Author: Matthew Clemente

Is Obamacare “Now Beyond Rescue?”

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That was the proposition being debated on the Intelligence Squared squared podcast.

Moderated by ABC News’ John Donvan, the debate featured Dr. Scott Gottlieb (Practicing Physician & Former Deputy Commissioner, FDA) and Megan McArdle (Writer and Columnist, Bloomberg View) who argued for the motion; and Jonathan Chait (Political Commentator and Columnist, New York Magazine) Dr. Douglas Kamerow (Family Physician & Former Assistant Surgeon General), who argued against the motion.

Here is description of the debate:

With the disastrous launch of the HealthCare.gov website, critics of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” were given more fuel for the fire. Is this political hot potato’s inevitability once again at stake? And is the medical community really on board with the law, or resisting (rewriting?) it from the sidelines?

Economics of Demographics

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Economics of Demographics

Too often in recent years,  economic debates in the United States have focused on (often self-created) short-term crises rather than the big picture.  One such big picture issue is the economics of demographics.  According to conventional wisdom, an aging population is a recipe for financial shortfall. However, Fareed Zakaria GPS recently discussed a study that found that Japan’s aging population may be beneficial for its fiscal health.  

Here is how this “What In The World?” segment began: 

We were struck by some startling data this past week. Last year saw Japan’s population fall by 244,000 people – the largest natural decline in that country’s history. It’s a trend that’s getting worse. By 2060, Japan projects that its population will have fallen by a third; 40 percent of Japanese will be retirees. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. Imagine a United States where half the population is over the age of 65: Social Security would collapse, health care costs will explode.

So, we were surprised to see a headline in the latest edition of The New Scientis claiming “Japan’s aging population could actually be good news.”

How on earth is that possible? After all, China relaxed its “one-child” policy last month precisely so it could avoid the fate of Japan. And that fate, if you go by conventional wisdom, seems to be slowing growth, and leading to unsustainable debt. Why? Because our entire system is based on having enough young workers to pay for pensions and government services.

Well, according to The New Scientist, perhaps we’ve been looking at the wrong data. . . . 

“The Birth of the Minimum Wage”

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“The Birth of the Minimum Wage”

To my mind, one of the best podcasts is NPR’s Planet Money podcast.  Recently, the Planet Money team has been producing some great shows. The most recent episode discusses the creation of the minimum wage and seems to be the first in a series about the minimum wage.  

Here is a description of the show: 

For most of U.S. history, there was no minimum wage. A few times, politicians passed laws tiptoeing toward a minimum. But the Supreme Court struck those laws down.

On today’s show: how the U.S. finally got a minimum wage. It’s a story of exploding bakeries, a blue eagle, and a guy who may or may not have been drunk.

Remembering MLK

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If you have not heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech in full, make today the day you do so. It is a truly inspiring speech, steeped in American history and tradition. As a nerdy confession, there was a time that I would listen to the “I Have A Dream” speech before each of my law school exams.