Ecuador’s Ambassador Misses the Point: Dollarization
Ecuador’s ambassador to the U.S., Francisco Borja Cevallos, wrote a letter, “Ecuador’s Progress,” which was published in the New York Times on August 8th. Ambassador Borja reviews a number of Ecuador’s recent economic accomplishments. Fine. After all, by Latin American standards, Ecuador has performed well. Indeed, my Misery Index rankings for the region in 2014 show that only Panama, Mexico, and El Salvador performed better than Ecuador did.
What Ambassador Borja failed to mention is the true source of Ecuador’s relative success: dollarization. Yes, Ecuador is dollarized. Ecuador represented a prime example of...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 10, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
"Deprived" My Foot
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing that Greece is being “deprived of fresh Euros” by the ECB, or by the European Commission, or that those bodies are “moving toward cutting off its money supply.” That’s to say nothing of the Greek government’s suggestion that Greece is being “blackmailed” by these authorities.
Such talk seems to suggest that Eurozone members are like so many helpless hatchlings, their outstretched beaks agape in anticipation of the ECB’s regular and solicitous regurgitations of liquid sustenance.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, I’d like to take a stab at putting...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 11, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: George Selgin Source Type: blogs
People Post: News of Foundations’ Staff and Board Comings and Goings
It’s once again time to see where your contacts in the world of health philanthropy have come and where they have gone and “meet” some new staffers!
The United Hospital Fund has elected Lori Evans Bernstein to its board. She is cofounder and chief operating officer of HealthReveal, a new digital health company that aims to reinvent “the way chronic disease is diagnosed and treated,” according to a press release. Bernstein is a former deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Health and a former senior adviser at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She also worked for Manatt Health ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 7, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Lee-Lee Prina Tags: GrantWatch Public Health Quality Children Evidence-based Health Policy Food and Health Health Philanthropy Hospitals Mental Health Obesity Prevention Physicians States Source Type: blogs
Follow Panama: Dollarize
Most central banks do one thing well: they produce monetary mischief. Indeed, for most emerging market countries, a central bank is a recipe for disaster.
The solution: replace domestic currencies with sound foreign currencies. Panama is a prime example of this type of switch. Panama adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency in 1904. It is one of the best-performing countries in Latin America (see the accompanying table). In 2014, economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean was a measly 0.8 percent. In contrast, Panama’s growth rate was 6.2 percent. Not surprisingly, it was the only country in Latin America...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 22, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Will the Venezuelan Opposition Fall into UNASUR’s Trap?
Juan Carlos Hidalgo
A new political crisis is brewing in Venezuela as the economy continues its free fall, social unrest grows, and the government escalates its crackdown of the opposition. Two weeks ago, the mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, was arbitrarily arrested under spurious changes of planning a coup. Other leading figures of the opposition are being targeted by Nicolás Maduro’s regime and could be detained at any time.
Once again, the Venezuelan opposition, as well as international human rights organizations and former presidents from other Latin American countries, have demanded that the Union of South Ameri...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 9, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Juan Carlos Hidalgo Source Type: blogs
Did You Ever Notice?
To quote the late 60 Minutes curmudgeon Andy Rooney, "did you ever notice" how documentary movies--we could extend this to all sorts of documentation as Lancet does it far better than any American medical journals--on anechoic topics seem to come mostly from the Brits?A telling new example: the just-released film The Widowmaker, found both here online and in a few E and W Coast theaters. (Real world locations given at above link. Seemingly, and sadly, no red states need apply.)Widowmaker, boasting fine production values and an 'A' team of Gillian Anderson (fittingly of X-Files fame!) and the director of...
Source: Health Care Renewal - February 28, 2015 Category: Health Management Source Type: blogs
Measuring Misery in Latin America 2014: More Dollarization, Please
Steve H. Hanke
In my misery index, I calculate a ranking for all countries where suitable data exist. My misery index — a simple sum of inflation, lending rates, and unemployment rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth — is used to construct a ranking for 108 countries. The table below is a sub-index of all Latin American countries presented in the world misery index.
A higher score in the misery index means that the country, and its constituents, are more miserable. Indeed, this is a table where you do not want to be first.
Venezuela and Argentina, armed with aggressive socialist policies, end up the ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 9, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
Oil Price Blues (Read: Dangers) for Some
Steve H. Hanke
As the price of crude oil continues its downward tumble towards $80 per barrel, I am reminded of a similar scenario from near the end of the Cold War in the 1980s. When Saudi Arabia announced in 1985 that protecting oil prices was no longer its main priority, oil production surged and prices fell off a cliff, briefly plunging below $10 per barrel, as I had correctly predicted.
Lower prices delivered a fatal blow to the Soviet economy, which ended up seeing $20 billion per year in oil revenues evaporate. The resulting fiscal shortfalls proved to be a dagger in the heart of the U.S.S.R.
On October 1st of this...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 16, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
At a Minimum, Transatlantic Trade Negotiations Should Ditch Investor-State Provisions
Daniel J. Ikenson
Some exaggeration notwithstanding, Harold Meyerson, with whom the occasion to agree is rare, does a reasonably good job describing some of the pitfalls of the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism in his Washington Post column yesterday. ISDS has become a source of growing controversy, which threatens to derail the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, which are reported to be floundering during the seventh “round” of talks taking place this week in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
“Under ISDS,” Meyerson writes, “foreign investors can sue a nation with which t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 3, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Ikenson Source Type: blogs
A Dangerous New Dish
Bibimbop Brugmansia ** Do NOT try this at home.Edible flowers can make for a beautiful garnish on salads and trendy Brooklyn cocktails, but these decorative flourishes can be a disaster for the oblivious amateur. An unusual case report in BMC Research Notes summarizes what happens when you sprinkle toxic flower petals on your bibimbop (Kim et al., 2014).A 64 year old Korean woman came to the emergency room with incoherent speech and fluctuations in attention, orientation and comprehension. She had called her daughter for help but couldn't remember why. (Hint: that's because she ingested flowers containing scopolamine and a...
Source: The Neurocritic - September 7, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
Hawaiian vacation, day 4
Before we start today's adventures, I have an announcement. Dr. Fizzy is having a medical humor writing contest. Since this will require judges, she wanted someone witty, intelligent, clever, objective, and talented to assist her. Anyway, that person wasn't available, so she settled for me.More information is available here. As a judge, I pledge that I will not be swayed by monetary bribery (a case of Diet Coke, however, can't hurt your cause).And now, back to the vacation.Today we drove up Haleakala.For those of you who don't know, this is the center volcanic crater on Maui, dormant for a few hundred years. It involv...
Source: Doctor Grumpy in the House - August 28, 2014 Category: Neurologists Authors: Grumpy, M.D. Source Type: blogs
The Future of Dollarization in Ecuador
Gabriela Calderon de Burgos
A new “monetary and finance” law that was approved by Ecuador’s National Assembly in July, is expected to be signed into law any day now. Many suspect that this marks the beginning of the end for dollarization in Ecuador, which began in January of 2000. But the underlying threat to dollarization is the incessant growth of public spending. Losing dollarization would be a sad development, considering it is what has protected Ecuadorians from one of the worst evils of populism: high inflation.
The remarkable contribution dollarization has made to the Ecuadorian economy is worth noting. A 201...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 27, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Gabriela Calderon de Burgos Source Type: blogs
“Give me your tired, your poor…”
The rapid influx of unaccompanied immigrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the last few months has spurred a national conversation regarding the United States’ role in offering refuge to these children, the majority of whom are fleeing widespread gang violence and delinquency in their home countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. A key talking point for some in the debate has become the supposed threat to public health that these children pose.
Pundits and politicians, from city councils to the U.S. Congress, have latched on to the alarmist claim that immigrant children are carrying diseases with t...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - August 1, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Consumer Health Care Disparities Global Health Policy Politics Publc Health Source Type: blogs
Measuring Misery in Latin America: More Dollarization, Please
Steve H. Hanke
In my misery index, I calculate a ranking for all countries where suitable data from the Economist Intelligence Unit exist. My misery index — a simple sum of inflation, lending rates, and unemployment rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth — is used to construct a ranking for 89 countries. The table below is a sub-index of all Latin American countries presented in the world misery index.
A higher score in the misery index means that the country, and its constituents, are more miserable. Indeed, this is a table where you do not want to be first.
Venezuela and Argentina, armed with aggressive so...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 10, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Steve H. Hanke Source Type: blogs
