Tort Reform, Externalities, and Balance

Now that the new administration plans to throw healthcare back on the table, we’ll surely hear once again about the virtues of tort reform. A perennial conservative salve for seemingly every economic ill, tort reform reduces peoples’ ability to seek redress in court. Hypothetically, tort reform serves as a counterbalance against what the business community



The TPP Is Out, But What About a U.S.-Japanese Free Trade Agreement?

With Trump’s inauguration only a couple days away, some in the political arena are still holding out hope that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will survive, despite the fact that Congress effectively put a stop to it, much to President Obama’s dismay. Why did they stop it, though? Was the free trade agreement really so bad? Well, yes and no. While it would have opened up more trade between twelve different nations, a big reason why Congress decided against it was because they shared the concerns of many TPP critics, including President-elect Trump, and were wary of the “pact’s complexity and lack of transparency.” After all, the full text included 30 different chapters.


Can Your Heart Device Be Hacked?

Heart device users beware. The Homeland Security Department and FDA recently issued warnings about a cybersecurity flaw in one of St. Jude’s medical devices, an implantable heart device. The warning was issued upon discovering that hackers could potentially “take control of a person’s defibrillator or pacemaker” remotely. As if that’s not bad enough, this flaw



Economics and the Price of Health Care

How much of the price of health care is really what health care costs? That seems like a silly question, but it’s worth asking since it determines how much you end up paying. With medical costs rising, learning how prices are determined is the first step in keeping care affordable. The price of health care,



Will Trump’s Legal Issues Overwhelm Presidency?

It’s no secret that President-elect Trump has tangled with the courts a few times due to his many legal issues, but will it impact his presidency? It’s a fair question, considering that he’s currently entrenched in lawsuits with a couple celebrity chefs, and “is also caught up in an investigation by the New York attorney