Matthew Yglesias » Endgame

Jun 18th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

Endgame

You’d think the ongoing DC Monsoon would get congress worried about climate change, but I guess not:

— Public opinion in the 1930s was totally wrong.

— Tyler Cowen’s new book.

— Will seniors kill health reform?

— CAP’s Nina Hachigian responds to Chris Bowers on IMF funding.

— In the real world, I don’t have this kind of clout but it’s nice to play make-believe.

— Driving in low-income countries is really dangerous

Not sure I totally understand why you’d care what kind of cars a girl prefers.

Purple Line keeps marching forward as I march out of the office.

Comments
23

23 Responses to “Endgame”

bdbd Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
it’s raining in Philadelphia too, but the Jenkintown High School outdoor graduation ceremony continues as planned. Moxie!

WSJ today on intercity bus travel in the NE corridor

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124528126290225307.html
24AheadDotCom Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
- CAP might indeed be “the most influential independent organization in Obama’s nascent Washington.” And, that helps partly explain why we’re in such trouble. For the details, see my Center for American Progress backgrounder. Do a find for Podesta to see their lack of concern for American workers, including the middle class. Do a find for Fresno to see something specifically relating to MattY.

- In case you missed it yesterday, MattY favorite Rachel Maddow used a bogus quote to smear Rush Limbaugh. Fans of Wikipedia will enjoy the circular sourcing of that quote.

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rapier Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Next week the Treasury will borrow between $60 and $90 billion dollars. That is new borrowing that is. Not the rolling over of old debt. This in spite of the fact that it is getting, somewhat indirectly admittedly, $68 billion in returning TAPR money. Despite that fact that last week was a big tax pay periods because of the end of the quarter. Tax receipts were down 24% for the quarter YOY by the way.

There has been prodigious demand for all Treasury issues this year. Despite that longer term interest rates have risen relentlessly. Shorter term rates are now rising as well. That is because despite the huge demand is has not been enough to meet the huge supply. Despite the fact that the Fed has purchased $50 or so billion of longer dated Treasuries themselves. It is likely that the Treasury will have to borrow $50 billion a week during the upcoming quarter.

There is not enough money in the world to buy that supply and keep stocks and other financial instruments and some commodities rising at the same time. The debacle in the stock market in last years fourth quarter was coincident with the stupendous borrowings by the Treasury. Something is going to give here as well. Either interest rates will rise of various asset prices will fall.

Note that none of this has much to do with the real economy. Except the higher interest rates will discourage borrowing, especially for real estate. However there are damn few people who want to borrow anyway.

The question is not should Uncle Sam borrow more. The question is will he be able to. I know it sounds nonsensical to most but interest rates are set by the market. Sometimes governments cannot sell their bonds at all.
James Robertson Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Right, because we can draw inferences about climate from one season of weather. If that’s true, can I take the currently sub-normal temps in my area as proof that there’s no problem?

Or does only Matt get to make up facts on this basis?
Silver Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Fuck senior citizens.

I’m getting tired of their bullshit. If they don’t want to open the sandbox up for all of us to play in, then I’m fine with the idea of privatizing their medical care. Let them live in the hell the rest of us have to.
James Robertson Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
And when you’re a senior citizen faced with govt decisions like this one the NHS in the UK makes, what then? I guess blindness in one eye isn’t so bad, in the “you have to break some eggs…” line of thinking.
Duvall Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
What does the NHS have to do with health reform?
James Robertson Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
What does the NHS have to do with it? It’s one form of govt run health care. The administration wants to give us something similar. In any system where the bills go to a third party, whether that party is an insurance company or a govt agency, a desire to save money will be the end result – because the suddenly “free” nature of health care will drive demand up. Either prices skyrocket, or you get rationing. Since Obama claims that the point of this exercise is to save money, we are certain to get rationing. I personally don’t think there will be any monetary savings either.
cmholm Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
A Heritage Foundation post zeroing in on Matt is like the Junkers red baiting the Social Democrats while they slipped a check to the NSDAP.

Yeah, yeah, Godwin’s Law this, brah.
Duvall Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
The administration wants to give us something similar.

Which administration? Not the Obama administration.
nolaboyd Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Jim Bob, you dumb fuck: of all the health care systems in the industrialized world, Obama’s proposal resembles the NHS the least.

And rationing always always happens. The only question is whether is happens transparently and…wait for it…rationally.
DTM Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Not sure I totally understand why you’d care what kind of cars a girl prefers. [in reference to "I like them fast girls/ who like them fast cars."]

“Fast girls” means sexually promiscuous girls. And if you happen to have a fast car, I think that completes your desired explanation.
DTM Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 12:28 am
James Robertson appears unaware of the fact that people not getting something because they are unable to pay for it out of pocket would be a form of rationing.

Generally, all scarce goods are rationed in some way. Health care is no exception.
eric k Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 12:43 am
Robertson,

You repeatedly bring up horror stories about health care in the UK despite the fact that people repeatedly point out that the rest of the industrial world spends more on health care than the UK while still spending significantly less than us and every proposal on the table bears no resemblance to the UK (pick a country at random, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, South Korea, Singapore, you name it and the proposals are closer to them than they are the UK)

The only logical conclusion is you aren’t arguing in good faith. Either that or you lack any critical reasoning skills whatsoever, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case so we’re back to arguing in bad faith…
Max424 Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 4:41 am
A shout out to Matt from Chris Hayes on Keith Olbermann. Around 5:25.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#31435229
News Roundup - Seattle Transit Blog Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 7:02 am
[...] Headline from Bizarro Washington: Maryland transportation board raids road fund to pay for light rail. (H/T: Yglesias) [...]
joe from Lowell Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 9:26 am
James Robertson’s slavish recycling of NHS horror stories he reads on Hot Air is never going to gain traction, because the American public is perfectly aware of how much this happens in the United States.

Bureaucrats refusing treatment? Check. To save a little money? Check. No medical justification? Check.

Except it happens a lot more here – and that’s among people who have health insurance.

Do people like James Robertson not think Americans watch or read the news? You see these stories about people denied treatments by the health plan every day.
DTM Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 9:46 am
joe from Lowell,

To be fair, James recognizes that “[i]n any system where the bills go to a third party, whether that party is an insurance company or a govt agency, a desire to save money will be the end result.” So that is how he waves away stories about insurance companies in the U.S. denying claims–he doesn’t believe in ANY form of health insurance, public or private.

Again, the real problem is that he then doesn’t grapple with the scenario in which a person without insurance (either private or public) simply can’t afford to pay for needed health care, so is denied that health care by the provider. I guess in his mind this isn’t “rationing” of health care, but of course it is. As I noted above, there is no such thing as a scarce resource that isn’t rationed in some way.
serial catowner Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Yeah, that’s a real newsflash- people over 65 are not ‘hip’ and ‘with it’. Of course, Tim Noah isn’t exactly ‘with it’ either, as he puffs up the AMA opposition (coming from 1/6 of the nations practicing MDs) by describing it as the “House of Delegates”.

What we have seen so far is zero leadership from the Dems on health care reform. They have made no effort to educate people about the real factors involved. In fact, the whole exercise so far has born more resemblance to Michael Jackson appearing to walk forward while he actually moves backward.

Actually knowing some older people, what has surprised me is the ferocity of their interest in universal coverage when they themselves have nothing to gain.

Of course the right wing is going to try to target older people- they elected Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, fer gawdsake. Deal with it.
Evinfuilt Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 10:53 am
James Robertson appears unaware of the fact that people not getting something because they are unable to pay for it out of pocket would be a form of rationing.

No, he just believes that if you wanted to really get healthy you’d work harder and being richer.
mds Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Do people like James Robertson not think Americans watch or read the news?

Well, seniors do, but it’s often Fox News. Hence, my Medicare-enrolled parents are calling me up to tell me how Obama and the Democrats want to euthanize them to save money. Of course, it’s not like they were going to support anything that foreign-born Muslim socialist proposed anyway.

Seriously, going after Medicare reimbursement costs while the “free-market” Medicare Advantage is gobbling down a 20% premium in taxpayer dollars over regular Medicare is ridiculous. Not only have we seen zero leadership from the Dems on health care reform, we’ve seen them repeatedly embrace right-wing talking points, and hand them ready-made new ones. Sure, we won’t get a public option to cover the currently uninsured, but at least we’ll be able to start gutting Medicare in the name of fiscal responsibility, which has been the longterm goal of those who are so suddenly Medicare’s champions.
pseudonymous in nc Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Remember, James Robertson is defined by his selfishness, and the thought of Someone Else getting something that might just possibly be at his expense makes him sad. The only issues that vex James Robertson are ones that vex him personally, and if he’s all right, then everyone else can go swivel.

“We’re all in this together” is a phrase James Robertson will never, ever, utter.
Kenny B. Says:
June 19th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Right Winger:

Rationing?! Did you say rationing?! That’s terrifying! I won’t vote for anything that someone said had rationing in it! Bureaucrats won’t make MY healthcare decisions!

I’ll stick with only getting the bare minimum coverage that I need to survive, thank you very much. And if anyone’s going to deny my care, it’s going to be an insurance agent, because the private sector can deny care more efficiently than big government.

Matt Yglesias

Endgame

23 Responses to “Endgame”

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