U.S. Gasoline Prices Depend on Global Oil Markets — Not “Independence”
Alan ReynoldsI still have a 1979 bookmark that says, “INFLATION IS A PAIN IN THE GAS.”Funny but wrong. U.S. gasoline prices follow gyrations in world oil markets, which depend on global (not domestic) supply and demand.What actually happened in 1978 –80, an important German study from Bruegel reminds us, was the Iranian revolution and the Iran ‐Iraq War: “The 1978 Iranian revolution decreased global supply by 4 percent and led to a price increase of 57 percent. The 1980 Iran‐Iraq war decreased global supply by 4 percent and led to a price increase of 45 percent.”What happened to world oil market...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 10, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
Political Science
First all the people who write on the op-ed page and yack on TV were experts on immigration policy. Then they suddenly became experts on infectious disease epidemiology, and now they ' re all experts on war strategy. It ' s amazing. This happens instantly, they don ' t even need to go back to school.Anyhow, I ' m not a real doctor, I ' m a doctor of philosophy, but to gain the letters after my name I had to pass qualifying examinations in political science. Back then, however, we did not pay a lot of attention to dictatorial or totalitarian regimes, partly because at the time the Soviet Union was collapsing and China appea...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Distinguishing Home ‐Grown Inflation from Global Inflation
Alan ReynoldsEach country imagines inflation to be anational problem to be entirely blamed on national fiscal authorities or on each nation ' s central bank. Yet March CPI inflation averaged 8.8% for all 38 countries in theOECD, and 7.8% for the 27 EU countries.Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, in theFRBSF Economic Letter, ask a narrower question: "Why is U.S. Inflation Higher Than in Other Countries?" They first begin by acknowledging that there have been some uniquely huge global events driving world pricesdownin 2020 (COVID-19 lockdowns causing long-term loss of productive capacity) and other po...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 9, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
The Reckoning: What Happens to Digital Health After COVID?
By JEFF GOLDSMITH and ERIC LARSEN
It has been a rough year so far for digital health. After an astonishing $45 billion poured into new digital health companies in 2020 and 2021, and an early 2021 peak in market valuations of publicly-traded digital health providers, valuations and multiples have collapsed. Once high-flying Teladoc, which traded at an eye-watering 42x revenues and commanded a $45 billion market capitalization, is now trading around 2.7X at about $5.7 billion. AmWell, the next largest telehealth player, has seen its stock drop more 90% from its high.
Nor is the evaporation in market value is co...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 9, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Tech digital health Digital health investing Eric Larsen Healthcare bubble Jeff Goldsmith Source Type: blogs
The Escalation Fixation
Fears of global nuclear annihilation should have produced a concerted effort by all sides to keep the Ukraine conflict limited. But the focus on escalation — rather than ensuring Russia ' s defeat — has instead made the international security picture more precarious. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - May 6, 2022 Category: Health Management Authors: Raphael S. Cohen Source Type: blogs
How to Save the Postwar Order
For the last decade or so, debate has raged among scholars and policymakers about the significance of the post–World War II, rules-based international order. Is it a feeble myth, or is it a powerful influence on state behavior? Russia ' s invasion of Ukraine and the global response to it has put these competing claims into sharp relief. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - May 6, 2022 Category: Health Management Authors: Michael J. Mazarr Source Type: blogs
India Slips to 150th Position in Press Freedom Index
Swaminathan S. Anklesaria AiyarFor those who wonder why India has not joined a “coalition of the free” against Russia, the news is that India is not that free anyway. It has fallen from 142nd to 150th position in the World Press Freedom Index 2022 of Reporters Without Borders.This is a telling comment on growing government pressures as well as misuse of social media to attack media critics. The main culprit has been the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, but non ‐BJP state governments are guilty of some of the same tactics—misuse of government advertising to reward friends and penalize foes, tax raids and arbitr...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 5, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar Source Type: blogs
Learning from This War
BY KIM BELLARD
There’s an old military adage that generals are always fighting the last war. It’s not that they haven’t learned any lessons, it’s more than they learned the wrong lessons. I fear we’re doing that with the COVID pandemic.
The next big health crisis may not come from another COVID variant; it may not be caused by coronavirus at all. Even if we learn lessons from this pandemic, those may not be lessons that will apply to the next big health crisis.
What started me thinking about this is a C4ISRNET interview with Mike Brown, the Director of the Defense Innovati...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 3, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Policy Public Health C4ISRNET health crisis Pandemic Source Type: blogs
Funding for digital health start-ups, especially in mental health, fall substantially in Q1 ’22
Global digital health funding falls 36% with fewer megarounds, IPOs (Fierce Healthcare):
After two years of record-breaking investment in digital health, capital flow into the sector took a dive in the first quarter of 2022.
The global digital health market saw funding decrease 36% from the fourth quarter of 2021, totaling $10.4 billion, as investors reacted to supply chain woes, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a volatile stock market, according to a new CB Insights report.
While all tech sectors received smaller funding totals than the previous quarter, digital health plunged much further than others did … investor ...
Source: SharpBrains - May 3, 2022 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation cerebral digital health digital health market Mental Health Tech Talkspace Source Type: blogs
Core PCE Inflation Has Been Slowing Down
Alan ReynoldsCore inflation slowed substantially in February and March to less than 0.3% a month (.029%). The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose more slowly this March than it did a year ago (as shown by the blue bars in the graph).The backward ‐lookingyear ‐to‐year price change nonetheless still appeared misleadingly high this March (5.2%) because of rapid price increaseslast year– during the second and fourth quarters.The red line in the graph projects that if the February to March monthly pace continues for the next three months, the year ‐to‐year increase in co...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 2, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
A state of service — and how flow can get you there
In 6th grade, my humanities teacher wrote a prompt for our class final: What is the purpose of life? I immediately grabbed my pencil and thundered away without a second thought. Five minutes in, I was still the only one writing. Rachmaninoff, the famous Russian composer who was known for intricate melodies, once said thatRead more …A state of service — and how flow can get you there originally appeared inKevinMD.com. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 2, 2022 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/post-author/benjamin-borokhovsky" rel="tag" data-wpel-link="internal" > Benjamin Borokhovsky < /a > < /span > Tags: Education Medical school Source Type: blogs
GDP Inflation Includes Food, Energy and Export Prices
Alan ReynoldsAWall Street Journal editorial, “Rumors of Stagflation, ” describes accelerating inflation in the first quarter GDP report: “The GDP decline … coincided with an accelerating rise in prices. The GDP price index rose at an 8% annual rate on top of 7.1% in the previous quarter. The Fed’s preferred inflation measure, personal consumption expenditures , rose 7%, when its target is 2%.”The Fed ’s preferred inflation measure is really the “core” personal consumption index which excludes some but not all food and energy prices. The Core PCE was up 5.2% in the first quarter, nearly the same as 5% in t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 29, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Economics, and Politics and the Big Picture. What I Am Watching Here And Abroad.
April 28 2022 Edition ----- Sadly the Russian war against Ukraine continues and seems to get worse by the week. Putin is now saying he will attack any one who helps Ukraine. This can still end very badly!
In the US they are working to help Ukraine as hard as they can while politically things seem as bad as ever internally. We are seeing the UK PM in India on trade and defence matters mainly. We are now in Week 3 of the six week General Election. The level of debate has been pretty pathetic so far IMVHO and COVID has upended the Labor efforts recently. I continue to worry that we are not taking our COVID rates and d...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - April 28, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
“National Security” In Name Only
Scott LincicomeEuropean Commission Executive Vice ‐President Valdis Dombrovskis took to Twitter today to announce that the EU will immediately liberalized trade with Ukraine to boost its economy and help counter Russian aggression:🔴 UNPRECEDENTED: EU grants#Ukraine zero-tariff, zero-quota trade.These measures will boost trade& keep its economy going. This is vital to win the war and recover post-war.This shows 🇪🇺 ' s unwavering commitment to helping 🇺🇦 in its hour of need.👉https://t.co/bStnWPnmocpic.twitter.com/8yTqitp1ZZ— Valdis Dombrovskis (@VDombrovskis)April 27, 2022The mutual economic an...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 27, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Scott Lincicome Source Type: blogs
No, the United States Should Not Kowtow to Saudi Arabia to Stick It to Russia
Justin LoganThe war in Ukraine grinds on, and Western observers seem to be growing frustrated with Russia ’s ability to sustain the war. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen has recently arrived at a ceasefire, although there are plenty of reasons to worry that it will revert to form. Some authors have begun to weigh tradeoffs in U.S. efforts in both theaters.Fareed Zakariawrites that in order to impose more stringent energy sanctions against Russia, Washington needs to go hat in hand to Saudi Arabia and cut a deal for it to pump more oil:The only plausible path to keep the pressure on Russia while not crip...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 27, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Justin Logan Source Type: blogs
