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Like many libertarians, I feel that small government is an eminently practical rule of thumb proven by hundreds (if not thousands) of years of observation. So when Rafe recently posted in response to a presentation that David Cameron made at TED, it got my dander up. Calling the small government philosophy,...

Things just got worse if you put your faith in the "consensus" about catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (AGW).  You'll recall that the disclosure of internal emails undermined confidence in both the surface temperature record and the peer-review process that qualifies research for inclusion into the...

The trials chronicled in Part I have a happy ending.  I eventually obtained an excellent individual plan from Assurant Health. I followed my own advice and got a high deductible plan that covers no primary care. I thought it would be worth comparing to the traditional PPO coverage I had previously. The...

Rick Bookstaber, author of “A Demon of Our Own Design” and Senior Policy Adviser at the SEC has hit the nail on the head as far as the bank reform goes – Breaking the Banks (via Infectious Greed): “It is not the case that the largest banks are the same as other banks, just bigger“ “The...

As you may recall, I previously posted about my recommendations for fixing health care (Part I, Part II, Part III). Recently, I had to navigate the current system and thought I'd share my experience in the context of those recommendations. You see, COBRA ran out on my health insurance from the last startup I...

Please watch the Zeitgeist Addendum, and RIP: Remix Manifesto Kafka gave us The Metamorphosis.  We have the power to realize our own humility.  Being wrong is irrelevant if you learn from your mistakes and prevent systemic risk from such errors.  How can we be so content with our wisdom if we...

As you may have heard, an unknown hacker breached the Hadley Climatic Research Centre and disclosed a large volume of email and documents, thus giving us a peek inside the sausage factory. First, let me say that the breach itself rather concerns me. We're talking about a government sponsored research...

(Back from Alex's European adventures) Michael Martin of Broken Symmetry with two incredibly insightful posts on Soros' theory of reflexivity, distinction between social and physical sciences, and the ability of markets to regulate us as well as themselves. 1. "Are markets flawed? Or is it...

Ever wish you could reinvent the entire systems of government you live under without starting a costly war, revolution or having to win an election?  No?  Well, Patri Friedman has (wondered, that is).  And so has a growing number of seasteaders, ordinary folks (and the occasional PayPal billionaire).  Or...

Having addressed the uninsured and doctor's visits, the next health care problem on my list is hospital spending. It represents the largest share health care costs, $696.5B in 2007 or roughly 32%. Now, it's worth repeating that I don't object to increased spending per se. It might be perfectly normal...

A superb discussion of the need and risks of financial innovation.  Evolution, complexity, simplicity, and why an equivalent of an FDA approval process may be just what the doctor ordered.  Unfortunately critical thinking is probably still required: “We are told, particularly in the U. S., that...

Via the indispensable Tyler Cowen, a new paper from Johnson and Fowler explores whether overconfidence is, in fact, adaptive. They show that it it is under some very reasonable assumptions.  They model competition for resources as a two-player game and then analyze the evolutionary dynamics of populations...

Now that we've solved the problem of the uninsured, it's time to move on to the problem of doctor's visits. Spending on physician and clinical services was $479B in 2007, 22% of total health care spending. Only hospital spending accounts for a larger share at 32% (I'll be addressing this category in a...

Declan McCullagh of CBSNews reports that a Department of Treasury analysis released under the Freedom of Information Act estimates that a cap and trade program would raise $100B to $200B a year in taxes. Those taxes come from us one way or another. Recall that my estimate of the cost to cover the uninsured...

Also must-read this Sunday is Michael Pollan's NY Times Op-Ed piece from Wednesday.  Nice cap to my week of ranting on the dismantling of rationality when it comes to lifestyle choices that directly impact one's health, here and...

If you do nothing else intellectual this Sunday, do these two things: (1) Read Tyler Cowen's NYTimes column on how the bestowing of political favors was at the heart of the financial crisis and how we're about to make the same mistake with health care. (2) Remember Norman Borlaug.  He is the scientist...

Yes, I've decided to wade into the health care waters again.  One of the problems with the current debate is that it confounds several distinct problems.  So I'm planning to briefly address each one individually in the hopes of achieving some clarity.  First up, the uninsured. Most of us don't want...

The old philosophical theory says that reason is conscious, can fit the world directly, is universal (we all think the same way), is dispassionate (emotions get in the way of reason), is literal (no metaphor or framing in reason), works by logic, is abstract (not physical) and functions to serve our...

I was listening today to a Fresh Air interview from a couple of weeks ago on the reasons for the high cost of health care: [audio:http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2009/07/20090727_fa_01.mp3] Highly informative and thought provoking. One thing that struck me was the discussion about how we...

Barbara Ehrenreich had an excellent article in yesterday's New York Times on the many ways that being poor can land you in trouble with the law. One striking example: In just the past few months, a growing number of cities have taken to ticketing and sometimes handcuffing teenagers found on the streets...

The following quotes are from a book describing a real set of events: [The incident] is an extraordinary example of what happens when you get... a dozen people with an average IQ of 160... working in a field in which they collectively have 250 years of experience... employing a ton of leverage. It's hard...

I just tweeted on a subject that I suspected would cause a stir, and so it has, I'm moving it here: RafeFurst: I strongly support a soda tax! RT @mobilediner: check it out:  a Soda Tax? http://amplify.com/u/dvl coelhobruno: @RafeFurst what about diet soda? Would it be exempt? RafeFurst: @coelhobruno no...

What's fascinating to me about this is not that it works so well and or that there might actually be support in the Obama administration for doing it on a national scale, but rather that there has not been a backlash against it yet.  What are the odds that something like this will actually get implemented?...

Thanks to a pointer from Sandeep Baliga over at Cheap Talk, I recently Kindled Matthew Alexander's How to Break a Terrorist. If this were a novel, it would be in the top 10% of thrillers I've read in the last 5 years.  But it's a true story. Alexander (a pseudonym) is an Air Force interrogator with a...