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...number of contracts signed by buyers ticked up in January, and has been rising ever since. The problem, though, is that almost all of the activity is among the lowest-priced homes. In May, sales of houses under $300,000 (for the D.C. suburbs, that's low-priced) jumped 41%, as compared to the same month last year. Sales of houses $300,000 and above, meanwhile, dropped by 26%. The super-high-end is particularly grim. At the rate houses worth more than $700,000 have been selling, it will take three-and-a-half years...
...first memo to Chrysler employees, Marchionne talked about that record. "Five years ago, I stepped into a very similar situation at Fiat. It was perceived by many as a failing, lethargic automaker that produced low-quality cars and was stymied by endless bureaucracies," he wrote. Giving his version of the turnaround--hard work, tough choices, heavy investment and a culture "where everyone is expected to lead"--he promised that "we can and will accomplish the same results here." Even if Fiat doesn't become the next Apple, everyone from the President to the survivors on the Jeep shop floor...
Obama has already taken several whacks at waste in energy and health care. His stimulus had more than $20 billion for energy-efficiency measures designed to slash electricity use in low-income homes, on military bases and in all kinds of government buildings, while his fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles are expected to save billions of gallons of gasoline; he's also providing government financing for electric cars, and his cash-for-clunkers program is another assault on gas guzzlers. The stimulus also included $19 billion for computerizing the medical industry, which could reduce duplicative tests and office visits, plus...
...Incentives aren't everything either; wasting energy costs us money, but we do it all the time, and so do our factories and other ostensibly profit-maximizing businesses. Health care usually costs us money too, and even when co-payments are low, visiting the doctor is time-consuming and inconvenient, and staying in the hospital can be downright dangerous. Still, Dartmouth has documented enormous regional variations in medical care that produce virtually no variation in medical outcomes, a testament to our tolerance for overtreatment...
...medicine, the idea would be to reward quality rather than quantity, to give providers incentives to keep us healthy and reduce unnecessary treatments, to encourage doctors and hospitals to promote a culture of low-cost, high-quality care. One reason the Mayo Clinic already provides low-cost, high-quality care is that it keeps its doctors on salary, insulating them from fee-for-service inducements to overserve; unfortunately, Mayo is hemorrhaging cash on its Medicare patients, because the current system penalizes responsibly conservative care. Doctors don't get paid for thinking about a case or returning a phone call...