Donald Berwick's Radical Agenda

May 12, 2010

President Obama’s nomination of Donald Berwick as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be getting more attention in the weeks to come, given his particularly radical agenda when it comes to health policy.

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Cameron Becomes New Prime Minister in Conservative-Liberal Coalition

May 11, 2010

Will it hold? “Mr Cameron, who becomes Britain’s youngest Prime Minister in almost 200 years, was finally given his chance to form a government after five days of extraordinary political wrangling ended in defeat for Gordon Brown – who was forced to admit that he would not be able to secure an improbable fourth term […]

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Obamacare's Latest Premium Hike: Compare and Contrast

May 11, 2010

[tweetmeme] Obama: Health Reform Already Benefiting Americans. “He said the bill has also put more power in the hands of patients and out of the hands of insurance companies. ‘For too long, we have been held hostage to an insurance industry that jacks up premiums and drops coverage as they please,’ Obama said. He added, […]

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Laffer's Napkin

May 11, 2010

[tweetmeme] The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn’t hold. They were massacred. Arab women stripped them of their tunics and their swords and lances. The soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two thousand years ago. I was here. Stumbled across this the […]

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A Note on Kagan From "That Person"

May 10, 2010

[tweetmeme] Well, who didn’t see that coming. On the left, Andrew Sullivan is demanding to know if Elena Kagan is gay, and on the right, the American Family Association and Americans for Truth are slapping a “no gays here” sign on the Supreme Court. By claiming “no lesbian is qualified to sit on the Supreme […]

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Greece and the Death Spiral of the Welfare State

May 10, 2010

Samuelson: “Virtually every advanced nation, including the United States, faces the same prospect. Aging populations have been promised huge health and retirement benefits, which countries haven’t fully covered with taxes. The reckoning has arrived in Greece, but it awaits most wealthy societies.”

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Elena Kagan Nominated to the Supreme Court

May 9, 2010

[tweetmeme] Conventional wisdom carries the day: the Supreme Court nominee is Elena Kagan, ensuring my future appearance on occasional public radio broadcasts. While certainly left of center, Kagan has a more moderate record than other potential nominees. She’s attracted the ire of Glenn Greenwald and the tepid support of the president’s liberal base. Issues like […]

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European Union Approves €750 Billion Bailout

May 9, 2010

“The European Union agreed an audacious €750 billion bailout plan in an effort to stanch a burgeoning sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece but now threatens the stability of financial markets world-wide.” Merkel buckles, and the dominoes fall.

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Obama to Nominate Kagan for Supreme Court Opening

May 9, 2010

NBC News has learned that President Obama intends to nominate Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court, to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens.

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Fat Fingers, Unemployment, and Greece

May 7, 2010

In this week’s edition of Coffee and Markets, we discuss the crazy fallout from a glitch on the stock market Thursday, the latest unemployment numbers, and what’s happening with the crisis in Greece.

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