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Amanda Anna G

Obama: No 'sugarcoating' problems with health website - CNN.com - 0 views

  • Washington (CNN) -- An unscripted moment Monday summed up President Barack Obama's effort to downplay problems plaguing the government website used to sign up for required health insurance under his signature health care reforms.
  • In the same assured and upbeat manner, Obama also attempted to discuss the myriad problems of HealthCare.gov, the website for the 15% of Americans lacking health coverage to sign up for insurance.
  • "It's time for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hardworking middle class families are rooting for its success," Obama said of the health care law.
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  • "God only knows how much money they've spent, and it's a failure," McConnell said Sunday on the CBS program "Face the Nation." "You know, the government simply isn't going to be able to get this job done correctly."
  • Carney hinted that lingering problems in signing people up could result in relief, noting that the law makes clear that "if you do not have access to affordable health insurance, you will not have to pay a penalty for not having affordable health insurance."
  • He also repeated the President's assertion that high demand in the first weeks of the new exchanges contributed to the website problems, noting that the larger-than-expected response exposed existing "glitches and kinks."
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    This is a question about price elasticity, since something needs to be improved in the quality of the website so there will not be problems anymore, often resulting in a necessary price change. Since health insurance is seemed as necessary for many and hence the responsiveness is big, the demand might not change as much in a change in price of the website even tough there are problems at the website. If there will not be an improvement of the website and the price will increase, there might be a smaller change in the quantity demanded.
Marenne M

True Costs of So-called Cheap Food | Ellen Gustafson - 0 views

  • when you look at the prices of so-called "conventional" junk food compared with local, organic fruits and veggies, on a calorie per dollar basis, the junk often wins.
  • Many people assume that it's the produce or organic foods that "cost more" than highly processed, shelf-stable ubiquitous and cheap junk food, but what if the price tags that we see don't tell the whole story?
  • hich requires acres of corn fields, seeds, gallons of water, gas for heavy machinery, pounds of fertilizer and sprays of pesticides, and government subsidies.
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  • give them antibiotics, deal with their waste, transport them to slaughter, power the slaughter facility, refrigerate the ground meat and then cook it
  • processed wheat bun and condiments.
  • so efficient that all of those costs amortize over tons of ground beef and fixings to make a really cheap burger, or are there parts of that whole list of "costs" that don't actually show up in the price of our fast food burgers?
  • Examples of costs not currently factored into our food supply include the environmental outcomes of chemically-intensive and petroleum-intensive agriculture, costs for soil erosion, real water and irrigation costs, pesticide and waste runoff that creates dead zones in our waterways (like the "New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico" that stems from nitrogen runoff from our Corn Belt) and then affects the livelihoods of fishermen and shrimp farmers in the Gulf region.
  • Hidden health costs like our global obesity epidemic and the food-related public health issues of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are certainly not included in the cost of your fast food meal.
  • unpaid externalities like low wages for food workers that often mean government subsidies like food assistance, which is what over 50 percent of fast food worker families are getting
  • "value" and "low prices" of cheap food that we see at the cash register, are not the whole story
  • We are paying today in our health and our taxes and our children
  • will be paying tomorrow with a degraded environment, dirty water, decimated communities and jobs, and denigrated health.
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    This article describes how processed food and fast food have many negative externalities which in the end makes them cost more than organic foods which are more expensive in the stores. Processed foods may be cheaper than organic food, however the pollution during the process of producing the food, the health problems involved and the low wages which are unpaid for are all consequences which in the end will make these foods cost more.
Marenne M

Ebola Brings West Africa Economic Development to Screeching Halt - 0 views

  • United Nations Development Program finds the Ebola epidemic is dramatically setting back prospects for economic development in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
  • impact of Ebola has caused a breakdown in trust between these governments and their people.
  • “For instance, Liberia is going to record its first negative growth trend in 2014, which we estimate to be something as high as minus 1.8 percent negative growth, which is very serious,"
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  • fragility of the countries' health systems, a lack of health care workers, and cultural practices that often accelerate the spread of Ebola.
  • Ebola crisis in West Africa has resulted in job losses, rising food prices, and agricultural disruption.
  • harp drops in the use of health and education services are likely to increase poverty, child and maternal mortality, and facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, particularly for the rural poor.
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    This article describes the impact of the Ebola virus on the economic development in Western Africa. The lack in health infrastructure has not only lead to negative economic growth, however it has also led to the decreased use of education and healthcare services, increased job losses, rising food prices, agricultural disruption, increased poverty, increased child and maternal mortality, and increased the spread of HIV/AIDS. The initially poor infrastructure in Western Africa has led to negative development.
John B

Venezuela businesses brace for more price controls - 0 views

  • Jorge Botti, president of Fedecamaras, said the Law for Fair Costs and Prices will spook investors looking for wider profit margins and cause shortages of basic goods because makers of numerous products will likely scale back production.
  • He said sweeping price regulations applied to goods and services in every area of Venezuela’s economy will inevitably hurt businesses already struggling with socialist-orientated policies established by President Hugo Chavez.
  • While price controls already exist for some basic foods such as cooking oil and rice, the law taking effect Tuesday will extend them to a wider range of goods and give the government more enforcement authority.
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  • Officials will initially focus on setting price controls for food, personal hygiene and home cleaning products, construction materials, automobile parts, medicines and health care services before moving on to other areas of the economy, Granadillo said.
  • Luis Vicente Leon, director of the Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis, which tracks the availability of basic goods and consumer prices, predicted the law won’t tame inflation and cause shortages of some goods.
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    This article is about trying to bring down the inflation by imposing price controls for food, personal hygiene, home cleaning products, construction materials, automobile parts, medicines and health care services. I personally did not like this article since there were very little explanation of why things would occur. It was just stated one person thinks this will be a good idea, and another person thinks it is a bad idea. Nothing about why they think so.
Dina B

How facing a scarcity - of cash, time, even play - can reset the way we think - 0 views

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    This is an interesting article that talks about how scarcity can really badger with people's mind. It also talks about how it makes us as people, focus. I think this is because we need scarcity to be able to achieve our goals to make the resources we want easier for us to get. This article mentions the phycological research done by Prof. Shafir collaborating with an economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan to write ' Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much '. It is an interesting read.
Mariam P

Childhood asthma "admissions down" after smoking ban - 3 views

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    This article talks about how the number of children submitted to hospital with asthma has decreased by 12% after smoking bans were put in place. This shows that the externality created by smoking is negative, it does not only affect the individual but the society as well therefore the social costs are greater than the private benefits. It shows how government intervention helps reduce the negative externalities.
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    The article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21067532 This article talks about how the "number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma" has decreased by 12% in the first year after the ban on smoking in public places. It is also thought that people are opting for smoke - free homes as well, further reducing the negative externalities of smoking.
Dina B

' The NHS must be preserved from commercial interests' - 1 views

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    This article, written by Stephen Hawking, talks about how the NHS (british heath care paid for by the government) is a great public good and should not be made private and given a charge. He talks about his personal experience.
Samuel Choi

The Return of the Supply Side - 5 views

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    This is a very interesting article because it presents a well-known health care reform in the context of a supply-side policy. The article is about how Republicans have been blaming Obamacare for having negative supply-side effects on the economy and the labour force by reserving budgets for subsidising the system.
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    This article discusses the return of the supply side policies..
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    Republicans believed that supply rather than demand was to be blamed for the economy's state. However, there has been clear evidence that the job market was held back due to low demand. The article then starts to delve int Obamacare and how it had negative supply-side effects on the economy.
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    Obamacare is nothing new - it has been debated about for months, if not years, in one shape or form. This problem with Obamacare is that it has negative supply-side effects. These effects were offset by a half, with the presence of Medicaid, but now that the subsidies for health care have shrunken, the marginal tax rate would rise, thus discouraging people to find work and keep working. Politicians are pushing for supply-side reforms, but the Congress isn't budging due to the possibility that Obamacare, an expensive and time-consuming venture, might be scrapped.
Zuzanna G

do \"sin taxes\" work? - 0 views

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    This is a very interesting criticism of taxes imposed on things that affect our health negatively posted by Adam Smith institute. As these particular taxes raise many controversies, I think it is worth reading.
Amanda Anna G

Air pollution a leading cause of cancer - U.N. agency | Reuters - 0 views

  • The air we breathe is laced with cancer-causing substances and is being officially classified as carcinogenic to humans, the World Health Organization's cancer agency said on Thursday.
  • Air pollution, mostly caused by transport, power generation, industrial or agricultural emissions and residential heating and cooking, is already known to raise risks for a wide range of illnesses including respiratory and heart diseases.
  • Research suggests that exposure levels have risen significantly in some parts of the world, particularly countries with large populations going through rapid industrialization, such as China.
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    This article relates to externalities of production, since air pollution caused by industries and transport emissions is classified to be carcinogenic to humans and raises the risk for illness. The harmful effect the industries make, causes a negative externality upon the third party- the society breathing in polluted air, who indirectly receives an extra cost by the pollution.
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    This article states that air pollution is the main cause of cancer. In terms of economics, this means that it is an external cost of production received in consumption - as the process of recovering from cancer is very costly.
Aleksi B

Cigarette taxes revenues and elasticity of demand » Bastiat's Bastions - 2 views

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    The article talks about the fact of how cigarette taxes are increasing due to the elasticity of demand
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    Very interesting article Aleksi however I believe the taxes on cigarettes are so high also because it is a product which affects the consumer's health negatively
Amanda Anna G

The trade-offs of Obamacare's preexisting condition coverage - latimes.com - 0 views

  • The trade-offs of Obamacare's preexisting condition coverage
  • Polls have consistently shown that even though the public opposes Obamacare, people like some of its most significant provisions. That's particularly true of the requirement that insurers ignore preexisting conditions when signing up customers for coverage. Yet that one provision, also known as guaranteed issue, is responsible for trade-offs that people bitterly oppose.
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    The "Obamacare" has faced public opposes, but some people like some of its most significant provisions. The guaranteed issue is responsible for trade-offs that people bitterly oppose. 
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