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Textbook examples of ‘moral hazard’ are not morally hazardous

I opened a copy of James Henderson’s 2012 Health Economics & Policy textbook today and saw a criticism of 3rd-party insurance payment illustrated by this example on page 7: Spending Somebody Else’s Money A Wall Street Journal article [by James P.

Posted in Health

Seed Corn Is Not Food & Bank Reserves Are Not Money.

Banks are merely financial intermediaries that don’t use money as a medium of exchange for buying anything that contributes to GDP.  If local banks save money at the central bank (the Fed in the US), it is merely the local

Posted in Macro

A parable of how to solve a financial crisis

 Lasse Lien posted a simple story about how a change in the money supply can reduce transactions costs and eliminate debt.  When the money supply increases, the circular flow of money tends to speed up. A rich tourist came to

Posted in Macro

A timeline of the big three US welfare programs: Health, Education, and Pensions.

In every welfare state, the most expensive social programs are education, pensions, and healthcare.  These three categories, plus national defense, will account for about 74% of total US government spending in 2015.*  Most people think of ‘welfare’ as assistance for

Posted in Public Finance

Hoarding causes recessions

A recession can either be caused by a lack of supply or a lack of demand.  A lack of supply could be caused by a drought reducing agricultural output or a war reducing the productive capacity to supply goods and

Posted in Macro

Why read Paul Krugman for macroeconomics?

I assign some Paul Krugman readings in my Macroeconomics class and because he is such a polarizing character, some people on both the right and the left seem to think he is just a blowhard.  If you are one of

Posted in Macro

“Rationing” is not a rational objection

There are two dictionary definitions of the verb ration in which one person directly affects the consumption of another. to supply something equitably. to control the amount an individual can use. The first definition means to give something for free and It would be odd to object

Posted in Health

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