It’s early, but nothing like these drugs has existed before… In fact, much about the drugs remains shrouded in mystery. Researchers discovered by accident that exposing the brain to a natural hormone at levels never seen in nature elicited weight loss. They really don’t know why, or if the drugs may have any long-term side effects.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Wednesday Links
- Jeff Goldsmith does an about face: vertical integration in health care doesn’t work.
- Study: Which matters more for ER spending – price increases or upcoding? Next study should examine the IQ of the insurers who pay the ER fees.
- 99% of hospitals pharmacists report drug shortages, causing 85% to ration treatments and 84% to rely on different dosages. (STAT)
- Another cost of covid lockdowns: fewer stage 1 cancers were diagnosed and treated – leading to more stage 4 cancers and deaths. (WSJ)
- The next president of Argentina may be a libertarian.
- School Choice in Los Angeles: It works.
- Scott Sumner has the best explanation I have seen on why inflation is a monetary phenomenon – something Keynesians have been slow to accept.
Everyone Is Forgetting About GROWTH
Everyone outside the White House is worried about the national debt, which is expected to accelerate from 100% of GDP today to nearly 200% over the next 30 years. But the standard forecast from the Congressional Budget Office is predicated on the assumption of 1.7% annual economic growth. But that’s way below the 3.2% average real growth rate of the U.S. economy from 1950-2005.
To borrow a phrase from JFK, when he was running for president in 1960: “We can do bettah.”
Tuesday Links
- The national gender pay gap is 17%. Among White House political employees, it is 20%.
- Why are gas stations selling so many drugs?
- Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson got it wrong: there is no relationship- between the race of the doctor and the progress of the patient. (National Review)
- Can an AI robot substitute for a human mother? (WSJ)
- 23% of U.S. troops were characterized as obese during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1 in 10 are ineligible for service because of weight.