The Reform of Health Care
by Dan Croak
The early Presidential campaigning season is replete with complaints, discussions, and proposals concerning the health care system, widely regarded as broken. It is true that health costs are rising faster than the inflation rate. But rising costs, even of "essential" products and services, such as food, health care, and national defense, do not necessarily demonstrate the existence of a problem.
Articles
Transforming the Power Grid into the Electranet
by Dan Croak
05.01.07 | Already half a million Americans are without power for at least two hours each day, and experts warn that unless the United States makes changes to its electrical grid, more and more Americans could be left in the dark.
Time to Double Down on Online Gambling
by Anna O'Leary
04.30.07 | If market expectations are any guide, the United States will likely end up allowing its citizens to gamble online. In the hours after a recent WTO ruling was announced, stocks in online gaming companies lifted. Investors clearly see the writing on the wall, even if the U.S. government does not.
Return to New Orleans
by Dan Croak
04.30.07 | Public housing residents of New Orleans remain scattered across the country. Many want to go home but returning to the same squalid and dangerous housing projects that were isolated cauldrons of dysfunction and pathology is neither just nor humane. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying to make things right but a lawsuit filed by the Advancement Project, a Washington-based civil rights organization, against federal, state and city officials is holding things up.
The Right to Work
by Dan Croak
04.29.07 | How are 17 states, 276 cities and towns (including the District of Columbia) and 433 companies of the Fortune 500 more advanced - daresay, more civilized - than the federal government? They all prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's about time Congress allowed the nation to catch up - and maybe it will, now that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been reintroduced in the House.
Rent Extraction
by Dan Croak
04.28.07 | Politicians often introduce legislation designed to scare wealthy industries into contributing to their campaigns. The process is called "rent extraction" and the bills introduced are alternatively called "milkers," "fetchers," or "cash cows."
Going the Way of the Polar Bear
by Devin Lavelle
01.04.07 | There is only one bear that will actively track and hunt humans. The polar bear tends to prefer fattier animals, though and the Americans who live in or travel to the Arctic tend to be the heartier sort, so they generally only go after humans when they are suffering from extreme hunger.
The Return of Big Tobacco
by Dan Croak
05.01.07 | The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will authorize the FDA to regulate tobacco. However, it will not help "prevent smoking" nor it will "control tobacco" favorably for public health. Phillip Morris strongly supports the legislation and the head of the FDA opposes it. Something is wrong here.
The Public Genome
by Dan Croak
04.30.07 | The Human Genome Project was a massive effort to determine the sequence of the human genome, now complete. What would be far more useful, however, is to know individual patients’ exact genomes.
It's not the uninsured, Stupid
by Dan Croak
04.27.07 | Today marks the beginning of Cover the Uninsured Week. Funded by a conglomeration of unions corporations and foundations the goal of this campaign is to provide health insurance to all of the estimated 47 million Americans who lack it.
Selling the Iraq War under false pretenses
by Dan Croak
08.17.07 | Dick Cheney sums up in 80 seconds exactly what resulted from our military actions in 2003-2007. If the administration knew this was going to happen, at the very least how could they betray the trust of the public by not giving us a fair opportunity to weigh the true costs?
Keep Them Fearful
by Anna O'Leary
05.01.07 | Jon Stewart analyzes American politicians in a serious interview with Bill Moyers.
Africa's Horn Ready to Blow
by Anna O'Leary
04.29.07 | Africa's most volatile region appears to be coming apart at the seams. New outbreaks of violence in Somalia and Ethiopia raise fears of a wider war and create a perfect haven for terrorist groups.
Thank You for Coming to New Orleans
by Rebecca Wells
02.25.07 | Bayous and swamps, oxbows and riverways. An abandoned Wal-Mart. A ruined car dealership. The lobby of Hotel Monteleone. Alcohol-slicked Pat O'Brien's bar. Bourbon Street filled with a battalion of police officers. Bacchus, Proteus, and Orpheus on St. Charles. No matter where in the Big Easy this tourist visited or what she saw, she heard the same message: "Thank you for coming to New Orleans."
Saudi Terror Attacks Foiled
by Anna O'Leary
04.30.07 | The Saudi Arabian authorities have announced the arrest of 172 people accused of plotting to attack a range of targets in the kingdom, including oil facilities and military bases inside and outside Saudi Arabia. The latest swoop against presumed al-Qaida-affiliated militants comes just over a year after an attempt to blow up the Abqaiq crude processing facility, which supplies almost 10% of the world's oil, was foiled on February 24th 2006.
Bring Climate Idealism Down to Earth
by Dan Croak
04.29.07 | The global cap and trade approach directed at achieving the rapid emissions reductions enshrined in the Kyoto protocol could be ineffective or even counterpoductive by substituting for more realistic approaches to the problem.
Farm Subsidies: The Dirty Truth
by Dan Croak
04.27.07 | Economists regularly argue against the heavy subsidies given to American farmers. However, the American public support the subsidies by a wide margin.
Markets
What is this?John Edwards will win the Democratic nomination