Reviving Growth: A Cato Online Forum
Brink Lindsey
In conjunction with the upcoming conference on the future of U.S. economic growth, the Cato Institute has organized a special online forum to explore possible avenues for pro-growth policy reforms. We have reached out to leading economists and policy experts and challenged them to answer the following question:
If you could wave a magic wand and make one or two policy or institutional changes to brighten the U.S. economy’s long-term growth prospects, what would you change and why?
Their responses will all be made available here. We will post a few new essays each day in the run-up to the conference.
Assemb...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 14, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Brink Lindsey Source Type: blogs
Last Gasp of a Dinosaur?
Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger
Global Science Report is a feature from the Center for the Study of Science, where we highlight one or two important new items in the scientific literature or the popular media. For broader and more technical perspectives, consult our monthly “Current Wisdom.”
The just-released “synthesis” report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could be the last gasp of this clumsy dinosaur.
Containing no new science, the new IPCC offering is just a rehash of its series of Fifth Assessment Reports that have been released over the past ye...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 4, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger Source Type: blogs
The $500 Billion Medicare Slowdown: A Story About Part D
A great deal of analysis has been published on the causes of the health care spending slowdown system-wide — including in the pages of Health Affairs. Much attention in particular has focused on the remarkable slowdown in Medicare spending over the past few years, and rightfully so: Spending per beneficiary actually shrank (!) by one percent this year (or grew only one percent if one removes the effects of temporary policy changes).
Yet the disproportionate role played by prescription drug spending (or Part D) has seemingly escaped notice. Despite constituting barely more than 10 percent of Medicare spending, our an...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 21, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Loren Adler and Adam Rosenberg Tags: All Categories Hospitals Medicare Payment Pharma Physicians Policy Spending Source Type: blogs
A Summary View of Everything in Modern Longevity Science Except the Work that Really Matters
There are three classes of aging research, in order of decreasing size and funding: firstly the work that only investigates and catalogs aging, with no attempt to intervene; secondly work on ways to slow aging through metabolic and genetic alteration, which is doomed to very expensive and very slow progress to a marginal end result; and lastly work on repairing the cellular and molecular damage that causes aging. The latter is the only practical path forward to greatly extending healthy life and defeating age-related disease soon enough to matter for those of use reading this today. After a decade of advocacy to get to the...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 25, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Reading Piketty In DC: Does Income Inequality Squeeze Health Spending?
In the past year, an element of mystery and suspense has crept quietly into the long-running saga of health care spending growth, in most times a dreary tale of predictability and frustration.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)’s August forecast of significant reductions in Medicare spending growth in the next decade will help stoke a running debate about whether the spending slowdown that has outlasted the 2008-2010 recession is merely a delayed effect of the slump or a symptom of structural changes with a life of their own.
The mystery and suspense come from month-to-month uncertainties and inscrutable data about wh...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 16, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Rob Cunningham Tags: All Categories Health Care Costs Health Reform Spending Source Type: blogs
Prof. Krugman Snared By 364 Trap
Steve H. Hanke
In his New York Times column of September 15, 2014, “How to Get It Wrong,” Paul Krugman pleas for open-mindedness and reason. From whence did Prof. Krugman convert from his embrace of dogmatism?
Well, it’s clear that he has not converted. Indeed, the evidence resides about three quarters of the way through his column:
“The great majority of policy-oriented economists believe that increasing government spending in a depressed economy creates jobs, and that slashing it destroys jobs — but European leaders and U.S. Republicans decided to believe the handful of economists asserting the oppos...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 16, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Taxes, Tennis, and Transportation
Chris Edwards
We have an uncompetitive federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent compared to Canada’s 15 percent. Our Roth IRA is inferior to Canada’s TFSA, as Amity Shlaes and I discussed in the Wall Street Journal. And while Serena Williams still tops rising star Eugenie Bouchard, we should be paying attention to ”What Canada Can Teach Us About Tennis.”
Now we face another competitive threat from the north. This time it’s British Columbia seaports says Bloomberg:
Container ships sailing across the northern Pacific are carrying more cargo and are setting course for British Columbia to avoid delays from a possibl...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 8, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Examining The Present And Future Of The Health Spending Growth Slowdown
TweetEach year, Health Affairs publishes national health spending projections for the coming decade by authors at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary (OACT). The articles provide important documentation of past trends and insight about future spending, using transparent, vetted assumptions.
In this year’s study, Andrea Sisko and coauthors reveal that the recent slowdown in health care spending growth has continued. Specifically, the authors report that national health care spending in 2013 is predicted to have increased by only 3.6 percent — the fifth consecutive year of spending gr...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Michael Chernew Tags: All Categories Health Care Delivery Health Reform Medicaid Medicare Policy Spending Technology Source Type: blogs
Climate Alarmism: When Is This Bozo Going Down?
Patrick J. Michaels and Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger
Global Science Report is a feature from the Center for the Study of Science, where we highlight one or two important new items in the scientific literature or the popular media. For broader and more technical perspectives, consult our monthly “Current Wisdom.”
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Climate alarmism is like one of those pop-up Bozos. No matter how many times you bop it, up it springs. In fact, the only way to stop it, as most kids learn, is to deflate it. In this case, the air inside Bozo is your and my tax money.
Two scientific papers released last week combine for a power...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 27, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Patrick J. Michaels, Paul C. "Chip" Knappenberger Source Type: blogs
Years After the Recession, Welfare Rolls Hit New Highs
Charles Hughes
New Census data shows that the number of households receiving welfare benefits hit a record high of almost 33.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. While part of the surge was due to the recession, the proportion receiving benefits has increased from 25.2 percent to 27.4 percent since the recession officially ended in June 2009. These inflated welfare rolls are not just a temporary response to an economic downturn, and could instead become the new normal. This poses a problem not only for the country as a whole, but for the individuals beneficiaries as well. These welfare programs could eventually ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 26, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Charles Hughes Source Type: blogs
IT strategy for health plans: Interview with ikaSystems CEO Joe Marabito (transcript)
ikaSystems President and CEO Joe Marabito
This is the transcript of my recent podcast interview with ikaSystems President and CEO, Joe Marabito, in which we discuss:
The impact of the ACA rollout on health plan IT needs over the past year –since our last discussion
The impact of delayed ICD-10 rollout
The unique challenges facing Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care and commercial plans
How Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are investing in health IT
Where population health and big data fit into the mix
Best practices of health plans that are staying ahead of the curve on capabilities, while also managing to...
Source: Health Business Blog - August 5, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: David Williams Tags: Podcast Technology ACA ACO health plan health plans ICD-10 ikaSystems information technology capabilities Source Type: blogs
The EU’s Anti-Austerity Hypocrites
Steve H. Hanke
The European Union (EU) is still in the midst of an economic slump. Many members of the political class in Brussels claim that fiscal austerity is to blame. But, this diagnosis is wrong. The EU’s problem is one of monetary, not fiscal, austerity. Money matters. Just look at the accompanying chart. Private credit in the Eurozone has been shrinking since March 2012.
Never mind. The EU fiscal austerity bandwagon keeps rolling on with Matteo Renzi, Italian Prime Minister and current President of the EU, holding the reigns. Indeed, Renzi recently went so far as to form an anti-austerity coalition with France ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 30, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
When Choice Isn’t A Choice
Long before I knew the term “disordered eating,” I knew its environment. My stunningly beautiful mother maintained her perfectly-proportioned, svelte figure with Carnation Instant Breakfast, cigarettes for hunger control during the day and an enormous, home-cooked, delicious meat, potatoes, salad and vegetable dinner every night. Sweets and sugar were forbidden, but sour cream was encouraged—low-fat, of course. I was skinny, my sister was husky and food and weight were frequent topics of discussion. As an adult, I recognized this wasn’t healthy.
Purposeful Parenting
Because I lacked modeling to be the type of par...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - July 22, 2014 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Jennifer Denise Ouellette Tags: Perspectives Eating Behavior Eating Disorders Raising Girls Teen Girls Teens & Behavior Teens & Health Source Type: blogs
