As The Yankees Go, So Goes The United States.

June 7, 2011

One of the great things about being a New York Yankees fan is that their games are always on TV. I catch almost as many ballgames living in Atlanta as I did before I left New York five years ago. Watching a Yankee game the other night, I realized that I wasn’t just watching a baseball game; I was watching a microcosm of the United States. Just watch a ballgame …

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A Risk Premium For ‘Riskless’ Debt

March 26, 2010

For decades, finance professors have taught students that the interest rate on U.S. Treasury obligations reflects the cost of money for “riskless” obligations. Other borrowers’ riskiness could be measured by how much more than the Treasury rate they were required to pay. It is time to revise the lesson plan. Our national finances have deteriorated to the point that many corporate obligations are trading at lower yields than Treasury bonds. …

Universal Coverage: A Bus Ticket To Omaha

December 22, 2009

Is the health care overhaul staggering through the Senate this week the most important social welfare legislation in a generation, as Democratic leaders claim? Or is it so compromised that the final product is not worth the agony, and the political risk, required to produce it? The bill that cleared its first crucial test vote in the wee hours Monday morning has become a make-or-break gamble for President Obama and …

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On Tap For Seniors: The Un-COLA

October 16, 2009

For decades, politicians have obliged senior citizens who pleaded for help because fixed incomes were not keeping up with the rising cost of living. Retirees should be in pretty good shape now that the cost of living is falling, but lawmakers are still eager to hand out goodies to this influential voting bloc. Which is why Washington is likely to soon send checks to Social Security recipients to make up …

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Much Debate, Little Dialogue

August 13, 2009

For months the White House and congressional Democrats have treated health care reform like a high school debate competition, emphasizing convenient facts and fanciful arguments in favor of a predetermined position. Now the other side is doing the same, and the party in power does not like it a bit. Democratic legislators, home for their August recess, are getting an earful from constituents who are alarmed about what the proposed …

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Why Public And Private Health Insurance Cannot Coexist

June 24, 2009

President Obama does not buy the argument that a government-run health insurance program would drive private insurers out of the business. He ought to think about Medicare. Since Medicare was enacted in 1965 to insure elderly Americans, comprehensive private insurance for that segment of the population has disappeared. There are plans that cover items that Medicare does not, and there are private insurers that are paid by the government to …

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Taxing Health Insurance Benefits

June 23, 2009

Being an employer of about 20 full-time staff in three states makes me look at health care reform differently than most people do. My dilemma: If Congress raises the cost of health benefits to me and to my employees, is it fair for me to insist that everyone be covered? Palisades Hudson currently pays the full health insurance cost for every full-time employee who wants it. If an employee chooses …

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Hurling Day And Health Care Reform

June 15, 2009

61,000,003 B.C. Thursday Tribe Elder: Today I, your eldest elder, am…(pause) Tribe Member: (whispering) You’re 72. Tribe Elder: …72 years old. I have lived long, and witnessed many wonders. But now, I am old, I am slow, and I get up 16 times in the middle of the night. I can no longer keep up with the herd. I straggle behind, attracting predators, endangering my brethren, and making us late …

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