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, podcasts, meetings through Skype and radio interviews. Easier for body wear and tear! Here below are links to one of my presentations and radio interviews.
http://sinclairnoe.com/ etienne-deffarges-untangling- the-usa/
A dozen takeaways:
- Complexity is everywhere: otherwise, what could Tom Brady, Michael Lewis and Donald Trump possibly have in common?
- We Americans tend to do things in a much more complex way that needs be, not just relative to other developed countries, but compared to our own, brilliant history.
- This costs us literally trillions of dollars, and case example #1 is health care, where the private and public sector cannot untangle themselves, resulting in high costs and sub-par outcomes – we spend twice as much per person in health care compared to other developed countries, yet lag behind most of them in infant mortality and life expectancy.
- There are many other examples in industries representing a large share of our GDP: think CAFE standards for vehicles and plant emission regulations, versus a simple carbon tax; Dodd-Frank in finance (2,300 pages), versus Glass-Steagall (37 pages); and our tax code.
- In many areas where financial risk is poorly understood, complexity has a twin brother: opacity.
- This is not sustainable: Americans feel overwhelmed, and no longer understand why managing one’s health, savings, taxes or energy needs to be so complicated.
- Yet complexity is not in our DNA – witness the elegant and effective simplicity of our Constitution, and also many other examples throughout our winning history.
- There are better ways out there – elements of solutions should bring us back to our roots and emulate what is done better elsewhere.
- We need first to clarify and simplify most government and private sector interfaces.
- In health care, the government should focus on health security for all – Basic Medicare – and let the private sector take care of all other activities.
- Regulations should send clear, simple and high-level price signals, as opposed to attempt to manage business inputs, e.g. a carbon tax; high equity to assets ratios for banks; and a finance transaction tax.
- “A government more focused on our health and safety, and a private sector free of playing a role in our welfare, will both become more effective as a result.”
