Archive for the ‘government spending’ Category
Containing health-care costs: Be bold
By: Randy Evans
The ink is barely dry on legislation to help plug a hole in the state’s Medicaid funding formula and state officials are already scrambling to find a way to fill another $390 million pending shortfall in the health-care program for 1.7 million low-income residents.
Ignorant does not equal stupid
By: Les Dunaway
For the past year or more, I’ve been struggling with the fact that many people believe that social programs can be expanded without limit because taxes can be raised, without limit, to support them. The question I keep asking myself and everyone who’ll talk about it is “How can we help these people to understand that simple arithmetic demonstrates the fallacy of their belief?”
Kill the Fed? – Then what?
By: Les Dunaway
The subject of the Federal Reserve has generated a lot of smoke, but little light. In my opinion, the Federal Reserve must be changed, a LOT.
However, it performs required functions not related to the creation of imaginary wealth which has caused such suffering. Those who shout ”Kill the Fed!” with no understanding of or consideration for those functions and their absolute necessity make the rest of us who share the belief that the Fed is a “clear and present danger” look like members of the tinfoil hat brigade. I resent that and I hope, somehow, all that energy can be channeled to solving the problem rather than just ranting.
There’s no question that change is needed. There is also no question that it will be a big, nasty job. It will take time – time to work out how and time to implement. In the meantime, there are immediate steps that can reduce the danger (below).
Part of the nastiness of the job comes from the need to, once and for all, drive a stake through the heart of Keynesianism. Read Milton Freidman’s Money Mischief: Episodes in Monetary History . If anyone wants to see Keynesianism in action take a look at Greece, Spain, Italy, … and read about how “austerity won’t work, we need to spend more to help growth” – how’s that working out?
A Opportunity To Excel
By: Les Dunaway
Have you ever seen a child, when they just really didn’t want to hear what you were telling them, put their fingers in their ears, shut their eyes and go “Na na na na….”? I expect we all have. It’s somewhere between cute and annoying when done by a child. In my family, growing up I could not have done that without consequences; my sister could have. I was the “older kid” and she was “the baby”. But even my sister, when she kept on too long, got a smack on the butt to let her know it was time to pay attention.
What do you call that behavior coming from “adults” and “leaders”? And when will the swat on the butt be administered? And by who?
