James Kwak, at Baseline Scenario, discussing Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan (W.W. Norton, 2009), by Kim Phillips-Fein: It also contains this gem for anyone who thinks the American people suddenly developed warm and fuzzy feelings about the Constitution in the past two years. Describing the 1934 [...]
South Carolina’s voting law requires a photo ID, typically a valid driver’s license. Getting a driver’s license requires showing a birth certificate. And: No one knows how many South Carolinians don’t have a birth certificate. One indicator may be a tally by the S.C. Election Commission, which shows 178,175 voters do not own a photo [...]
Matt Taibi in Rolling Stone on Bachmann Also, Al Gore in same mag. Krugmann’s speech at Cambridge. Wendel Potter, Huffington Post: Over the past several years, insurers have been implementing a strategic plan to “migrate” (their term) all of their policyholders out of traditional indemnity and managed care plans into so-called [...]
In Rolling Stone, his latest hit on Wall Stteet malfeasance: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?print=true
Next Tuesday I go to the hospital for a coronary catheterization. Below is a report from the Times on a protocol developed by Peter Pronovost, MD: The intensive care units at nearly every hospital in Michigan participated — 103 I.C.U.’s. What they had to do was use a five-point checklist to prevent infection when [...]
From James Fallows, writing in The Atlantic: For decades any “serious” approach to medical spending has had to cope with various tangled economic/technological/moral realities. This is a different kind of “market” from almost any other, as David Goldhill so vividly described in our magazine. You can shop around for houses or used cars, but you [...]