As my colleague Robert Graboyes’ entire research agenda has shown, the focus on the provision of health-insurance coverage has distracted us from a more important health care goal: producing better health for more people at lower cost, year after year. The solution here is innovation. Nothing would affect prices and quality of health care as radically as revolutionary innovation, which we’ve seen in other fields, such as information technology. To encourage such innovation, we have to free health care supply from the many constraints imposed by federal and state governments (both blue and red) and the special interests they serve.
Steve Davies warns us to beware of the hubris of smart people.
When markets fall short of perfection, Paul [Krugman] cries for government to fix them. When government is an ongoing disaster, Paul prays for government to fix itself.
Antony Davies and James Harrigan bust five myths about trade. A slice:
Myth 4: Tariffs protect industries that are important to national security. It turns out that free trade itself is one of the best national security tools. The more people from two countries trade, the more they come to know and to rely on each other, and the less tolerant they become of bellicose moves by their respective governments.
Colin Grabow has yet more evidence that the cronyist Jones Act isn’t working.
George Selgin celebrates Walter Grinder’s 80th birthday.
Speaking of George Selgin, the second edition of his great monograph Less Than Zero is now available.
