Monthly Archives: June 2012

Archive of posts published in the specified Month

It’s Only a Tax

Economist John Cochrane makes a fascinating point in his blog The Grumpy Economist, writes Two More Cents on the Obamacare Decision, 6/30/12 There is in fact a huge difference between a tax on people without health insurance and a mandate enforced with

Read More

Health Care Cost vs Value

Cliff Asness writes The Healthcare Myths We Must Confront in The American, 6/29/12. Excerpt: Myth #1:  Healthcare prices have soared in the recent past Everyone knows that healthcare prices have soared, but everyone may well be wrong. The statistics we

Read More

An ACA Reader

There is an overwhelming amount of words written on the ACA ruling. A few that stand out so far: Scott Grannis at Calafia Beach Pundit, The fatal flaws of Obamacare, 6/28/12. Fatal flaw #3: A government-imposed restructuring of the healthcare

Read More

Why a Bad Solution Can Be Worse Than No Solution

Commentary on the ACA ruling by the Supreme Court will dominate the new and old medias for some time to come.  What doesn’t change is that the law is awful. Like so many laws that attempt to bring further complexity

Read More

Profit Theft

Scott Grannis writes in his excellent Calafia Beach Pundit Business investment remains flat, 6/27/12. Excerpt: It’s not hard to understand why business investment has been flat. U.S. corporate tax rates are the highest of any developed country. Regulatory burdens have

Read More

Intrade Was Wrong

I am often a fan of the predictive power of Intrade.  But recently it forecast that the Supreme Court would strike down the mandate on Obamacare with better than a 70% certainty. They were wrong.  While still a useful tool

Read More

A Bad Diagnosis

The extra power given to the federal government through bypassing proven bankruptcy rules looms as the biggest challenge to meaningful reform.  Experience shows that such power increases, not decreases, the likelihood of another crisis.  You do not prevent bailouts by

Read More

The Apple Ecosystem

The iPhone Turns Five in the Wall Street Journal by Thomas Hazlett, 6/27/12 Excerpt: The novelty has not worn thin. In the first quarter of 2012, iPhone global sales doubled, according to industry data, accounting for more than 400,000 activations

Read More

Bad Marketing or Bad Law?

Michael Tanner writes in The National Review Why the Obamacare Ruling Matters, 6/27/12. Excerpts: The average American adds up the costs and benefits and decides that, on the whole, they don’t want the law. It’s not bad marketing; it’s bad

Read More

Obama’s Spoons

Kevin Williamson writes Obama Does Not Know What ‘Outsourcing’ Means in The National Review Online, 6/26/12 Excerpts: What’s interesting about this controversy to me is the naked xenophobia of the Left on display alongside the amusing ignorance. Liberals love a

Read More

Worthy Reads 2012 06 26

Employment, Italian Style, Wall Street Journal 6/25/12 An incredible tale of the bureaucracy that plagues European businesses. You also know you’re going to run into problems once you hire your 16th employee, since that will trigger provisions making it either impossible or

Read More

Coke Lights

tips to Carpe Diem

Read More

The Price of Clarity

“The Risk of Insult is the Price of Clarity”- Roy Williams Politicians love to use words without meaning, or words they refuse to define.  Business people often fall for this trap as well. Such vague usage may seem to make

Read More

The Right to Health Care

Andrew Bernstein writes in Forbes, Whatever the Supreme Court’s Obamacare Ruling, Here’s a Free Market Healthcare Solution, 6/24/12 Excerpts: Qualitatively, U.S. healthcare is the finest in the world. Evidence? Americans have a higher survival rate than any other country for thirteen of

Read More

The Government Industry

Andrew Ferguson discusses the growth in government in the beltway. Ferguson notes that the growth in government is masked by the proliferation of private contractors.  This has created a lucrative industry that feeds off the growth in government.

Read More

A Scientist Faces His Own Global Warming Theory

Lorrie Goldstein writes in The Toronto Sun, Green ‘drivel’ exposed – The godfather of global warming lowers the boom on climate change hysteria, 6/23/12. Excerpts: Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up

Read More

Hebron, Shiloh, and Bethlehem

During one of Menachem Begin’s initial meetings with Jimmy Carter, the subject of Israeli settlements in the West Bank inevitably arose and it was a major sticking point in their relationship. He (Begin) took out a piece of paper from

Read More

“They Suck and They’re Blaming Us”

Cavuto’s brilliant rant on the Europeans: Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com great excerpt “For god’s sake wake up and sniff your obviously spiked cappuccino. U.S. banks did not create your mess, you did. U.S. banks did not grant cradle-to-the-grave

Read More

Equality and a Sound Economy

Patrick Brennan writes in The National Review, The Equality Fetish, 6/22/12. Excerpts: There are two elements of the ubiquitous thesis: Increased inequality generally slows economic growth, and it contributes to financial crises such as our current one. But there’s never

Read More

Sick Vacations

The European courts ruled that Europeans who get sick while on vacation are entitled to additional vacation days. From The Huffington Post Europeans Who Get Sick On Vacation Can Take Another One, Court Rules, 6/25/12 We’ve all been there: You’re

Read More