Saturday, October 11, 2025

UVA Health Still Squeezing Money From Patients — By Seizing Their Home Equity

Property liens are the hidden icebergs of patient medical debt, legal experts say, lying unseen, often for decades, before they surface to claim hard-won family savings or inheritance proceeds.

The Fed’s New Policy Framework: A Major Improvement But More Can Be Done

The Fed’s new policy strategy of average inflation targeting is an unambiguously a positive step, but may not – under all circumstances – subscribe to a sufficiently aggressive make-up strategy when the zero lower bound is binding.

2:00PM Water Cooler 10/20/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects GOP Call Not to Extend Deadline for Mail-In Ballots

A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling ruling to extend the deadline for counting mail-in ballots.

Links 10/20/2020

Waste Watch: New York Begins Enforcing Plastic Bag Ban

New York begins to enforce its ban on single-use plastic bags, delayed since March by the pandemic and various lawsuits.

COVID-19: Examining Theories for Africa’s Low Death Rates

Countries throughout Africa, like India, are recording lower rates of COVID-19 deaths. The authors examine reasons for this phenomenon.

Can Hunter Biden Be Both Right and Wrong, Both Innocent and Guilty? Yes He Can.

A nuanced primer on the Hunter Biden story : “institutional corruption at its core.” With a heavy helping of Taibbi reporting.

Paul Romer Comes Out Against Contact Tracing in the United States (which Biden Supports)

Can exhortation from the PMC make contact tracing a success?

2:00PM Water Cooler 10/19/2020

~ Today’s Water Cooler ~

Pandemic Causes Food Security to Wobble, While Much of Rural India Still Continues to be Underfed

The pandemic has caused global food security to wobble. Meanwhile, a recent paper shows most rural indians continue to be underfed.

“Fiscal Cliffication” Continues as the Election Looms

The politics of a new fiscal package have now evolved. And not in a good way.

Links 10/19/2020

WHO is Right: Lockdowns Should Be Short and Sharp. Here Are 4 Other Essential COVID-19 Strategies

As cases of COVID-19 spike yet again in the US and Europe, what public health measures have successfully stemmed the pandemic’s spread?

With Bankruptcies Mounting, Faltering Oil and Gas Firms Are Leaving a Multi-Billion Dollar Cleanup Bill to the Public

Yet another example otf how the oil industry is subsidized, here by another way it dumps environmental costs on the public at large.