What I'm reading

Commentaries, Books, Etc.

"The Unchecked Market Power of the American Health Care System"

Link to ProMarket article.

The United States had more than double the median per capita health care spending of other OECD countries, at $4,631 compared to $1,983 in 2000. Given the lower use of health care services across most measures, the higher expenditures in the US can only be explained by high prices, due to hospitals' monopoly power.

But, do the higher prices translate to higher quality? A 2018 study by the Commonwealth Fund compared the US to the wealthiest 11 OECD countries. Their findings: among the 11 countries, the US has the lowest life expectancy, the highest chronic disease burden, the highest number of hospitalizations from preventable causes, the highest rate of avoidable deaths—and the highest per capita expenditures.

"Globalization's Wrong Turn" by Danny Rodrik

Link to Foreign Affairs article.

Excerpt from the article: "Today’s woes have their roots in the 1990s, when policymakers set the world on its current, hyperglobalist path, requiring domestic economies to be put in the service of the world economy instead of the other way around. In trade, the transformation was signaled by the creation of the World Trade Organization, in 1995. The WTO not only made it harder for countries to shield themselves from international competition but also reached into policy areas that international trade rules had not previously touched: agriculture, services, intellectual property, industrial policy, and health and sanitary regulations. "

Amusing Ourselves to Death (great book by Neil Postman)

Our (rather old) commentary on Project Syndicate (Project Syndicate)

The innovation illusion (Yale University Press)

Are economies becoming more innovative? Do more "patents" lead to more innovative ways of doing things? In short, do we see more creative destruction here, and if not, what are the reasons? This excellent book, published by Yale University Press sheds light on these questions. It also feeds into our paper on the decline corporate risk-taking, and increased financialization: [SSRN LINK of OUR PAPER]

Today’s Rational Exuberance (Project Syndicate)

In this Project Syndicate commentary, Anatole Kaletsky argues that what many analysts still see as a temporary bubble, pumped up by artificial and unsustainable monetary stimulus, is maturing into a structural expansion of economic activity, profits, and employment that probably has many more years to run.

Today's monopolists are yesterday's startups: (Chicago Booth Review)

Chicago Booth Video

Youtube Video

No comment. The title says it all.

Harvard bankruptcy roundtable covers our work (Harvard Law)

Here we show that avoiding debt financing is not the only way managers can mitigate the adverse effects of strong creditors: they can also form more concentrated debt structures.

A way to own your social media data [Link]: (NY Times)