Ezra Klein

This bit from Phil Longman’s review of Jon Cohn’s book seems germane to the question of whether low-cost, socialized systems can innovate: [This] system’s innovations have included the development of the first artificial kidney, the cardiac pacemaker, the first successful liver transplant, and the nicotine patch, plus many advanced prosthetic devices, including hydraulic knees and […]

Great post by Cactus on the medical innovation issue: most of the folks on the right who make this point will point with pride at the American military-industrial complex (to use Ike’s term). They will note that American military equipment is often the best there is… Anyway… why is it that a monopsony buyer of […]

For some reason, my iTunes is constantly quitting. I’ve tried upgrading both the program and the system software, but nothing seems to work. I keep sending the bug reports to Apple, but figured I should paste one here to see if anyone can pinpoint what’s going wrong. Any takers (report below the fold)?

Via Thoma, Robert Waldmann has a handy list of things Republicans can and cannot talk about. Staple it to your favorite GOP operative’s refrigerator today!

I very, very much agree with Ross on this: I’m extremely skeptical, though, that there’s actually anything significant to learn about gun policy from yesterday’s violence: Extreme, unpredictable events like this one seem like precisely the kind of thing that shouldn’t dictate lawmaking decisions (though of course they inevitably do). If there’s a case for […]

If folks aren’t following the debate between Jon Cohn and David Graetzer, they should check it out. Cohn is my fellow social democratic health-wonk-in-arms, while Graetzer is a Manhattan Institute libertarian type and so they, predictably, debating who gets better care, Americans or citizens of nations with universal systems. Graetzer has tried to focus the […]

“Family Research Council: We need more failed abstinence programs.” That, at least, is how Think progress characterizes this. The latest federal report on abstinence-only programs shows that they have had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.” Nevertheless, the conservative Family Research Council responds that “one logical conclusion is that to achieve the greatest effectiveness, […]

Good piece by pollster Mark Mellman on the end of the tax revolt era. “Earlier this month, 53 percent of respondents told Gallup the amount they paid in federal income tax was too high. Though still a majority, it represents a significant decline from the two-thirds who thought their taxes were too high in the […]