John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler: Doubling Down on a Flawed Insurance Model 10 Life Lessons I Learned from Surviving My 20s On my 20th birthday, I got drunk and peed on some old ladies’ front lawn. A cop saw me and stopped me. Fortunately, I talked my way out of going to jail that night. I already had an arrest record, but he didn’t bother to check. My 20s started out with a bang. At the time, I was aimless. I was smart and audacious and arrogant and really annoying. Three days from now, I will be turning 30 years old. In our instant gratification culture, it’s easy to forget that most personal change does not occur as a single static event in time, but rather as a long, gradual evolution where we’re hardly aware of it as it’s happening. It’s only when we stop years or decades later and look back that we can notice all of the dramatic changes that have taken place. 1. When you are young, your greatest asset is not your talent, not your ideas, not your experience, but your time. 2. I’ve spent the majority of the last five years living in a number of different countries. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Economist's View: Ideas versus Discipline "This is just the latest chapter of a long saga": The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care, by Robert Reich: What we learned in August is something we've long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America's Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline. Obama and progressive supporters of health care were outmaneuvered in August -- not because the right had any better idea for solving the health care mess but because the rights' attack on the Democrats' idea was far more disciplined than was the Democrats' ability to sell it. I say the Democrats' "idea" but in fact there was no single idea. Obama never sent any detailed plan to Congress. This is just the latest chapter of a long saga. You want to know why the left has ideas and the right has discipline? August is coming to a close, and congressional recess is about over.
Game of Thrones | Fishfinger Creative Agency | Advertising | Branding | Design Here at Fishfinger we’re massive fans of Game of Thrones! When we were given the opportunity to create an infographic for it we couldn’t control the excitement. The infographic shows the chronology of the four main families (Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen) and the Night’s Watch over the last four seasons. Please note that this is live and up to date so it DOES contain spoilers right up to the most recent episode (update’s on this weeks episode will be made on Tuesday!). PS. Add this infographic to your blog or website 900px wide: <div style="width:900px;"><a href=" src=" alt="Game of Thrones Infographic" /><img src=" alt="Game of Thrones Infographic" /></a></div><br/><a href=" of Thrones Infographic</a> by <a href=" Creative Agency</a> 600px wide:
Summers on Health Economics In a speech last week, Larry Summers said: Without comprehensive healthcare reform, there is little prospect of convincing markets that the long-term growth in Federal debt is under control or of convincing businesses that the United States is the most competitive place for them to invest. This statement, while seemingly sensible to some laymen, is actually inconsistent with standard economic analysis, such as that offered by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO tells us that the healthcare bills being considered in Congress will increase rather than decrease health spending and so will hardly assure markets the Federal debt is under control. Which raises the question: Does the President's chief economic adviser have views on health policy that flatly contradict what most economists believe?
Eclectica | O tržištima kapitala i ostalom - Health Care Reform: No Silver Bullet for the Budget - washingtonpost.com "Health-care reform is entitlement reform" has become a mantra of the Obama administration. The idea is that Congress can add a massive health-care program this year -- covering the uninsured -- and use the same measures that pay for the health reform to fix the broader budget problems. If that sounds too good to be true, there's a reason. Expanding insurance to cover the 46 million Americans who are uninsured would probably cost more than $100 billion a year -- more than the federal government spends on education, training, employment and social services combined. It is an immense undertaking at a time when the budget is under terrible strain. Some argue that universal coverage would decrease costs by expanding the risk pool (bringing healthy young people into the system) and by decreasing emergency room costs, because more people would get care before their illnesses become acute. Unfortunately, though many ideas are tossed around, no one really knows how to slow that cost growth.
To save the world, don’t get a job at a charity; go work on Wall Street - Quartz Few people think of finance as an ethical career choice. Top undergraduates who want to “make a difference” are encouraged to forgo the allure of Wall Street and work in the charity sector. And many people in finance have a mid-career ethical crisis and switch to something fulfilling. The intentions may be good, but is it really the best way to make a difference? I used to think so, but while researching ethical career choice, I concluded that it’s in fact better to earn a lot of money and donate a good chunk of it to the most cost-effective charities—a path that I call “earning to give.” There are three considerations behind this. The second consideration is that “making a difference” requires doing something that wouldn’t have happened anyway. So it goes in the charity sector. The competition for finance jobs is even more fierce than for nonprofits, but if someone else gets the finance job instead of you, he or she would not likely donate as much to charity.