NYT on the Tea partiers

The New York Times is doing everything it can to discredit the Tea Party movement. Here it claims that Tea Party activists only joined because they were unemployed. Here Frank Rich portrays them all as racists. Instead of a substantive discussion of how we are going to afford this new health care system, we just get these attacks on the motives of the critics of the plan.

Problems in China

This discussion suggests that not everything is rosy in China. There are often reports of the number of scientists and math geniuses being produced by the Chinese educational system but apparently many of them can't find any jobs. I think China is headed for a fall. Their centrally planned economy is not all its cracked up to be. Artificially increasing the number of college graduates without regard to the market demand for them is an example of this. It's also a warning for us where politicians like Obama spouts out cliches about needing to increase the number of college graduates. College is not a magic cure-all anywhere. There are definitely other ways to gain marketable skills.

The Corrupt Fed

After reading about the structure of the Federal Reserve I wondered about the conflicts of interest inherent in a system where private banks are represented on the body that is supposed to regulate them. Joseph Stiglitz makes that point, calling it "a corrupt governing structure." Ron Paul and other libertarians have called for the ending of the Fed. Of course, he doesn't believe in having any central bank. I would say that even if you accepted the need for a central bank, the current federal system is definitely the wrong way to structure it. It's lead to a disastrous situation where bankers are bailed out but the economy is threatened with ruin.

Health Care in Argentina

Howard Fineman describes his experience with health care in Argentina. He was happy with his care which was much less expensive than what it would have cost in the US. Interestingly he points out that the Obama plan would do nothing to solve the critical issue of out of control costs in the US. He describes Obamacare as moving 30 million more people into "a wasteful system that doesn't have either the price-signaling power of a marketplace or the sweeping overview and control of a state-run bureaucracy." He hits the nail right on the head. The problem is our system is already over-regulated, and half government run which is partly why costs are skyrocketing. The current plan will probably make things worse. As long as people don't pay directly for their own care, there will be no market mechanism to keep prices down.