For those of you who like Fantasy Football, here’s the good news: the new version
of the game for the forthcoming season has just gone live this week and
you can review the site at playthegame.
If you’re in the U.S. though, please think about spending a few minutes yelling at your political representatives about health-care reform, before you go get involved in this fantasy-thing, and we never see you again.
Quick thought about healthcare…no question the system is absurdly broken, but given how much of the mess can be (at least partly) attributed to oppressive government regulations, I’m not sure how letting them run the whole show will result in better, more efficient care. Calling the government “efficient” at anything…sans spending my money…is like calling Real Madrid frugal.
Zach, I think it is important to get 46 million uninsured Americans under some system of health care. I don’t think that Obama is shutting down the private insurers. He is just making sure there is a public option available to the most vulnerable segments of society. Plus, there is good evidence that insurers commit fraud everyday without giving any better benefits as they take advantage of the massive deregulation in the health care business. We know that a similar lack of oversight led to the banking crisis.
No offense, Zach, but you might dig a little deeper before you blame “oppressive government regulations” for the state of health care in the US. In fact I’d argue it’s the exact opposite – the lack of regulations – which has driven us to this point.
Of course I can’t change your mind, but do take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwX_soZ1GI
And here’s one more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31krugman.html
cheers,
Christian
No offense taken, it’s healthy for all us to have these discussions. I suppose my primary concern is that I don’t think the Constitution authorizes anything remotely close to a state sponsored health care system, although I freely admit that’s hardly been a deterrent for myriad other matters.
Regarding the banking industry, two major factors contributing to the recent problems were the Clinton administration directing Fannie/Freddie to EASE lending requirements so as to spur home-ownership (and certainly Bush and Co. didn’t help matters by keeping rates absurdly low for far too long) and the ridiculous implementation of Mark-to-Market accounting. See the link below for more on MTM.
http://www.ftportfolios.com/Commentary/EconomicResearch/2009/7/27/suspend_mark-to-market,_before_it_does_more_harm
Here’s another interesting article I came across:
http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html
Good points, Zach. Totally agree with you that the games played by the FASB have indeed hurt us, as you have pointed out so clearly. The health care area is a different sector. The point Peter Drucker used to make is that there are some things that should not be run for profit – why? because the mandate is to save lives, not maximize shareholder profits. And that’s where our industry of lobbyists has taken over our democracy.
Cheers!
Peggy Noonan can’t be taken too seriously, Zach. And we all know that the WSJ has lost its way after the Rupert Murdoch takeover. 🙂
I’ll definitely check out the fantasy football, though I think I’ll also have a go at that free betfred predictor – last season’s was alright, but I hear the new one’s supposed to be new and improved.