“An economist’s guide” to watching tonight’s Democratic presidential debate mentions Gerald Friedman, economics, who has estimated a full-scale single-payer health care system would cost as much as $40 trillion over a decade. (The Conversation, 11/20/19)
Gerald Friedman, economics, writes that making Medicare available to people of all ages is a simpler and less costly path to solving America’s health care problem than the solutions proposed by most presidential candidates. Medicare is currently only available to individuals age 65 and over. (The Good Men Project, 11/13/19)
Deepankar Basu, economics, writes a column where he suggests several things that can be done to respond to the slowing economy in India. He says increasing wages for some workers, expanding the country’s food subsidy and boosting public investment would kickstart the investment cycle in the country and ease supply constraints. (Hindustan Times, 11/10/19)
A fact-checking column in The New York Times looks at the various claims made by political candidates about the overall costs and benefits of Medicare for All. The story notes that Gerald C. Friedman, economics, has estimated that a single-payer system would cost about $24 trillion. (New York Times, 11/9/19)
Robert N. Pollin, Distinguished Professor in economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, says Australia could implement a Green New Deal program for about $45 billion per year, or around 2.5% of GDP for the next 10 years. (Jacobin magazine, 11/4/19)
Arindrajit Dube, economics, says his review of a proposal to increase the minimum wage in the United Kingdom shows that there is room to explore an increase of up to two-thirds of the median wage. Dube has studied the effect of minimum wage increase in the U.S. and has written extensively about his research. (One America News Network [from Reuters], 11/4/19)
Robert N. Pollin, Distinguished Professor in economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, says it is possible to fund a Medicare for All program using a combination of a new sales tax, taxes on businesses earning more than $1 million and a tax on wealthy individuals. In addition, funds from other federal healthcare programs that would become redundant would be added to the total. He says such a program should be very popular with the public. (Washington Examiner, 10/30/19)
Nancy Folbre, professor emerita in economics, will present a lecture Nov. 18 at Denison University titled, “The Rise and Decline of Patriarchal Systems.” Folbre is the author of a forthcoming book of the same title. (Newark Advocate [Ohio], 10/3/19)
Robert N. Pollin, Distinguished Professor in economics and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, says it is possible to fund a Medicare for All program using a combination of a new sales tax, taxes on businesses earning more than $1 million and a tax on wealthy individuals. In addition, funds from other federal healthcare programs that would become redundant would be added to the total. He says such a program should be very popular with the public. (Washington Examiner, 10/30/19)
Daniel Ellsberg, a Distinguished Researcher at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library and the whistleblower who released the Pentagon Papers in 1969, spoke on campus last night, Oct. 28, along with Gar Alperovitz, Janaki Natarajan and Patricia Marx Ellsberg. The group talked about their roles in leaking documents related to the Vietnam War. UMass Amherst has recently acquired Ellsberg’s papers. (Daily Hampshire Gazette,10/28/19; Greenfield Recorder, 10/29/19)