Here’s another important fact from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s recent survey of the employer health insurance market. As shown in the chart above, health insurance plans with high deductibles and a saving option (HDHP/SO) have been gaining market share rapidly. Only 1-in-25 enrollees were in such plans in 2006; today that figure is more than [...]
Archive for September, 2011
High-Deductible Health Plans Are Growing Rapidly
Posted in Health, tagged Health on September 30, 2011 | 3 Comments »
The Invisible Hand is Made of Delicious Invisible Meat
Posted in Life, Microeconomics, tagged Humor, Incentives, Tragedy of the Commons, TripAdvisor on September 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The incomparable xkcd on incentives, morals, and TripAdvisor: Here’s another favorite.
Taxes and Energy Policy
Posted in Budget, Energy, Environment, Politics, tagged Energy, Environment, Politics, Taxes on September 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Last week I had the opportunity to testify before two Ways and Means subcommittees–Select Revenue Measures and Oversight–about the way our tax system is used as a tool of energy policy. Here are my opening remarks. You can find my full testimony here. As you know, our tax system is desperately in need of reform. It’s needlessly complex, economically [...]
Health Reform and Skyrocketing Insurance Premiums
Posted in Health, tagged Health on September 27, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Family health insurance premiums surged 9% in 2011 according to new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s the fastest health insurance inflation since 2005: Insurance premiums (in red) thus outpaced both general inflation (gray) and worker earnings growth (blue) by a wide margin. That scary spike raises an obvious question: Is health insurance more [...]
Indebted Countries Come in Three Flavors
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Debt, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, United Kingdom on September 26, 2011 | 3 Comments »
The IMF’s latest Fiscal Monitor includes a colorful chart of who owns the debt of six countries with well-known debt concerns: The debt owned by foreign investors and foreign central banks are in red and yellow; the other colors represent debt owned domestically. Based on IMF’s accounting, the six countries come in three flavors: The “PIG” countries. Portugal, [...]
Groupon’s Revenue Measure Shrinks More Than 50%
Posted in Business, Technology, tagged Accounting, Business, Groupon, Internet on September 24, 2011 | 3 Comments »
About a month ago, I remarked on Groupon’s explosive revenue growth (and its equally impressive cost growth). The company revised its financial results yesterday, and the revenue picture looks less explosive. In the latest update of its S-1 registration statement, Groupon reported $393 million in Q2 revenues. That’s a remarkable figure for such a young company but a far [...]
Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Debt, Deficit on September 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
My latest column for the Christian Science Monitor argues that a slew of budget deadlines will drive policy action this Fall. Case in point, the potential for a government shutdown when the government’s fiscal year ends next week. I don’t think that’s likely, at least not yet, but such deadlines will be the big thing this [...]
Helicopter Ben Needs to Pick Up His Game
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Macroeconomics, Monetary Policy on September 18, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is often characterized as a inflation-monger. There’s just one problem with that criticism. As David Leonhardt demonstrates in the New York Times, when it comes to inflation, Bernanke is a piker compared to most of his predecessors:Inflation has averaged just 2.3% under his leadership (as officially measured), less than under [...]
The Latest Sovereign Debt Meme? Going Big
Posted in Budget, International, tagged Budget, Debt, Deficit, Europe on September 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The developed world is awash in sovereign debt. Greece stands on the precipice of painful (and inevitable) default. Italy and Spain struggle to convince markets that their debts are good. Portugal and Ireland hope to get in the lifeboat with Italy and Spain, rather than drown with Greece. And then there’s the United States. Much further from a sovereign crisis than many Euro nations, [...]
How Many Continents Are There?
Posted in Life on September 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I love a good video about measuring and counting: I am a splitter not a lumper, so nine strikes me as at least as reasonable as seven. And the geologists have a point too … ht: Sarah Cliff at the Washington Post.
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