By Maia Szalavitz via Naked Capitalism and cross posted from Evonomics; originally co-published at the Guardian and Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Why Inequality Predicts Homicide Rates Better Than Any Other Variable – research suggests that inequality raises the stakes of fights for status among men. The connection is so strong that, according to the World Bank, a simple measure of inequality predicts about half of the variance in murder rates...
Read More »Official identification in China and the US
Different approaches to official ID.RTSocial network profile to become official ID in China Travel & LeisureDriver Licenses From Nine States Won’t Be Valid IDs for Domestic Flights in 2018
Read More »The Language of a Dictatorship
Worth a discussion at the least: By Masha Gessen Gessen is the author of nine books, including “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. The New Yorker 23 December 17 Donald Trump has scored a legislative victory with staggering costs. The price of the tax bill has to be measured not only in the loss American society will face in the increase in inequality, in the impact on public health, and the growth of the deficit, but also in the...
Read More »December 14, 2012
Today is the fifth anniversary of the slaughter of the innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 20 children between the ages of 6 and seven years old were shot dead as well as six adults who tried to protect them. All because this country’s politicians believes there is nothing which can be done to prevent this from happening and are in the pockets of the NRA. Not a good day in the history of the United States. And still when these preventable...
Read More »A Race To Suppress Academic Freedom?
A Race To Suppress Academic Freedom? The race is between the two nations competing for global dominance, the US and China. This post is triggered by an unnamed editorial in today’s Washington Post (probably authored by Fred Hiatt) criticizing China for imposing ideological limits on Chinese universities. Since the recent party congress, 40 universities have set up centers for studyiing Xi Jinping Thought. 14 universities have come under attack for...
Read More »Freedom of Speech for Fascists? (An op-ed)
Freedom of Speech for Fascists? I just finished reading the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s profile of Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. I don’t know how accurate it is as a portrayal of Bray and his ideas, but it seems like a sober, fair-minded overview of the debate over anti-fascist tactics and freedom of speech. What the article doesn’t say, however, is that there are two very different bases for opposing public appearances by white...
Read More »Diane Coyle — ‘Free’ markets
The rhetoric of ‘free markets’ is misleading. I certainly agree with this last point, as does anybody who (like me) has spent some time as an economic regulator (the UK Competition Commission in my case). Modern economies are highly regulated, and that goes for the Anglo-Saxons as much as anyone else. The Enlightened Economist Free’ markets Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of...
Read More »Similar to “Alexander – Murray,” CMS Proposal Gives States Authority to Redefine ACA Minimum Benefits
I have been getting quite a few alerts on proposed changes happening behind the scenes with the ACA. I also found a couple of new places with some intelligent writers who have explained things in greater depth than what I knew. The CMS is proposing a rule allowing states greater authority in defining the ACA. This comes in addition to Trump’s EO. The new rule would give states greater flexibility in: – Defining the ACA’s minimum essential benefits to...
Read More »Cost Sharing Reductions and the Constitution
Republican Representatives who sued the Obama administration, Judge Rosemarry Collyer who decided they were right, Donald Trump and lawyers representing the Trump administration argue that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can not compensate insurance companies for the expence of cost sharing reductions (CSRs) for people with income under 250% of the poverty line who purchase silver plans on ACA exchanges. The argument is that...
Read More »New Bill to Restore the ACA CSR
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) “Unless they are replaced with something else temporarily, there will be chaos in this country and millions of Americans will be hurt.” Twelve Republicans and 12 Democrats signed on to the bill, which would continue ObamaCare’s insurer subsidies for two years and give states more flexibility to waive ObamaCare rules. Senator Alexander is talking about the impact of Trump canceling the CSR which pays...
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