Archive for the ‘Book’ Category

Addressing Harvard Alumni in the Bay Area

June 25, 2019 | Alumni

HBS CAREER COACHES HIT THE ROAD TO SERVE ALUMNI Northern California Alumni Consider the High Cost of Complexity, HBS AA Article by Margie Kelley (June 2019): Though the United States currently spends approximately $3.5 trillion a year on health care—the equivalent of the entire GDP of the world’s fourth-largest economy—our life expectancy has decreased for the …

Read More »

A Rare Moment of Bipartisanship in U.S. Healthcare

October 22, 2018 | Increasing Pharma Competition

The end of “gag orders” prohibiting pharmacists from informing patients on the cheapest way to buy prescription drugs On September 18 of this year, Congress passed a couple of bipartisan bills in health care: These two bills, one for Medicare and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, and the other for employer-sponsored and individual health coverage, were passed …

Read More »

What Does Climate Change Mean in the U.S., Particularly for Minorities and…Coal Country?

October 21, 2018 | Climate Change

The recent UN climate change report wake-up call The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued on Sunday October 7 an urgent call to action to governments all around the world: In its report, the IPCC stated that major changes are needed within the next decade to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degree …

Read More »

The California Resistance: Make the Planet Great Again

October 10, 2018 | California

The real resistance is to protect our only planet Right after Labor Day, with most of the country coming together in memorial tribute to John McCain, the U.S. political environment reached fever pitch with the publication of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, claiming that members of the Trump administration were working together …

Read More »

The ten-year anniversary of the 2008 financial crisis

October 3, 2018 | Regulating Wall Street

A primer on Dodd-Frank, through a simple Q&A   Why was Dodd Frank passed?   The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed by Congress, and signed by president Obama on July 21st, 2010, to stabilize our banking and financial system, and prevent a repeat of the disastrous 2008 financial crisis, which …

Read More »

Is Universal Health Care Socialism?

September 11, 2018 | Health Care

Is Universal Health Care Socialism?  The November midterms elections are approaching, and one of the major topics is health care. Democrats are campaigning on retaining Obamacare, in many cases advocating that we move towards universal health care. That would be pure socialism, retort Republicans, who would rather repeal the Affordable Care Act as they attempted …

Read More »

Letter published in August 31 Financial Times, in response to the 8/29/18 FT article, “Nordic lessons for today’s socialists.”

Voters want decisive change towards a fairer type of capitalism (Letter published in the 8/31/18 edition of the Financial Times)   I liked Martin Sandbu’s article, “Nordic lessons for today’s socialists” (August 29), and its compelling description of the Nordic model. I agree with him when he mentions Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and …

Read More »

Enjoying a Book Tour

August 18, 2018 | Book

Enjoying a Book Tour   Before writing my book I envisioned a book tour as a series of stops in bookstores across many cities…Well, I have enjoyed a couple of such stops, and even a book party at a restaurant, courtesy of neighbors who are also dear friends. Mostly, though, it has been written commentary, …

Read More »

Is Complexity in Healthcare Killing Us?

May 17, 2018 | Healthcare

We spend almost $10,000 per year per capita in healthcare, about twice as much as the average developed economy. However, we get little for what we spend: in terms of major health outcomes, such as infant mortality or life expectancy, we rank below most other developed nations. Why? Among other reasons, complexity explains why we …

Read More »

Why I Wrote “Untangling the USA…”

May 17, 2018 | Book

Tom Brady and the “tuck rule.” “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” “The financial world has become way too complicated and very secretive.” What could Tom Brady, Donald Trump, and Michael Lewis possibly have in common? Complexity. Lewis has analyzed it; Trump has discovered it; Brady has benefited from it. And the USA is entangled …

Read More »