What’s New
What’s Wrong with Planting More Trees?
Planting trees to sequester carbon and prevent carbon dioxide emissions has become very popular (whether it is accomplishing much or not). Now the New York Times reports that the effort to save the world is causing local ecological harm by bringing in non-native species.
April 2022 Health Care News
In this post you will find the latest topics from The Health Care News publication.
Why a Billionaire’s Tax Could Be Bad for You
The Biden administration is proposing a new tax on households worth more than $100 million. Tagged as a “billionaire tax,” the new levy would apply not just to ordinary income, but also to unrealized capital gains. If a wealthy person owns shares of stock and the stock is worth more today than when it was purchased, Biden wants the federal government to take 20 percent of the increase. So, what’s wrong with that?
Covid: Could We Have Saved More Lives?
According to a Goodman Institute study by David Henderson and Charles Hooper, studies suggest that there are at least 11 drugs that can substantially reduce mortality in patients who contract Covid-19. These drugs are widely used, safe, and convenient. Because they are generic, most of them cost $1. A few of them cost $5.
What’s Wrong with the Economy?
Inflation has been driven by an explosion of federal spending, which rose to 40% of GDP. Spending surged as the pandemic shutdown reduced employment and production during that period by an average of 7%. In this textbook case of inflation, $1.20 of income began chasing 93 cents of goods and services – a process greased by expansive monetary policy. That mismatch sent inflation to a 40-year high.
Did the Government Make us Fat?
Beginning around 1980, the federal government and public health agencies began demonizing meat and saturated fat as the major cause of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in the U.S. and around the world. They promoted a low-fat diet with increased consumption of carbohydrates instead. Obesity in the US has been steadily increasing ever since.
Sadly, these top-down public health campaigns served up a perfect nutritional storm for higher levels of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. And this was done while mounting, high-quality, peer-reviewed nutritional research suggested the basis for their advice was completely wrong.
Pro-Patient, Pro-Family, Pro-Free-Enterprise Health Reform
Two years ago, 81 think tanks and grass roots organizations signed onto Health Care Choices, a comprehensive reform of the health care system. This was a huge accomplishment – since the conservative think tanks had been at odds over health policy for almost three decades.
The most important innovation in our approach is this: We should begin by saying Obamacare has made health insurance unaffordable and the best doctors and hospitals inaccessible. In other words, we should go right to the heart of what the other side promised and didn’t deliver; and then pledge to do what they didn’t do by empowering individuals and letting markets work.
Don’t Worry about Greenland’s Melting Ice
Greenland ‘s ice mass is melting—but more slowly than it did a decade ago, and its level right now is about the same as in the 1930s. But little of this information reaches the media or even the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…
Marriage Pays Off, Especially with a Prenup
After just nine months, you’re eligible to collect future widow(er) Social Security benefits. Plus, after one year of marriage, you and your spouse are eligible to collect future spousal benefits. And if you stay married for 10 years, you’re eligible for divorced spousal and divorced widow(er) benefits.
Scott Burns on Kotlikoff’s New Book
His money magic has almost nothing to do with investments. Indeed, other than inflation-adjusted Treasury bonds, there are few references to investments in the entire book. Instead, his money magic has everything to do with regular and very personal decisions real people make.