Word: systemic
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...rest of the year in finance will probably be dull. Investors know that banks will lose more money. The government claims, probably correctly, that the stress test results and recommendations for banks to add new capital has guarded against an undercapitalization of the system which could cause another crisis...
...questioned whether giving people "a hip replacement when they're terminally ill is a sustainable model." This is the most sensitive health-care issue imaginable. But the question of whether the government can decide which health-care treatments are appropriate is central to whether an affordable universal system can be devised. Part of the answer is implicit in the electronic medical-records system that Obama has proposed: it will be easier to determine which treatments are cheaper and more effective. The other part of the answer involves an essential change in Medicare, from fee-for-service to a managed-care...
Economic crises come and go, but entitlements are forever. The Great Depression eventually dissipated, but Franklin Roosevelt's crown jewel - the Social Security system - is still with us. And so it will be with the Obama Administration. The early headlines have been all about the President's efforts to repair the financial system and jump-start the economy. If he succeeds, he probably will be re-elected. But Barack Obama's place in history will be determined by the long-term structural changes he initiates, and his most important legacy battle is just beginning as Congress tackles the holy grail...
...Indeed, Democrats have a history of strategic idiocy when it comes to health care. Nearly 40 years ago, Richard Nixon proposed a universal system in which employers would be required to pay for their employees' coverage, but Democrats blocked it because they favored a government-run single-payer system. Twenty years later, Bill and Hillary Clinton proposed a system similar to Nixon's - but failed to bring aboard moderate Republicans, who favored a universal system based on requiring individuals rather than employers to participate. In the 2008 campaign, Obama and Hillary Clinton proposed plans that looked very much like...
...campaign, Obama and Clinton worked overtime to assure voters that if they liked their current health-care coverage, they could keep it - that is, the system would remain a private one, presided over by a more strictly regulated insurance industry. And in the months since the election, the insurers have indicated that they will play ball: they've said they will cover everyone, at the same rate, regardless of pre-existing condition. (There are caveats: the details of health insurance are devilish, and pitched battles are fought over arcana too obscure to cover in this space.) But more-liberal Democrats...