David Leonhardt talks about the real issue in health care spending (it’s not administrative costs). Tyler Cowen calls the column “superb.” I would give it no more than a B, because the question is posed in terms of which centralized solution will work. The idea of having consumers foot more of the bill for medical procedures is so crazy that no one ever mentions it. They don’t mention it in this morning’s Washington Post story on the need for health care rationing. Obviously, individual consumers are irrelevant. Only Robert McNamara can solve health care.

Also in the Post, we have an article on the stimulus that features this priceless quote:

“It is clear from the data that there needs to be more fiscal stimulus in the second half of the year than there was in the first half of the year,” White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers said. “Fortunately, the stimulus program designed by the president and passed by Congress provides exactly that.”

In other words, the delay in spending is not a bug, it’s a feature!

Note to Greg Mankiw: when Larry comes back to Harvard, you should invite him to take ec 10. He seems to have no concept of how the multiplier is supposed to work.