BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, Top Ten Myths of Amer.HealthCare

Submitted 9/10/09:


The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care
by
Sally Pipes

The 10 myths are: (1) Government health care is more efficient; (2) We are spending too much on healthcare; (3) Forty-six million Americans cannot get health care; (4) High drug prices drive up health care costs; (5) Importing drugs would reduce health care costs; (6) Universal coverage can be achieved by forcing everyone to buy insurance; (7) Government prevention programs reduce health care costs; (8) We need more government to insure poor Americans; (9) Health information technology is a silver bullet for reducing costs; and (10) Government-run health care systems in other countries are better and cheaper than America’s.

Some supporters of national health care legislation have criticized this 2008 book, but the 301 end notes/references suggest serious research. Some resources are the Census Bureau, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Congressional Budget Office, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of Management and Budget, university studies, the AMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Center for Disease Control, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, et al.

Myth #1 is surely apparent when one considers some recent snafus such as the Veterans Administration’s sending 1700-4000 letters to veterans that they have terminal ALS, the Social Security Administration’s sending 10,000 checks to deceased persons or 2200-4000 checks to prison inmates, recent SEC and FINRA errors, and Medicare’s and Medicaid’s waste, fraud, and abuse. A July 30, 2009, Associated Press release details the Medicare Fraud Strike Force’s recovery of $371 million in false Medicare claims in a dozen targeted cities. Perhaps this activity should be expanded before enacting a new government program. If reports that Medicare Part A will be insolvent in 8 years, where will we get $1 trillion (or even $900 billion) over 10 years for a new government program? Should Medicare’s insolvency be fixed first?

Myth #3 says there are 46 million Americans who cannot get health care. The 46 million include about 10 million non-citizens, 18 million who earn over $50,000 a year who refuse to purchase health insurance, and about 14 million who qualify for Medicaid and/or SCHIP for their children and who do not enroll themselves or their children. Some estimates bring down the 46 million Americans to around “8 million…chronically uninsured, and they really do need help.” Should the administration help those instead of enacting an expensive new government program?

Space prevents describing the other 8 myths, but they are all thought-provoking. As Congress doesn’t always read its bills, something like this probably goes unread, too.
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BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, The Post-American World

Submitted 9-1-09:


The Post-American World
by
Fareed Zakaria

This is not a new book (copyright 2008), but a picture of the President carrying it is circulating on the Internet, and its title is worrisome. Some think it is about the world after America’s existence. The author’s first sentence is it’s “not about the decline of America but rather about the rise of everyone else.”

A better title might have been more accurate, because it is a treatise describing the world’s developing nations’ economic growth and developing influences.
There is both admiration and criticism of the U. S. and its policies, but the bulk of the book is about China, India, and other developing economies and their increasing power on the world stage and how this affects America.

The author was born in India and emigrated to the U. S. in 1982. Another book of his, The Future of Freedom, may be more revealing, but this book does not denigrate capitalism or market-based economies. Indeed, he says: “Looking at dozens of countries over decades of development,… one finds that the pattern is strong—a market-based economy that achieves middle-income status tends, over the long run, toward liberal democracy. It may be,… the single most important and well-documented generalization in political science.” Maybe this vindicates the growing public worry about the increasing government control of our economy. Zakaria says America needs to focus on its economic decline by solving economic dysfunctions…[which] are the consequences of government policies….reforms could be enacted…to trim wasteful spending and subsidies, increase savings, expand science and technology training, secure pensions, create a workable immigration process, and achieve efficient energy use,” but our dysfunctional politics prevent it. He thinks these would be easier fixed than health care, but that we are too partisan, and averse to pain and compromise.

The last chapter contains his six guidelines for America’s role: 1. Choose priorities wisely; 2. Build broad rules, not narrow interests; 3. Be Bismarck not Britain; 4. Order a la carte; 5. Think asymmetrically; and 6. Legitimacy is power, and get rid of fear and loathing at home and abroad.
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BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, Global Economics

Submitted 8/26/09:

Global Economics
by
Craig Hovey and Gregory Rehmke

The full title is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Economics, and it is a useful book for those curious about outsourcing, tariffs, quotas, international trade, income inequality, money supply, GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and the like.
The President’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed last February, includes a section requiring iron and steel used on infrastructure projects be “Made in America.” This upset Canada, one of our largest trading partners, and it was on the North American Summit agenda recently. Not much about this has been covered by the media. However, the authors believe free trade is better for all countries’ economies and employees. They state: “…things would not improve a lot for unskilled Americans if we sealed the borders and kept all foreign workers and foreign products out….Despite all the worries about jobs and industries being lost to foreign competitors, …advances in technology—especially in the United States—have a much bigger impact on the economic landscape.”
Another important concept is “economic freedom,” composed of 10 categories, that claims “…in the 7 economically free countries, citizens enjoy twice the average income of countries less economically free.” The 2009 Index of Economic Freedom ranges from $40,253 per capita GDP in economically free countries to $3926 in less economically free. (Browse online for “Index of Economic Freedom.”)
It is also entertaining, as the authors insert humor and interesting tidbits, e.g. Amtrak’s Acela trains are made in Canada . Hovey has been a professor of international economics at Nazareth College in Rochester, and Rehmke has directed economic education programs for 25 years.
This paperback might be a useful textbook for high school economics classes or a home reference for explanations of economic terms, such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), WTO (World Trade Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund), etc., that one might hear or read in the news.
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BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, The End of Wall St As We Know It

Published 9/3/09, The Livingston County News, Geneseo, NY 14454.

The End of Wall Street as We Know It
by
Dave Kansas

This little 196 page paperback is jam-packed with easy-to-understand economic information about the 2008 financial crisis—what we need to know and how to survive it. It is a Wall Street Journal Guide by one of its former editors.
It includes 26 sidebars explaining things like derivatives, rating agencies, bank runs, Federal Reserve, Libor, past crises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FDIC, holding companies vs. investment companies, and regulation history. Also included are profiles of Alan Greenspan, Robert Schiller, Henry Paulson, Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke, and Warren Buffett.

Eight short chapters explain “risks” many entities took; the “financial wizardry” of derivatives that aren’t regulated; the warning signs (He calls them “canaries,” like those miners have used to warn about poisonous fumes.); the “tsunami” of 2008; the “new world order” needed for the unregulated portion of the financial world; what is now “safe” or not; “debt and destruction;” and “investment strategy” now for young earners, middle-aged, and those near or at retirement.

One wonders why the U.S. is spending so much when the crisis seems to have been caused by profligate spending of Americans, corporations, and the financial sector. Can government spend with immunity?

For those worried about foreign governments’ financing our borrowing, Kansas believes that China, for example, will continue financing us so we will continue purchasing their goods. Is it not paradoxical that 2/3 of our economy depends upon consumption by Americans, but over-spending and over-consumption contributed to the problems?

Kansas urges prudence and planning and very careful analysis of any new regulation. This writer wonders who is going to watch or regulate the regulators, like a Greek question: Who will guard the guardians?

The chapters on “safety” and “investment strategy” seem very worthwhile. The lack of an index, however, makes finding specific topics difficult.
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BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, House of Cards

Published 8/6/09, Livingston County News, Geneseo, NY 14454.

House of Cards
by
William D. Cohan

Sub-titled “A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street,” Cohan, a former Wall Street investment banker, chronicles in detail the history of Bear Stearns, founded in 1923 by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns, and Harold Mayer, which was the first financial entity in the “house of cards” to fall.
Its ending words say it all: “We all [messed] up. Government. Rating agencies. Wall Street. Commercial banks. Regulators. Investors. Everybody,” reflected Alan Schwartz, Bear Stearns CEO.

Esoteric in content, the best chapter is probably the Epilogue, titled “The Deluge,” which entails events after Bear Stearns was gone and Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy. [It] “…unleashed a global deluge of economic misery: the $125 billion bailout of insurer AIG; Merrill Lynch sale to Bank of America; Washington Mutual failure; near failures of Wachovia and National City Bank and at least 19 other financial institutions nationwide; conversion of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and American Express into bank holding companies to stave off their demise; and Citigroup’s near incapacitation, once the world’s biggest, most valuable, and most powerful global financial services firm.”

On November 20, 2008, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said, “Credit markets froze and banks reduced interbank lending,” which led to the famous (or infamous) $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) legislation last fall.

The machinations and personalities that Cohan explains are sometimes difficult to follow, and the lack of specific dates adds to reading difficulty, but, overall, the book is an interesting expose’ of Wall Street people and activities, rating agencies, financial regulators, and the government’s roles.
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BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, The Foreclosure of America

Published 6/18/09, Livingston County News, Geneseo, NY 14454.

The Foreclosure of America
By Adam Michaelson

It’s a scary title, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Its subtitle, however, is The Inside Story of the Rise and Fall of Countrywide Home Loans, the Mortgage Crisis, and the Default of the American Dream.

Written by the former senior vice president of marketing for Countrywide Financial, the author chronicles his role in generating more and more mortgages for the firm and its eventual demise. He also includes his opinions and suggestions for the causes of foreclosures and possible solutions to avoid another economic housing tsunami.

There is no elaboration about the bundled collateralized mortgage obligations that contributed to banking and financial toxic assets and other complicated issues. He, rather, explains how people were lured into McMansions, Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs,) and other exotic financial obligations. He also analyzes Americans’ materialism and the analogous corporate need for profits for companies and their shareholders.

The author portrays some lending activities as “small financial nuclear weapons, …with detonators set on varying times, which would eventually cause a cascading implosion of the worldwide economy.” Indeed, he says “fasten your seatbelts” for 2009, 2010, and 2011 when hundreds of billions of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) come due for resetting monthly mortgage payments."

There is also a fascinating courtroom scenario to establish “blame,” with a prosecuting attorney and a defense attorney arguing their respective positions, and the reader as the final judge.

Finally, the author includes 10 “What We Should Do Now” suggestions, the last one comprising a “Financial Responsibility” curriculum in schools. Perhaps, that should be Number 1 for all Americans.

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