tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75285892707196839292026-09-17T11:13:43.717-05:00Connecting Economics - Choices - LifeHal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.comBlogger199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-3485406291706321432026-09-17T11:03:53.067-05:002026-09-17T11:13:43.717-05:00

 Since a large majority of Americans think government should provide health care insurance for all -- In Searchlight’s polling, most respondents — 66 percent — said the government should provide health care to all Americans, regardless of age or income.  -- Opinion | This Is Why So Many Voters Hate Both Parties - The New York Timesand the main challenge to all healthcare in

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-64057144146580847072017-03-27T12:13:00.002-05:002017-03-27T12:35:11.492-05:00

For either a VAT (value added tax) or a BAT (border adjustment tax), the only way politically to get from here to there is: Gradually. Let the tax plan be to begin in 2018 at only 2% (or 4%), and be raised by 2% increments each year, until reaching the 20% that is typical (such as by import duties) for other nations, our trade competitors. This would allow even incorrect fears among importers

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-1077168233897580432017-01-05T10:18:00.000-06:002019-02-27T11:46:35.570-06:00

Graph via California Health Care Association Before the Affordable Care Act, health care costs and insurance expense rose every year, often sharply. As I wrote in 2010 here, people will pay whatever health care costs up to the limit of their ability to pay in order to get what they think is needed.   For much of care, having insurance makes price shopping feel beside the point.&nbsp

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-12745173881143416882014-02-11T10:45:00.001-06:002014-02-11T10:45:39.483-06:00

Imagine, if you are under the age of 40, that once, not really so long ago, one of the two major American political parties espoused the following ideals, and the other party did not believe in these ideals strongly at all. Free Enterprise -- That companies should operate in a market under the law without subsidies from government....  Without, for instance, subsidies for oil

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-75000299420647326382013-11-15T12:00:00.000-06:002013-11-15T12:16:18.525-06:00

(Originally published 11/12; Update, 11/15, at bottom) Just a quick post before other duties.  Some thoughts based on my 2 years of blogging on health care. President Clinton has opened a helpful topic, which from the short NPR news summary I will paraphrase as: Change the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and let people keep their old policies. I think this is actually a good idea. 

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-73099011911024496992013-10-13T08:30:00.000-05:002013-11-03T21:43:55.061-06:00

I've suddenly realized the behind-the-scenes situation making "tea party" Republicans in Congress so ardent to do-everything-now, why we hear "we can't wait any longer."   It really is crunch time for the Tea Party. You see, the problem is They've Got No Time Left. Every economic belief they are based on is becoming like sinking ground. And it's not

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-79727361716962673902013-09-30T13:49:00.002-05:002013-10-12T13:10:12.227-05:00

Well, it's happened. The oft-trumpeted Day of Doom, when China sells US Treasury Bonds, has arrived. Actually.... (Reuters) - China and Japan led an exodus from U.S. Treasuries in June after the first signals the U.S. central bank was preparing to wind back its stimulus, with data showing they accounted for almost all of a record $40.8 billion of net foreign selling of Treasuries.  The

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-51417524709940943292013-09-13T12:00:00.001-05:002013-10-12T13:11:12.440-05:00

James Fallows, whom I've read since I was something like 16 yrs. old it seems (and that is a long time ago), follows an immigrant reader into an interesting mistake  in yet another of too many bits in The Atlantic.  (Does anyone still read David Brooks for interest alone?  Even the best, hardest working columnist-for-life just wears on us when they don't go to the well

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-34354643899888985302013-05-14T10:04:00.000-05:002013-10-12T13:09:23.478-05:00

Europe's economy is crashing in such a way that even the least objective ideologues in Germany now must begin to feel uneasy. It is not only Greece, but now Spain also (the country that had budget surpluses before 2008) crashing into unambiguous economic depression.  Domestic demand continues to crumble rapidly in Spain, so that one wonders if the entire economy there might sag into social

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-7031454991762444022013-04-24T23:19:00.001-05:002013-04-24T23:19:38.115-05:00

After the electric news of 4-5 days ago that basically the entire idea of Rogoff/Reinhart that national debt levels above 90% retard real growth is just...well, let's say quite a stretch, as in bending over backwards, I found Cobert's treatment of the fracas below quite funny and even satisfying finally. James Hamilton suggests a more conventional worry -- interest rates will rise and that will

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-9350229866412829992012-11-07T22:31:00.001-06:002012-11-07T22:31:16.631-06:00

If you are like me, you got some sleep and promised yourself you'd see this speech...

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-64992599537209319472012-10-31T12:27:00.000-05:002012-10-31T12:32:38.431-05:00

One has to wonder whether any smart person really wants to be president during 2013-2016. I think that both men have had second thoughts, and at times shown real ambivalence about winning, which comes out as surprising political mistakes that could throw the election. We shouldn't be surprised. After all, when overall global savings looks set to exceed demand and investment -- global private

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-64457541479911832782012-09-13T11:40:00.000-05:002012-09-14T11:27:50.511-05:00

Do Americans realize how truly expensive houses have been? Reading typical headlines, you'd think house prices are now low. But they have only returned to the upper range of the 1990s (with inflation!), and are not cheap, not at all. We know millions failed to realize they could not afford the houses they bought and millions speculated. But we have an presumption that a majority of families

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-23572971381762862612012-05-01T11:59:00.000-05:002012-05-01T11:59:29.780-05:00

As efforts to contain economic damage stumble,  fail, around the world , it's time to revisit a post from November 2009.   I've updated with a few notes added in blue (below).  China's sustained effort to increase its exports through subsidies (via its currency peg/manipulation) -- which also raises the prices of American goods in China -- have greatly worsened devastating

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-16499734947738384172012-03-15T11:41:00.004-05:002012-03-15T12:35:25.296-05:00

They don't want us there. We don't want to be there, as a majority. They don't understand us well. We don't understand them well enough. Our popular analysis uses stereotypes that are false. Our intelligence analysis is likely to be simplistic also. It's none of our business how they choose to conduct their future. We've already accomplished our mission. Remaining there causes more and

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-13343082439444470572012-03-12T23:37:00.005-05:002012-03-30T14:12:47.053-05:00

As I covered the Dai-ichi (Fukushima) nuclear situation in detail on this blog, some long-time readers that followed those posts (the last of which I repost below), will find this PBS Newshour update quite interesting. The key issue -- how much radiation is "safe" -- is addressed by experts that have been working on exactly this question for quite a while. Their opinions in fact are

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-89655491330134084942012-02-16T13:00:00.001-06:002012-02-19T16:07:04.956-06:00

Like Franklin Roosevelt, President Obama presides over a nation in a crisis which is profound and lasting, and where progress is slow. But the weakness is deeper rooted, more substantial than many people realize. It won't be enough to have a housing bottom (especially where prices remain too high for new families to afford). It won't help to rely on exports as Europe begins to stagnate and

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-45423705528105482852012-02-10T10:07:00.004-06:002013-05-14T11:25:46.208-05:00

Very nice piece on Germany below indirectly tells us a lot about the seeming economic success of Germany. Germany, see, is heavily dependent on exports, as its own citizens are not willing to spend freely enough to consume as much as they produce. (In part this is maintained by keeping foreign goods artificially more expensive relative to wages in Germany than a free market would set them due

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-22763160592726027522012-01-24T22:41:00.000-06:002013-10-12T13:13:08.827-05:00

Do we want to be a people, one people? This is the fundamental question that most often divides our representatives -- how are we to be together. Loosely?  If all people have some evil in their hearts, then loosely would seem best. But if we are born innocent, and any evil we have is only learned, then we might be redeemed by a helping hand.   One might reach out to grab

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-79028132374286938522012-01-08T22:47:00.002-06:002012-01-08T23:04:30.994-06:00

It's such a pleasure to hear a truly sane Republican candidate I just had to post this video: Washington profoundly underestimates how deeply and broadly Americans want to end our endless interventions around the world. Americans don't like these military foreign adventures and these foreign entanglements. Americans do not believe in the false ideas of the think tanks. Average Americans are

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-7627169356216552602011-12-20T16:28:00.004-06:002011-12-20T17:15:15.662-06:00

A variety of important economic news of the last 2 months shows some hopeful possibilities and some increasing dangers to the world economy. As the holidays approach, let's quickly lay out the dangers and move on to the hopeful. Dangers: The Chinese land price bubble looks like it is beginning to burst, and much Chinese investment and economic activity has relied on this bubble. Investment

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-19007103633348014572011-12-08T19:59:00.001-06:002011-12-08T20:05:47.436-06:00

One thing about giving a dozen or more interviews where the same question comes up -- you get good at brevity.   As I've pointed out, we need more debt relief: The Coming Great Depression, and How to Avoid It.

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-7038264595052495242011-11-10T22:10:00.002-06:002011-12-13T21:32:18.878-06:00

As the first breezes of a gathering storm of great depression begins touching many shores, awareness of the driving forces is starting to spread.  For instance, in this link Ambrose Evans Pritchard nails our current situation -- we are in a global spiral into depression. This is a good time to reprise and refine views I've presented before.  You see,

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-26829539243087532082011-11-01T15:42:00.003-05:002012-01-27T14:38:52.386-06:00

After seeing tax proposals and much wrong analysis thereof in the media and blogs, I've taken time to summarize my ideas from this blog on how to change our tax system to boost American jobs and our economy. The key to protecting and enriching working American families is boosting our economy and thereby boosting wages.  Key to boosting the American economy is to put American

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7528589270719683929.post-9472757946805811422011-10-24T21:20:00.001-05:002011-10-26T13:22:51.866-05:00

(10/26, see updates near bottom) Forget the other debates, including the most recent one.  As of late October this is the debate (link below w/Charlie Rose) that really shows the main candidates as they are.... If there's one thing you can trust, it's that mainstream media excerpts from long programs, such as the recent Republican Presidential Debate, will reveal little about what the

Hal Horvathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10851897967853698214noreply@blogger.com0