economics
mikethemadbiologist | December 20, 2006At a recent conference (pdf), I heard Dr. Rebecca Roberts describe the economic cost of antibiotic resistant infections at Cook County's Stroger Hospital. In a nutshell, it's terrifying.
The average cost per patient at that hospital is $10,000. The cost of treating an antibiotic resistant infection excluding acute respiratory infections ('ARI')--this does not include the average cost of antibiotic sensitive infections--is $1,934. That is, of the $10,000 average cost, $1,934 goes to 'subsidize' the cost of antibiotic resistant infections. The $1,934 figure is the low estimate: the average…
mikethemadbiologist | December 19, 2006Thomas Geoghan has an excellent article about the need to raise taxes. He makes a very important point: how we tax ourselves defines who we are. Geoghan writes (italics mine):
Sociologists claim someone making $50,000 a year, or $25,000 a year believes: I can be like Gates or Soros. Or my kids will be.
It's burned into our brains that Americans believe this.
I have a question: In your own life, do you know anyone out there in a suburb with a mortgage who believes this? I sometimes go out to barbecues and parties with clients, and I think of "businessmen" and guys in sales and ask myself, "…
purepedantry | December 19, 2006I wrote before about how I think the NY trans-fat ban is scientifically supportable but not particularly the government's business. Here is interesting speculation in Free Exchange:
Banning trans fats in restaurants, but not in grocery stores, doesn't make sense. I guess the supermarket lobby is more powerful than the fast-food and donut lobby.
I'd guess that it has more to do with public choice theory than ardent lobbying. Since national food producers are unlikely to reformulate their entire line for the benefit of a few million New Yorkers, a trans-fat ban would sweep large categories…
mikethemadbiologist | December 18, 2006Jonah links to a recent paper in the Journal of Political Economy. Here's the summary (pdf here):
This study quantitatively assesses the effects of inflation through changes in the value of nominal assets. It documents nominal asset positions in the United States across sectors and groups of households and estimates the wealth redistribution caused by a moderate inflation episode. The main losers from inflation are rich, old households, the major bondholders in the economy. The main winners are young, middle-class households with fixed-rate mortgage debt. Besides transferring resources from…
mikethemadbiologist | December 17, 2006Well, we do it for narcotics. From Yahoo News:
International experts debated whether antibiotics merit a separate regulatory drug category at a World Congress held on December 11 and 12 at the Hyatt Regency Boston Hotel. "We proposed this drastic action because antibiotic resistance is undermining infectious disease treatment worldwide and many large pharmaceutical companies are leaving the antibiotic field," explains Stuart B. Levy, MD, a Tufts Medical School professor and president of APUA, the global public health organization convening the meeting. Pharmaceutical companies spend an…
purepedantry | December 5, 2006The Stern Report -- a report by Sir Nicholas Stern, head of Britain's economic advisory panel -- that came out last month urged action on climate change in terms of future economic loss. I reported on people like Richard Tol who took issue with Stern's numbers in terms of the costs and benefits of climate change abatement.
The Economist has a summary of Stern's critics culminating in the issue of how to value grandchildren. The issue has to do with how you discount money that you would recieve in the future. Money now is worth more than money in the future because you can do something with…
purepedantry | November 27, 2006I have a bunch of articles on politics here that I have been perusing.
Free Exchange has a post on the moral benefits of growth. One of them is that it is prerequisite to the creation of jobs that allow women to be equal. They also have a post from a bit back about Europe's emerging demographic issues with respect to paying for the welfare state.
Ronald Bailey from Reason argues that the alternative energy proposals other than solar are fine and good, but they will be insufficient to meet our energy needs of the next 100 years. Plenty of cheap solar is going to be necessary.
Roger Pielke…
mikethemadbiologist | November 21, 2006Some brilliant Republican solons from the great state of Missouri have released an official state report that argues that abortion has led to illegal immigration. The 'argument?'
Abortion has eliminated U.S. workers, leading to a need for illegal immigrants.
Clearly, these brilliant minds have never heard of the meat-packing industry. The meat-packing industry used to be unionized, and, consequently, virtually all of its workers were either legal residents or citizens. Then the unions were busted, resulting in crappy pay and dangerous conditions, and many people--rightfully so--did not…
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Many people took issue with my post about Milton Friedman's death. Actually I don't think they were taking issue with my post; most of them were taking issue with Milton Friedman's existence. Whatever. Everyone has their own heroes. While I remain puzzled by the vast distaste directed at someone whose fundamental assertion was that you should have the ability to make the important decisions in your life, it is not likely that the debate is resolvable.
However, several people took issue with economics as a science -- and organized system of theories and facts capable of making verifiable…
purepedantry | November 16, 2006Milton Friedman has passed:
Milton Friedman, the grandmaster of conservative economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward lesser government and greater reliance on free markets and individual responsibility, died today. He was 94 years old.
A spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation confirmed his death.
Conservative and liberal colleagues alike viewed Mr. Friedman as one of the 20th century's leading economic scholars, on a par with giants like John Maynard Keynes, Joseph A. Schumpeter and Paul Samuelson.
Flying the flag of economic…
purepedantry | November 16, 2006I have tried to show that the gender gap in the sciences is not the result of cognitive differences, but that begs the question about what else to which it can be attributed. It could be that it is the result of conscious or unconscious discriminatory behavior. However, it could also be the result of the personal and economic decisions of the women involved -- particularly with respect to having babies. If some women decide to leave their careers early or for long periods to have children, then this will affect their average representation among tenured faculty.
A recent NBER paper by…
mikethemadbiologist | November 15, 2006I like it like that. Webb writes dirty words in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. You know, words like "class" and "elites." Says Webb (italics mine):
The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved…
mikethemadbiologist | October 29, 2006A while ago, I described how I feel estranged from the internet Progressives:
Bloggers like Kos constantly remind people that the lefty blogosphere isn't liberal (sounds kinda like the DLC doesn't it?). Actually to say that the internet progressives don't stand for much of anything is unfair. It's just that what most of what the internet progressives stand for is what any sane, reality-based person should stand for.
I bring this up because Jerome a Paris, over at Daily Kos, asks "Is DailyKos a rightwing website?"
He then describes the typical response to two issues he regularly raises,…
mikethemadbiologist | October 29, 2006Recent estimates suggest that the dollar cost of the Iraq War and Occupation will be over two trillion dollars. The horrible irony is that, had Bush not fought this war--or very quickly declared democracy and 'cut and run'--the amount of money Bush would have added to the federal debt would have been substantially smaller (the debt would have increased, however). In other words, his stupid war/occupation undercut his stupid ecconomic policies. Maybe that's why conservatives are jumping ship...
mikethemadbiologist | October 26, 2006I have discussed the "search and destroy" strategy for controlling and reducing methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) before. Search-and-destroy involves the screening of every patient and hospital worker for MRSA.
Patients with MRSA are isolated to prevent spread to other patients. In the Netherlands, hospital workers with MRSA are sent home with pay, and are treated with muriopicin nasal drops (MRSA usually lives up your nose). In addition, the workers' family is screened along with any pets, and those that have MRSA are also treated. Because of this program, the…
purepedantry | October 24, 2006Edmund Phelps -- recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics -- defends the moral rightness and the economic wisdom of the capitalist system in this essay in the WSJ:
There are two economic systems in the West. Several nations--including the U.S., Canada and the U.K.--have a private-ownership system marked by great openness to the implementation of new commercial ideas coming from entrepreneurs, and by a pluralism of views among the financiers who select the ideas to nurture by providing the capital and incentives necessary for their development. Although much innovation comes from…
mikethemadbiologist | October 20, 2006A friend asked today, "Why is there no one seriously critiquing the Gates Foundation's priorities?" Given the influence that "Gates" has on the setting of public health priorities, as well as the massive sums spent, these priorities need to be critically examined. For example, I've heard on the grapevine that one reason the Ellison Fund left the area of global health is because Gates moved in--they simply couldn't compete. Unfortunately, Ellison had a lot of experience and a very different approach than does Gates, so certain approaches to public health have been closed off.
I know there…
mikethemadbiologist | October 14, 2006This is one way to deal with looming un- and underemployment. From the NY Times:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 12 (AP) -- A man who could not find steady work came up with a plan to make it through the next few years until he could collect Social Security: He robbed a bank, handed the money to a guard and waited for the police.
On Wednesday, the man, Timothy J. Bowers, told a judge that a three-year prison sentence would suit him, and the judge obliged.
"At my age, the jobs available to me are minimum-wage jobs," Mr. Bowers, who will turn 63 in a few weeks, told the judge, Angela White. "There is age…
mikethemadbiologist | September 13, 2006Granted, I've supported Paul Waldman's thesis that politics revolves around a personal narrative and not logical discussions of policy analysis is the right way to view things--depressing as that is. But after reading this post by Kos, I'm thoroughly discouraged. Kos writes:
The key is to find that negative value, and base the entire campaign to define the opponent around it. Then, every single issue that arises can be neatly slotted into that value, reinforcing it in the media and the voters' minds.
I think he might be right, but how the hell did we as a people get so collectively stupid…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2006Brad DeLong is one of those really smart people who I would never want to be really angry at me when the facts don't support me. Why? Because he writes bits like this:
There is a certain horrifying fascination in watching the right wing's minions and useful idiots in the press attempt to attack Paul Krugman on matters of economic substance. The Mickey Kauses, the Andrew Sullivans, the Donald Luskins, the Danny Okrents--all seem unarmed men in a battle of wits, or perhaps an air assault by a circular firing squad of flying attack monkeys.
Ouch. Another pissed off expert.