Policy Wise

Professor Brahma Chellaney has an interesting op-ed on the strategic effects of water shortage in Asia.
Yet Asia is a water-deficient continent. Although home to more than half of the human population, Asia has less fresh water – 3,920 cubic meters per person – than any continent other than the Antarctica.
The looming struggle over water resources [...]

American drug prices remain the highest in the world. Comparisons are often made with drugs prices elsewhere–in both the developed world and the developing world. Online pharmacies which can supply drugs at a huge discount to American prices remains a big political and ethical issue.
Mark Keliman, Professor of Public Policy at UCLA makes an important [...]

In American science and medicine, the concept of informed consent owes much to the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment in which more than 300 American blacks were treated as guinea pigs to study the long term of effects of untreated syphilis. Despite the fact that Penicillin was discovered in the 1940’s–the experiment–started in the 1932, continued [...]

Drug companies are funding nearly two-third of CME sessions which doctors must attend in order to keep their license, and this raises some serious conflict of interest claims.
Overall, commercial sponsors pick up about half of the $2.25 billion annual cost of the courses doctors must attend to keep their licenses.
“Most of what doctors know about [...]

I have wondered previously, in the context of global warming, about how energy efficiency and carbon cutting measures might be of economic benefit. This Economist article talks about an interesting study undertaken by Vattenfall, a Swedish power utility, to quantify the economic costs of various emission control measures. (via)

The measures below the horizontal [...]

Michael Moore’s new documentary on the American Health system has opened to rave reviews–especially from the usual anti-establishment crowd. Professor Saul Levmore of the University of Chicago has one of the few balanced reviews,

So let me ask some questions. Moore tries to show that many Canadians and French are happy with their systems and do [...]

In recent years, smoking bans in public spaces have become hugely popular. Airlines industries, universities, government and private offices to now even bars and clubs–smokers have been virtually banished from the public space. There have even been demands for banning smoking in private homes! Even France and Germany, where smoking remains popular and socially acceptable, [...]

In a hard hitting editorial, Washington Post asks lawmakers to stop subsidizing rich farmers in America at the cost of African farmers,
Its commodity supports are too often misdirected: High-income farmers collect increasing shares of the largess, and, by The Post’s calculations, between 2000 and 2006 about $1.3 billion went to Americans who do not [...]

A Washington Post investigative report has slammed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its failure to adequately monitor drug companies in India and China.
Yet on-the-ground inspections of Indian and Chinese plants remain rare and relatively brief and are always scheduled in advance, unlike the surprise visits that FDA inspectors pay to domestic manufacturers. FDA [...]

A new UN report claims that the war in Darfur is due to climate change,
The UNEP investigation into links between climate and conflict in Sudan predicts that the impact of climate change on stability is likely to go far beyond its borders. It found there could be a drop of up to 70% in crop [...]