A few months ago, I wrote a series of posts about anomalies in the pricing of Citigroup common and preferred stock (see here for the final installment). At the time, Citi’s common stock traded at prices that appeared to be way too high relative to the preferred stock (which has since converted into common). Limits [...]
Archive for October, 2009
The GM (er, Motors Liquidation) Anomaly
Posted in Finance, tagged Arbitrage, Finance, GM on October 31, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The Costs of the Health Bills: Another Look
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, CBO, Health, Politics on October 30, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The Congressional Budget Office released a very helpful letter today that clarifies some of its thinking about the budget impacts of the health bills now pending in Congress. Most importantly, CBO offers a new metric for evaluating the health bills: how they affect the federal government’s budgetary commitment to health care. That’s a very useful [...]
The House Health Bill Costs Almost $1.3 Trillion
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, CBO, Health, Politics on October 30, 2009 | 18 Comments »
As I’ve noted in a series of posts, there is often great confusion about the cost of the health bill being considered by Congress. Yesterday, for example, many commentators were saying that the coverage expansions in the new House health bill would cost $894 billion over ten years, even though the actual cost is $1.055 [...]
Doesn’t the House Bill Fail the President’s $900 Billion Test?
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, CBO, Health, Politics on October 29, 2009 | 11 Comments »
This morning Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi released the latest version of the House health bill. And this afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary analysis of the budget impacts of the bill. One of the key findings of that analysis is that the coverage expansions in the bill would cost $1.055 [...]
GDP Growth Returns in Q3
Posted in Data, Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Data, GDP, Macroeconomics on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As expected, the economy grew at a healthy pace in the third quarter, expanding at a 3.5% annual pace according to this morning’s data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Among the highlights: Consumer spending grew at a 3.4% pace, the fastest since the first quarter of 2007. A substantial fraction of that growth reflects [...]
Yuppie 911 and the Financial Crisis
Posted in Finance, Teaching, tagged Finance, Risk on October 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
If you make an activity safer, people will take more risk. The inventions of seat belts, air bags, and anti-lock brakes, for example, have all inspired people to drive more aggressively. And if you put drivers in SUVs, rather than regular cars, they are more likely to hit the road during a snow storm. In [...]
COBRA: Adverse Selection in Action
Posted in Health, tagged Adverse Selection, Health, Insurance on October 26, 2009 | 8 Comments »
The November 2 Forbes suggests that health insurance under COBRA provides a clear example of adverse selection in action. COBRA is the law that allows workers who leave a job (either voluntarily or not) to continue participating in the health insurance they were getting from their employer. To do so, however, they have to pay [...]
The Warped Economics of Carry-On Luggage
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Airlines, Incentives, Tragedy of the Commons on October 23, 2009 | 14 Comments »
I just got home from a quick trip to Denver, where I spoke at a Concord Coalition event on our nation’s dire fiscal outlook. That’s a big, complex problem, but today I’d like to share some thoughts on an even more vexing problem: the warped economics of carry-on luggage. As you probably know, most major [...]
Your Mileage May Vary – Despair Edition
Posted in Economy, tagged Humor on October 22, 2009 | 1 Comment »
From the demotivational gurus at Despair.com, this seems like a natural follow-up to yesterday’s post: ht: Sita Slavov.
Your Mileage May Vary
Posted in Budget, Health, Politics, tagged Budget, CBO, Health on October 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the category of better late than never, I should highlight Lori Montgomery’s article in Monday’s Washington Post about how the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is evaluating the health bills now working their way through the Congress. The article focuses on Phil Ellis, a senior analyst who is helping lead CBO’s estimation efforts. Phil is [...]
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