iEconomics?
Check out this clever takeoff of the Mac/PC ads by my friend Dan Ariely, in which he portrays standard economics as a PC and behavioral economics, my specialty, as an iMac.
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Wolverine Football and the Presidential Honeymoon
If President-elect Obama wants to know the challenges he can expect to contend with in his first 100 days of office, his “honeymoon period,” he need look no further than the state of Michigan. I’m not talking about what he can learn from Michigan about unemployment, where we are #1! I’m not talking about lessons…
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Medicare Costs and the Income Trap
Paying Doctors Less Is the Key to Better Coverage Conservatives propose to control healthcare costs by bringing the discipline of the free market to bear upon the healthcare system. Some progressive groups advocate controlling costs with a more interventionist plan. But neither approach, as far as I have seen, adequately confronts one of the biggest…
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Report from Last Week's World Economic Forum
Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in what the World Economic Forum founder, Klaus Schwab, described as the planet’s largest brainstorming session. Approximately 700 leading thinkers (and me, too) converged upon Dubai to discuss the greatest economic challenges facing the world, from the current economic crisis to future crises. People from 6 continents…
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Insane Soccer Dads and Vitriolic Presidential Campaigns
Here in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, things are getting even uglier, with the other side lobbing misleading verbal attacks while our side tries to remain above the fray. With this kind of negativity and distortion, it is hard to imagine the winning candidate being able to pull the country back together. But…
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Why Health Care Never Wins Elections
Despite Barack Obama’s recent surge in the polls, much could change between now and election day. While it looks like this election will be decided by the economy, unexpected events could dramatically change the campaign narrative. Terrorists could conduct an attack inside the US. Obama, despite his two years of steady poise, could say something…
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Presidential Debates Round Two and Three: Show Us That You Care
Barack Obama would like the next two debates to be about the economy. John McCain would like them to be about anything but the economy, preferably with plenty of discussion of 60’s radicals and crazy preachers. McCain won’t get his way, of course. We will hear discussions of the bailout, taxes, health care and the…
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Why (Your Candidate's Name Here) Will Win the Debate
This Friday, John McCain and Barack Obama will presumably (John McCain willing) square off in the first presidential debate of the season. For people like you, interested enough in politics to be reading this post, the outcome of the debate is already largely determined — your favorite candidate will not only win the debate, but…
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Bankers' Brains, Market Behavior
This week’s version of John McCain — the populist version — is blaming our current, um, situation on greed. (With such strong fundamentals in our economy, we couldn’t call it a crisis.) Last week’s John McCain, and the one from the week before that, and the week before that, and the one who has served…
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A Moose Killing, Oil Drilling Hockey Mom…Just Like Me?
With the nomination of Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate, the McCain campaign seems to hope that the election will hinge upon personality rather than policy, on candidates’ life narratives rather than their 15 point energy plans. Recognizing that they cannot win based on whose policies benefit the largest number of people — Republican health…