http://www.nathanielward.net Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:14:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.nathanielward.net/2009/12/what-im-reading-december-23rd/ http://www.nathanielward.net/2009/12/what-im-reading-december-23rd/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:44:19 +0000 Nathaniel Ward http://www.nathanielward.net/?p=568

Richard Epstein: Harry Reid Turns Insurance Into a Public Utility. “The argument seems to be that price controls alone can force out the waste and inefficiency that are posited to be the hallmark of private markets. By this twisted logic, rent control is the perfect path to efficient competitive markets.”

Creating Incentives for Learning. “Mr. Toby’s main proposal, then, is to require good grades and test scores from those seeking federal student loans. This requirement, he believes, would improve incentives for academic performance and mitigate the inevitable trade-off between widening access to college and maintaining educational standards.”

Exactly Why the Founders Divided the Legislative Branch. E.J. Dionne argues against checks and balances: “In a normal democracy, such majorities would work their will, a law would pass, and champagne corks would pop. But everyone must get it through their heads that thanks to the bizarre habits of the Senate, we are no longer a normal democracy.”

Debunking Conspiracy Theories. “Today no conspiracist publication or Web site wants for the outward flourishes of scholarship. The footnotes are compendious, the sources are seemingly authoritative. It is only when you get in amongst them that you discover what the footnotes actually refer to.”

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Obama Contradicts Himself on Health Care. “So the health-care status quo needs top-to-bottom reform, except for the parts that “you” happen to like. Government won’t interfere with patients and their physicians, considering that the new panel of experts who will make decisions intended to reduce tests and treatments doesn’t count as government. But Medicare shows that government involvement isn’t so bad, aside from the fact that spending is out of control—and that program needs top-to-bottom reform too.”

Another ‘Public Option.’ How government “competition” is wrecking the private student loan industry.

Market Rationing Isn’t Government Rationing. “Using the government’s coercive power to decide the price of something, or who ought to get it, is qualitatively different from the same outcome arising out of voluntary actions in the marketplace.”

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