Like 19th century English coal, more efficient and cheap LED lights can mean people and businesses use it more because of the lower opportunity cost.
A Solution for Too Few Doctors: More Patience
Decreases in supply, increases in demand and legislative price ceilings are resulting in “network adequacy” problems for U.S. healthcare systems.
The Nudge Toward a Goldilocks Savings Rate
We need to raise the low U.S. savings rate with new incentives like a lottery on savings deposits because households and business investment need savings.
What Refrigerators Can Tell Us About Global Markets
In refrigerators in developing nations, we can see the impact of affluence on their diet and on supply and demand that will change worldwide food prices.
The Spillover from Refrigerators in China
The spread of refrigeration in China has positive and negative externalities that relate to household diets, greenhouse gases and transport and home waste.
Chart of the Week: The Rare Disease Spending Dilemma
Our Sunday Chart of the Week Since our chart looks at Medicaid spending on rare diseases, we better start with Medicaid. It is complicated. Yes, Medicaid targets the poor and has federal and state funding. However, varying from state to…
John Stuart Mill on Affordable Health Care
A child prodigy, 19th century economist John Stuart Mill said in his Autobiography that, “I have no remembrance of the time when I began Greek; I have been told that it was when I was three years old. My earliest…
John Maynard Keynes and the Generational Impact of Entitlements
Before seeing how we are benefiting unequally from entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, let’s start with some history. During 1934, with unemployment high and production low, British economist John Maynard Keynes was reported to have crumpled up a pile of…
Adam Smith and Traffic Lights
Located 30 miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the island of Nantucket has no traffic lights. Instead, drivers respond to stop signs, rotaries, and courtesy. More often than not, if a pedestrian, a walker, or a biker needs to cross the…
The Difference Between India's Stories and Statistics
There is a village in Southern India called Kadapakkam. It had been a home to farmers and fishermen whose thatched huts had no running water and no electrical appliances. At traditional tea shops located at the side of the local, narrow and potholed road, you could meet a friend. One 62…