MORE ARTICLES
Why the secrecy? Pioneer Calls for Open Meetings Dealing with Steward’s Impact on Patient Care.April 16, 2024 - 1:59 pm
Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free MarketsApril 16, 2024 - 12:34 pm
39th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky for National Poetry MonthApril 10, 2024 - 12:16 pm
A Practically 100% Guaranteed Free RideApril 9, 2024 - 1:21 pm
Posting Patient Prices: Transparency Cure for Hospital Blank ChecksApril 9, 2024 - 11:51 am
Pioneer Institute Statement on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ March Tax Revenue CollectionsApril 4, 2024 - 3:34 pm
U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Hilary Crow on K-12 Civics EducationApril 3, 2024 - 12:08 pm
Constitutional Property Taking: Exclusionary Zoning’s Costs to Owners and SocietyApril 2, 2024 - 10:54 am
Mayor Wu’s Commercial Property Tax Proposal: A Solution or a Snuff?April 2, 2024 - 10:19 am
Transformative Medical Therapy Will Require New Cost-Benefit and Pricing ModelsMarch 28, 2024 - 10:01 am
Stop floating – start swimming
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byMonica Brady-Meyerov has an interesting report on WBUR. Seems the state is thinking about pulling up stakes on its Race to the Top application. The submission deadline of June 1 is coming up fast. It’s Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester who floats the bad news. “We are full speed ahead working toward a submission,” Chester said, “but we are doing a calculus as to whether or not the competition is stacked against Massachusetts or whether or not it’s a level playing field.” Competition stacked? Not a level playing field? Not sure what that means, but there are two things the Ed Commish seems to want movement on: Chester says it’s “maddening” that in the first round of the grant competition the […]
Best (?) of Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byOn Tuesday, The Boston Globe published its annual Best of Massachusetts Business list. This is of the genre of U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, which is to say more circulation-promotion than journalism. The Globe did explain its methodology and some readers may find something useful in it. What I gleaned is based on a recent conversation with Chris Bertelsen of Aviance Capital Management, a highly respected financial analyst. Chris noted that American companies are currently positioned to do very well. The rub is that opportunity knocks not mainly in the United States in its current economic condition, but in rising economies including (but not confined to) Brazil and India. (He interestingly has doubts about China.) The Globe confined […]
Unintended Consequences?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Healthcare, News /byThe Wall Street Journal reports today that the recently passed health care bill will soon negatively hit brokers’ bottom lines. This is due to regulation of insurers’ medical loss ratio (the amount of the health care premium dollar that goes to paying claims). I don’t personally like the MLR requirements in the bill as I think they can be easily gamed and they don’t really get at the heart of growing health care costs. That being said, if this requirement encourages insurers to pay brokers a fixed dollar amount (as opposed to a % on the premium) then it’s one of the unintended consequences I’m happy about. Don’t get me wrong, there are some brokers who are doing really good […]
Advice to BU grads as they go into the world
/2 Comments/in Blog, News /byIt’s commencement time in Boston, which means a stream of events with caps bobbing and gowns and parents waving. Yesterday was a beautiful day for the Boston University commencement with Attorney General Eric Holder. After the center-ring event, a number of schools have their own convocation events. Here are remarks I made at the convocation for the University Professors Program at Boston University. UNI is a really unique place to get a degree, something like the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in its interdisciplinary approach and unabashed elitism in restrictions on access. (God knows why they let me in.) A few segments worth highlighting: I wish you lots of success, wealth and well-being. Often these occasions […]
When will we go cashless on the Turnpike?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byFrom Bob Poole is an update on all the toll roads migrating to cashless payments: The conversion of toll roads to all-electronic/no-cash tolling seems to be accelerating. I’m drawing on several recent articles from Tollroadsnews.com for this update. Already operating on a cashless basis are the E-470 in Denver and the West Park in Houston (which has been cashless from its opening day). The next big system to go completely cashless will be the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) in Dallas. It’s already converted two of its five toll facilities—the George Bush Turnpike and the Sam Rayburn Tollway. Its busiest toll road, the Dallas North Toll Road, will be converted during the fourth quarter this year, while its two smallest […]