Smart Links 02 July 2012

Paul Summerville • July 1, 2012

Tags: Canada, Egypt, Health, Japan, Quebec, United States, Yes

Commentary on how the right to tax saved ObamaCare and Social Security, Egypt’s waiting game, health care game changer, and Canada sans Quebec.

History speaks.

Daily Beast -- The 1934 Dinner Party That May Have Helped Save Obamacare
When FDR created Social Security, his labor secretary feared the court would reject it—until a justice told her over dinner that framing it as a tax could save it.

Related.

Telegraph -- Tim Knatchbull: the IRA killed my grandfather, but I’m glad the Queen met their man
Despite losing several family members in a bomb attack, Tim Knatchbull is remarkably forgiving about Martin McGuinness receiving a royal handshake.

Waiting on Egypt’s president-elect, Mohamed Morsi. (ed’s note: the comparison with Spain in 1982 is spurious).

Project Syndicate -- Egypt Holds Its Breath
“You are the authority, above any other authority. You are the protectors, whoever seeks protection away from you is a fool...and the army and the police are hearing me,” said Egypt’s president-elect, Mohamed Morsi, to hundreds of thousands in Tahrir Square.

Keep an eye on the US$/Yen exchange rate, a break to the upside for the dollar would be equity positive and bond bearish.

Financial Sense -- Massive Japanese Debt Monetization Is Coming, Yen to be Devalued
You can only stretch a rubber band so far before it snaps back or is torn, so too is the case with government indebtedness.

More of the same is less.

Prudent Bear -- Recession of Diminishing Marginal Returns
Since 2008, economic policies throughout the rich world have boiled down to one word: stimulus.

Breaking the genetic code and implications for the health care industry.

Thompson Reuters -- Cracking The Genetic Code Part 1
In part one of the Thomson Reuters Knowledge Exchange session titled “Cracking The Genetic Code,” Chris Kibarian moderates a panel with Brian Fiske, John Quackenbush and Paul Rejto about the types of scientific advancements needed to develop the treatments and life saving therapeutics that will change and improve human kind.

Is the threat of Quebec sovereignty different this time? (ed's note -- will Jack Layton's legacy be the break up of Canada?)

Globe and Mail -- Who will speak up for Canada?
Think back to 1995, when Canada was in the throes of a national unity crisis.

Add your opinion

Rate this story

E-mail

Comments

-2

Post new comment

Get Smart Links in your inbox

Keep up with CEF!

Join Us Follow Us Subscribe

User login

Login using social networks

Twin Virtues: Inequality of Outcomes & Equality of Opportunity©

LimeSpot: Own Your Experience.

Leveraging Social Networks for Profit.

Marrying the product portfolio of brand name firms with the personal profile information on Facebook.

The LimeSpot enabled revolutionary new sales channel.

Ultimately, the most successful societies find the balance between the twin virtues of inequality of outcomes and equality of opportunity.

The new politics must marry the twin virtues of unequal outcomes and equality of opportunity.

When too few get too much everybody ends up with less.

Can it be that striving for equality of opportunity however imperfect the process not only benefits the individual but also creates benefits for the society as a whole that are unintended but wonderful?

Economics must be a 'moral enterprise' as much as politics claims to be. Economic outcomes need to be framed in terms of right and wrong not just efficiency if only because these often align in surprising ways.

My vision of Canada is that any Canadian child from a family of limited circumstance can expect to have a chance at lifetime of unlimited opportunities.

Tax policy should be founded on the principle of generating steady tax revenues sufficient to maximise environmentally sustainable economic growth in order to fund fair government.

Public policy should be designed to decrease inequality before the law and increase equality of opportunity.

Capitalism is not the problem; the problem is what we do with capitalism.

Content is always more difficult to argue than conspiracy.

Let the state regulate and the market operate (most things).

Welfare strategies are best designed as a hand up not as a hand out.

Political debate should not be fact free fighting.

Explanation lasts longer than eloquence.

Always favour empowerment over dependency.

The most enduring public figures are embraced for the causes they fought for and not the concept of themselves they hoped others would remember them by.

Find your voice and don't be the echo of somebody else.