U.S. and NATO Fear Greek Fifth Column to Aid Russia
In the midst of bitter bailout negotiations between Greece and Europe, warnings proliferated of a possible Greek Fifth Column. The European Union and even NATO would collapse should Athens turn toward Russia. It is one of the stranger paranoid fantasies driving U.S. foreign policy.
For five years Athens has been arguing with its European neighbors over debts and reform. The issue doesn’t much concern the U.S. A European economic crisis would be bad for America, but Grexit is not likely to set off such a cataclysm.
Nevertheless, some analysts speculated that Athens might fall out of the European Union and NATO as well as ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 28, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
Why Businesses Migrate from Greece to Bulgaria: Smaller Government Is Cheaper
Alan Reynolds
What “prompted many Greek manufacturers to relocate to neighboring Bulgaria” is not just less-capricious regulation, as The Wall Street Journal suggests, but also the much lower cost of government.
Bulgaria has a 10% flat tax on corporate and personal income and a 20% VAT. Greece has a 49% personal income tax, 26% corporate tax, 45% payroll tax and 23% VAT. Unbearable tax rates drive a fourth of the Greek economy underground while businesses in the formal economy migrate or shut down.
What about government spending (which Keynesian economists call “fiscal stimulus”)? Government spending i...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 11, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
Is rose hip oil good for anti-aging?
This study was done on masectomy patients. It was also done with 10 panelists but they used a control group so I’m assuming that means they had five test subjects and five control subjects which is a very very small base size.
They had the patients apply a 26% solution of Rosehip oil for next 8 weeks and noticed increased skin growth in the sutured areas.
My concern with the study other than the small base size, is that it really only measures scar prevention that has nothing to do with getting rid of existing scars. Also, I couldn’t find out how the control group was treated. If the control group received no t...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - January 27, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Perry RomanowskiThe Beauty Brains Tags: Natural Podcast Source Type: blogs
Bulgaria: Liquidate KTB, Now
Steve H. Hanke and Matt Sekerke
The long-awaited audit of the Corporate Commercial Bank’s (KTB’s) assets has been released by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). In its wake, a debate has arisen about the future of the KTB: Should it be recapitalized? And if KTB is recapitalized, should the Bulgarian or the European authorities be responsible? However, it is clear from the results of the audit that, once the obscurity of the technocratic arguments is stripped away, there can be no debate. KTB should be liquidated as soon as possible, and whatever proceeds can be obtained in liquidation should be used to reimburse guara...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 24, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke, Matt Sekerke Source Type: blogs
The 95 Percent Rule, Bulgaria, and the New York Times
Steve H. Hanke
Recent reportage in the New York Times reminded me of my 95 Percent Rule: “95 percent of what you read about economics and finance is either wrong or irrelevant.” In her piece on the Bulgarian elections, Mariana Ionova wrote:
“[Bulgaria’s] economy is growing at an annual rate of about 1.6 percent, but that is the slowest pace in the union, and about half the European average.”
These alleged facts aren’t even in the ballpark (see the accompanying chart). Bulgaria is neither the slowest growing economy in the European Union, nor is it growing at half the European average. In fact, Bulgaria is grow...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 7, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Bulgaria’s October 5th Elections: A Flashback at the Economic Records
Steve H. Hanke
Bulgarians will go to the polls on October 5th to elect new members of its parliament and thus a new government. Before casting their votes, voters should reflect on the economic records of Bulgaria’s governments since 1995.
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index for each of Bulgaria’s six governments since 1995 (see the accompanying table).
The first government documented in the table is that of...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 3, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Two Great Yogurts for People with Diabetes
If anything we eat deserves the label “health food,” it has to be yogurt. Of all the probiotic foods, yogurt has to be the most popular. The good bacteria in yogurt help protect our bodies from toxins, infections, allergies, and some types of cancer.
In the early 1900s the Russian scientist Ilya Mechnikov discovered that more people lived to the age of 100 in Bulgaria than in any other. He attributed this to yogurt, which was... (Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts)
Source: David Mendosa's SharePosts - July 23, 2014 Category: Diabetes Authors: David Mendosa Source Type: blogs
Bulgaria Wins Balkan Prize
Steve H. Hanke
Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 89 countries based on misery. The table below is a sub-ranking of all Balkan states presented in the full index.
All of the Balkan states in my index suffer from high unemployment and relatively high levels of misery.
That said, the least miserable Balkan country is Bulgaria. For all of its problems, including a recent bank run, ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 15, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever and Travel
Reports of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) related to travel are rare. The following chronology is abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series. [1]
1985 – South Africa ex. Democratic Republic of Congo (fatal).
1986 – South Africa ex. Tanzania (nonfatal)
1997 – An English traveler died of probable CCHF contracted in Zimbabwe.
2001 – A German tourist acquired Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Bulgaria.
2004 – A case of imported Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (nonfatal) was reported in a traveler returning to France from Senegal. Infection in a second French...
Source: GIDEON blog - July 6, 2014 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology ProMED Travel Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever Source Type: blogs
Century Old Terrorists Still Creating Wars From Iraq To Ukraine
Doug Bandow
The conflict in Iraq started a century ago. So did the civil war in Syria. And so did Russia’s dismemberment of Ukraine.
All of those conflicts, and much more, grew out of World War I.
At the turn of the 20th century, Europe was prospering. But on June 28, 1914, 19-year-old Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie.
The following weeks were filled with ultimatums, plans, and pleas. But governments soon found that “control has been lost and the stone has begun to roll,” as German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg pu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 2, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
Not Just Another Friday in Brussels
Dalibor Rohac
While a typical summer Friday in the capital of the European Union might sound like a rather dull affair, today brought two significant events–one of them good, the other one less so.
First, the good news. Today, Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia signed their association agreements with the European Union (EU). The treaties consist of, in part, free trade agreements between the EU and the three countries, and also a roadmap toward a prospective EU membership. Given the economic and political shape these countries find themselves in, the latter will likely take a long time and will not be without hurdl...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 27, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Dalibor Rohac Source Type: blogs
A Grim Update on European Tax Policy
Daniel J. Mitchell
I wrote the other day that Americans, regardless of all the bad policy we get from Washington, should be thankful we’re not stuck in an economic graveyard like Venezuela.
But we also should be happy we’re not Europeans. This is a point I’ve made before, usually accompanied by data showing that Americans have significantly higher living standards than their cousins on the other side of the Atlantic.
It’s now time to re-emphasize that message. The European Commission has issued its annual report on “Taxation Trends” and it is–at least for wonks and others who care about f...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 18, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Mitchell Source Type: blogs
International Physician Payments Sunshine: EFPIA Code on Transfers of Value and Inconsistencies Within European Member Associations
The recent National Disclosure Summit featured many practical seminars for compliance with the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. The presentation entitled "The Status of Implementation of EFPIA's Code by Member Associations and, to the Extent Countries have done so, where are there Consistencies/Inconsistencies among the Codes" expanded its sights beyond the United States and onto European disclosure laws.
D. Jeffrey Campbell, Managing Principal of Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, spoke first to the large European pharmaceutical market, which comprises 26 percent of the global market, employs 700,000 people in the European ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - March 20, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Bulgaria’s Currency Board versus Ukraine’s Chaos
Steve H. Hanke
When Communism inevitably and finally collapsed, Bulgaria’s economy was a basket case – behind almost all other communist basket cases, including Ukraine’s. Indeed, Bulgaria defaulted on its debt in 1990. By February 1991, Bulgaria had broken out in a bout of hyperinflation, with the inflation rate at 123% per month. And in February 1997, Bulgaria experienced the agonies of hyperinflation again, with the inflation rate reaching 242% per month.
As he looked into the abyss, President Petar Stoyanov decided against taking the plunge and appointed me as his advisor in January 1997. I immediately pre...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 27, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Hospitals and borders: seven case studies on cross-border collaboration and health system interactions
World Health Organisation (WHO) European Office -These
case studies examine the circumstances under which cross-border
collaboration is likely to work, the motivations and incentives of
health care actors and the role played by health systems, individuals
and the EU in shaping cross-border collaboration. The study involves
hospitals in 11 EU and non-EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and
Spain).
Report
WHO Europe - publications (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - November 7, 2013 Category: UK Health Authors: The King's Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: Changing configuration of health services Developments in primary and community care Source Type: blogs
