It’s not clear how much economic development the federal Economic Development Administration, a division of the Commerce Department, actually produces. But the Commerce Department’s inspector general has some observations about the administration’s performance after a cyber attack that turned out to be bogus. “EDA’s persistent, mistaken beliefs resulted in an excessive response and ultimately…
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Does government spending really boost the economy? Does cutting government spending, or rather, reducing the growth of government spending, hurt the economy? Here is the answer to both questions, in one graph, from Britmouse (via Scott Sumner): Sumner then continues his observations to compare the British experience with that of the troubled nations of…
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The National Transportation Safety Board says it will be months before they fully determine why Asiana flight 214 crash landed at San Francisco on July 6. The crash also disturbed other federal security agencies, for a strange reason. Bob Clifford, an aviation attorney whose firm has handled a number of air disaster cases, told…
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Believe it or not, humans have had problems with debt for thousands of years – it’s not just a recent phenomenon! That’s a big reason why Reason’s interview with Nassim Taleb is so fascinating: Here is a very insightful excerpt from the interview: reason: Paul Krugman, one of your great friends or nemeses, just…
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UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and Aetna, another major insurer, recently abandoned California’s individual health insurance market. This ran as a business story but it’s really about Obamacare. The companies’ departure from the individual market is clearly a response to the Affordable Care Act, and that departure has already made it harder…
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The U.S. national debt hasn’t grown since May 19, 2013! It’s true! On May 16, 2013, the total public debt outstanding reached the statutory limit of $16.7 trillion, however a subsequent act of Congress had suspended the debt limit until May 19, 2013, by which it had grown to roughly $16.74 trillion. Since then…
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Calculating the cost of government is a difficult task but as a general rule the costs will always be higher than taxpayers imagine. A California case shows why this is so. Pension plans, including those in government, include contributions by the employer and the employee. The employee contribution of Susan Muranishi, an administrator in…
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Want to know some of the crazier things the U.S. government is spending money to achieve this year? The Independent Journal Review (no relation to the Independent Institute or the venerable Independent Review) just featured their list of the Top 25. Here’s a handful of the ones that really caught our imagination: $349,862 for…
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When something as big as Medicare makes decisions the consequences involve more than health care. For example, in April the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made a decision to increase funding to the private-sector Medicare Advantage program by $8 billion. That decision was worth billions to private health insurers, and as the…
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Whatever happened to the scary budget sequester? If you’re like most Americans, you probably haven’t noticed any real impact to your daily life from spending cuts that the U.S. government has actually implemented during the last three months. Which is probably a very different experience from what you might have expected given how loudly…
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