Post-Modern Applied Economics: It’s the Error Term, Stupid. - Maxine Udall (girl economist) Maxine believes it’s time to refocus attention and discussion on the error term. It is often where much of the action is in our models. It is where unexpectedly catastrophic events dwell resulting in fat tails. It is where our animal spirits manifest and cause us to do the right thing or the wrong thing or the thing everyone else is doing rather than the self-interested, fully-informed rational thing. It is where God and miracles and chance dwell.
Short-term Private Payoffs, Long-term Social Costs - Maxine Udall (girl economist) The real health reform discussion, the one we should be having, is “What must we do to create a health system that is both efficient and fair?” The answer will almost certainly include relegating the private sector to markets where market forces or regulation are effective at aligning short-term private incentives and goals with long-term societal interests. If such markets are scarce or non-existent in health, then the private health sector will be of limited value.
What's So Bad About the Public Option? - Maxine Udall (girl economist) The public option would be an important first step toward correcting these permanently flawed, distorted, unfair and unethical markets. It would provide both an ethical and an efficient option to those without insurance and to those with inadequate insurance. If it crowds out an inefficient, unethical private sector, I fail to see the loss.
Health Reform: Is it Moral or Economic? - Maxine Udall (girl economist) ...we as a nation must begin and sustain intelligent, informed discourse aimed at answering Plato's question: How shall we (as a nation) live? One large part of that answer involves health and health care. Economics and ethics are both necessary to answer the question.
OMB Blog Director of OMB, Peter Orszag, blogs on health reform and health costs with more credibility than almost anyone else.
Health Impact Assessment Blog Interesting because it attempts to conceptualize health production as an expanded process with many causal factors, not all of them the obvious ones like medical care, nutrition, exercise, etc.
Mike Lawlor's Economics & Health Reform Blog Maxine thinks that Mike is a near-perfect boy economist because of his background in both economics and philosophy. He is always thoughtful, balanced, and theoretically sound.
History, Philosophy, Ethics, and Political Economy
How Do You Know? I was tempted to place this under aesthetics. A thoughtful blog by Ecrive that roams across a broad intellectual landscape, always with a new perspective.
Advice Unasked Nice thoughtful blog with political, economic, ethical, and philosophical insights worth reading.
Adam Smith's Lost Legacy A much-needed website devoted to restoring Smith's legacy as one of our finest moral philosophers.
David Coates: Answering Back David Coates has created a "living book" that will be of interest to all progressives.
David Coates' Blog David is one of Maxine's favorite political economists. He is Worrell Professor of Anglo-American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Calculated Risk: Doris "Tanta" Dungey An amazing woman who got it "right" when everyone else was still denying the bubble, the froth, and the impending disaster. Requiescat in pace, Tanta.
Calculated Risk Includes frequently updated list of FDIC problem banks
Political Blogs
TPMCafe: MiguelitoH2O Thought-provoking, sometimes hair-raising, well-written political, economic, and literary blog (that Maxine doesn't always agree with) by an outstanding political commentator.
Patience-Please Good blog for dog and horse lovers, creative writing lovers, music lovers, art lovers, and people who just want a quiet corner of the web where they can curl up for a good story, a good laugh, or a good cry.