chinese Communist Party works to rehab image

John VerWey | October 15, 2012, 1:58 pm

After first making headlines in March 2012, the Bo Xilai scandal is finally drawing to a close. News of his expulsion from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for accepting “huge bribes,” coming on the heels of his wife’s suspended death … read more >

Money Printing Isn’t Always Inflationary
Republicans are wrongly giving fear of money printing a higher priority than the growth debate. Robust growth is as close as we can get to a panacea for our monetary and fiscal problems. […]
Hindsight Isn’t 20/20
Many lessons should be drawn from the U.S. experience in Iraq. Unfortunately, we’re not learning what we should. […]
The Uses of Scandal
One of the greatest uses of scandal is to vividly demonstrate what new laws are needed and to create the political conditions to get them enacted. […]
Lean In… to Government?
Sheryl Sandberg's runaway best-selling book Lean In has managed to offend both the Left and the Right. Sandberg touts female hard-headedness, yet also calls for an elaborate government- and employer-supplied support system for women. […]