Economist Arnold Kling points out the absurdity of the US government’s residential housing entities: Old consensus: we need Freddie and Fannie in order to make housing “affordable.” New consensus: we need them in order to “prevent further house price declines,” in other words, to make housing less affordable. A crazy world we Americans live in. [...]
I’m in that large minority of folks to whom this symbol means nothing. According to an article on Yahoo! Autos: Do you recognize the symbol here? It lights up in your instrument panel and looks like a U-shaped pictograph with treads and an exclamation point in the middle. Do you understand what it means now? [...]
I started this blog in July 2009. The first post of substance was about my mother, Marilyn Prater, who died in January 2008. Today is Mother’s Day in the US, so I thought I would highlight those words and images again. I think of Mom every day, and I’m prouder than ever of what she [...]
Hat tip: Chris Motes for posting this on his blog here.
Gary Becker, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, wrote an excellent piece on the recently-passed health care finance reform legislation. Yet when I was recently asked whether I prefer the present healthcare bill to no change in the health delivery system for a decade, I answered “no change”. [...] [...]
Recently I’ve read two good recent articles on Health Savings Accounts and their usefulness reducing health care costs, increasing health care quality, and helping employees take home more cash. When I was on the management team at a former company, we agonized about employees’ health care. Not just how (or whether) to absorb the astonishing [...]
