Group items tagged

This article is talking about how the result of the presidential election effect the health care. Mitt Romney will probably end the health care whereas Obama will absolutely keep it. Health care is a public good, it has positive externality and should be encouraged. However, the cost of providing health care is very high. According to the article, 'Affordable Care Act won't be fully in place until 2014'. Two candidates has different solutions. Obama choose to keep it, and Romney choose to end it due to the high cost. From this article we can see the limitation of government intervention of economy, and how different parties and people have different opinions.

Fans of Monopoly have voted to replace the iron with a cat-shaped playing piece in the popular board game. Following a month-long online poll, toy maker Hasbro said the feline design had beaten competition from a robot, helicopter, diamond ring and a guitar.The cat token received 31% of the total vote

This article talks about the rising tensions in the middle east and its effect on the price of oil in the world. As the middle east supplies most of the world with oil, the recent demonstrations in Libya and Egypt, and the sanctions on Iran are causing oil prices to rise. The threat of higher prices due to the fact that only a few countries control the limited oil supply in the world is causing increased pressure on the United States to release their oil supplies.

I like how you identified that all of this forces the U.S. to consider releasing their oil supplies. Some problems with this are that it is currently not possible to do so in the areas where oil is most abundant. After the B.P. oil spill, the current administration put a time ban on all off-shore drilling and new construction. If this ban were to be lifted, companies like B.P., Shell, and Marathon would begin constructing new refinement plants and drilling facilities immediately, which would significantly reduce the price of oil at home. When some people here this, their inclination is to say "the government has good reason to do this, look at what happened in the gulf, it is better to ere on the side of caution," but the sad thing is, these companies have put forth revised safety plans as well as contingency plans that have all been approved, but legally, they can do nothing. The companies own the land / water as well, which in my mind makes the fact that they are prohibited to build on land that they own that has never been part of a reserve or park seem a tad bit anti-constitutional, but until the piece of legislation is overturned, prices will continue to rise.

People in Detroit are arguing that supply side economists did not work in the past and have no reason to work right now either. Detroit is in deep trouble and they are wondering what it was that brought them into this trouble