Saturday Links – 21 March 2026

Capretta:  About 40 percent of total health spending  is for services that are amenable to consumer discretion in the sense that they are relatively routine, involve high volumes of patients, allow for a degree of choice of provider, and involve some choice of timing. 

Better at hacking than the world’s best hackers: AI.

Education: (HT: Arnold Kling)

Reading skills among US students [are] now at the lowest levels ever measured. One third can’t even read at a basic level. “They can’t write a sentence,” laments one frustrated teacher. “They don’t know what state they live in. They don’t know what region of the country they’re in. They have no background knowledge. Most of them don’t know who the president is.”

The social cost of “free” MRI scans.

Scientists determine the ideal amount of time to dunk an Oreo cookie in milk.