Rethinking the Economy

In a post on the economic issues around health insurance, Professor Dan Saviro makes the standard “moral hazard” argument:
Consumer demand drives the market, but it is largely the demand of subsidized consumers who are not actually paying at the margin for what they get. Suppose that in the market for groceries or cars we [...]

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In a Grist Magazine interview, Braddock, PA Mayor John Fetterman — the guy you’ve probably seen in the Environmental Defense Fund’s Carbon Caps = Hard Hats ads — explains how to talk about the environment with folks living in small, blue-collar towns like Braddock:
The people that are already in your corner are obviously the [...]

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Senator Edward Kennedy died last night. Robert Reich on just how deep a loss Kennedy’s passing is for our country:
America has had a few precious individuals who are both passionate about social justice and also understand deep in their bones its practical meaning. And we have had a few who possess great political shrewdness [...]

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Matthew Yglesias says the folks pushing the public option need to calm down. Without the public option,
It wouldn’t be an ideal health plan or the best bill you can imagine. But it’s no exaggeration to say that it would be the greatest progressive legislative accomplishment in four decades, and that’s nothing to sneer at.
In the [...]

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Speaking of studying irrational behavior, what’s up with Investor’s Business Daily? First they write an editorial with a flat-out lie:
People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.
Then, [...]

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Richard Thaler is a very smart guy. He’s one of the founders of Behavioral Economics — the folks who argue that people aren’t calculators. So when he jumped into the healthcare debate over the public option, I was eager to see his take on the debate.
Unfortunately, he turned off his behavioral economist brain and [...]

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It’s not surprising most cities’ green plans are giving poor communities of color the short end of the stick. Many cities have basically written off these communities. But there are also unique issues that make a truly just green plan hard to pull off.
For starters, it’s hard to help folks in low income communities [...]

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According to Green Cities, a report by Living Cities, a collaborative of large foundations and financial institutions, cities are trying hard to go green.
four out of five cities report that sustainability is among their top five priorities as articulated by the mayor. Over 75 percent of cities have, or will soon have, detailed plans on [...]

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If you’re a moderate or conservative, what do you get if you stop pretending that the massive government intervention into healthcare you’re promoting is a “free market” solution? You can build a pro-private sector health insurance system that actually works. Here’s how they do it in the Netherlands:
Health care in the Netherlands [...]

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