Archives for August 2013
Gold as Good as it Ever Was
It’s hard for many so-called “elite” economists to think about gold as an asset, probably because they’ve devoted so much of their careers to trying to justify fiat money systems. But N. Gregory Mankiw, a somewhat famous Harvard professor and the author of some very popular economics textbooks, grudgingly acknowledged the logic of holding gold in an investment portfolio. In a New York Times editorial, Mankiw wrote of the benefits of gold as a portfolio counterbalance. An important element of an investment portfolio is diversification, and here is where gold really shines — pun intended — … [Read more...]
After Disrupting Publishing, Internet sets its Sights on Education
The most disruptive force in economics over the last two decades has obviously been the internet. But the revolutions created by the web are not yet complete. After newspapers, correspondence, photography and music have been revolutionized by the net, education looks to be next. The Economist explains the rapidly evolving online market for education. DOTCOM mania was slow in coming to higher education, but now it has the venerable industry firmly in its grip. Since the launch early last year of Udacity and Coursera, two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive … [Read more...]
American Heart Surgery: 67 Times More Expensive than in India
Health care costs are extreme in America, without cost cutting like Devi Shetty is doing with his chain of hospitals in India, it looks like health care costs in America will remain high. Bloomberg’s Ketaki Gokhale explains. Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi. Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He’s a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs with such … [Read more...]