Faustian Weblog

February 13, 2010

Faustian Health Care Reform

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 7:19 pm

Let’s be frank. The idea behind health care reform is to monopolize purchasing power behind one entity – the government – in the hopes of bringing down costs. When one buyer – as in the case of Wal-Mart or the defense department – can dictate price, suppliers are forced to follow or be locked out of the market. Alternatively, the supplier side of the equation can be deregulated to such an extent that genuine capitalistic competition lowers the price of the item in question. Examples of the later include the airline industry and the telecommunications industry – prices of plane ticket are lower today than they were thirty years ago – even in nominal dollars. From an economic efficiency point of view, the second option – a deregulated supplier side approach – is probably the best alternative.

American health care as it stands today combines the worst of both worlds. First of all, it is a highly regulated industry – the average Joe is now allowed to practice medicine, hospitals must treat the poor and the indigent, and virtually all effective drugs must be dispensed (read marked up) by licensed physicians. Secondly, medical lawsuits virtually guarantee a market distortion of some sort. Thirdly, the purchasers of medical services – people and insurance companies – are fragmented, regulated on a State by State basis, and segmented by income level – the poor having little to no coverage whatsoever. The American medical industry is essentially a protected mercantile coalition.

Both the Democrat and Republican positions are idealistic in the extreme, in that any failure to adopt either of their solutions results in the current deadlock that profits no one. In other words, both extreme positions would lead to better outcomes than a compromised position. A single payer government monopoly or rampant deregulated competition would be preferable to the situation we have today.

February 9, 2010

Toyota’s Faustian Cars

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 7:04 pm

The Camry that can’t stop accelerating…

And the Prius that won’t break

February 3, 2010

Are Ratzinger and Armin Mueller-Stahl Related?

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 8:51 pm

I don’t know, but the similarity weirds me out…

January 10, 2010

Skype Baby

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 5:34 am

I just came back from CES, I only have one word for those technophobes – Skype.

Everyone is going on about the death of the PC, the real story is the funeral services being held in the South Hall for the cell phone, and the SMS services. That’s right – cell phones are dying, soon to be replaced by Skype enabled devices. In ten years times, phone numbers and area codes will seem as antiquated as vinyl 33 records, or fat ties and bell bottoms. The hoopla between the Android and the IPhone is as irrelevant as the great struggle between Netscape and Microsoft before the advent of Google. The real technology story of the day is that Skype is fast becoming the communications platform of the world.

January 4, 2010

Fatherland, Motherland, Homeland

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 2:52 pm

In Germany they have the Fatherland

In Russia they have the Motherland

In America we have the homeland

December 18, 2009

Shitty Bank

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 4:34 pm

I have been buying shares of Shitty Bank – the symbol is C – which stands for Crap. Well as long as the crap is discounted, that is all that matters in a Faustian economy. Shitty Bank owns a $102 billion dollars of worthless credit card debt, all owed by Faustian deadbeats. A few months ago there was a car company with the symbol F – which stands for Found On Road Dead – and they did pretty well – I tripled my worthless dollars in six months. In the scheme of things, C is probably servicing F’s car payments as well.

December 16, 2009

Israel, Balkanization, and the Middle East

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 9:39 pm

I am going out on limb here but the Israeli/Arab conflict is nothing more than a contest between Jewish Nationalism and Arab Nationalism in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Contrary to the commonly accepted leftist view, the Jewish nation and the various Arab nations established themselves in the same historical period – that is between the two world wars. From a historical perspective, legitimacy is irrelevant. Over the next hundred years, this major conflict is likely to be replaced by a multi-dimensional series of minority based conflicts all over the Arab world. For this reason, I not only believe that Israel will prevail, but that it will actually thrive in the twenty first century – as one of the core stable nation states. In fact, it is more likely that there will be more Israel(s), not less of them, moving forward. Despite Al Qaeda’s rhetoric, the establishment of a forth Caliphate to encompass the old Abbasid Empire is dead on arrival. The reason is simple, the Ottoman Empire was never modeled as a centralized nation state to begin with; rather it was an autocratic regime that ruled over a patchwork of minorities – Arabs, Shiites, Persians, Coptic, Jews, Berbers, Yazidis, Chaldeans, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians. If one accepts the premise that the nation state is the ultimate stable entity that governments strive for, it is more likely that former Ottoman Empire will Balkanize further until equilibrium is reached. Indeed that is exactly what has been going on for the past twenty years. Armenia is now a separate country, following in the footsteps of Israel, which followed in the footsteps of Greece and North Africa a few centuries earlier. Of course, each conflict will entail further ethnic cleansing and further population displacements. As we speak, Kurdistan is now an autonomous region and will soon become a separately recognized country, at the expense of the Arabs who were living there. Over the next thirty years, we can expect Coptic Christians in Egypt to follow suit and the Berber populations of Morocco and Algeria to do the same. And let us not forget that the Shiite populations of Iraq, Syria, and Egypt might secede as well, especially if there is a democratic regime change in Iran and/or a collapse of the autocratic Mubarak regime in Egypt. How all this plays out is anyone’s guess. It is likely that the restoration of this region into one unified Fertile Crescent will remain a pipe dream that will fade as the populations of the region realize its futility.

The Case for Nicotine

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 5:09 pm

* Nicotine increases alertness. This may enhance concentration, thinking and learning. This may be a benefit to people with schizophrenia whose illness or medication leads to cognitive problems.

* Nicotine can help relaxation, and it can also reduce negative feelings such as anxiety, tension and anger. So Nicotine may help people with mental illness deal with stressful situations.

* Nicotine might have an antidepressant effect. Nicotine stimulates dopamine production in part of the brain and so may help negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as lack of motivation, lack of energy and flat mood.

* Nicotine may reduce positive symptoms, such as hallucinations for a short period.

* There is some evidence to suggest that Nicotine is associated with reduced levels of anti-psychotic induced Parkinson-ism.

* Nicotine can help to relieve boredom and provide a framework for the day.

* Nicotine can improve social interaction, something that may be of particular benefit to people with negative symptoms.

December 13, 2009

Disneyland and the Suffis

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 3:58 pm

It would appear that there is yet another mutation to the Iraq Insurgency – the Qadiri Sufis. Like some new strain of the H1N1 virus that is supposed to prey on its distant cousin, this is yet another incarnation of Neocon stupidity. The Disney Land Empire – known as America – is going out of its way to promote a mystical brand of Islam in hopes of quenching the Saladin/Crusader narrative known as Al-Qaeda – which was promoted during the Reagan years as antidote to Communism. This is a mistake of monumental proportions. The Middle East is a Petri dish of firebrand cults, forever lacking the cleansing effect of a centralized nation state. The last thing on Earth we need to contend with is a Thelemic version Hezbollah. What these people need in order to truly pacify them are variable rate mortgages, flat screen TVs, and porn on demand – with a tinge of an Islamic Mega Church for nostalgia purposes. The only true answer to this dilemma lies in the nascent consumer paradises of Dubai and Jordan. To defeat radical Islam, one must first destroy the context in which its culture is relevant. We should be building Bedouin Casinos on the reservation with multi-media family tours of a virtual Mecca with consignment shops selling updated and abridged EZ-Korans printed China – illustrated for ten year olds.

December 10, 2009

Things I don’t want in my life

Filed under: Uncategorized — faustian @ 8:32 pm

Swimming pool
Boat
Plane
Castle in France
Horses
Opus Dei
Mormon Missionaries
Land in Jamaica
Italian Mistress
Special Needs Child
9000 square foot mansion
Pit Bull Terrier
Hummer
Beach House
Livestock
Problem Employees
Sales Guy
New Long Distance service
Windows 7.0
Illegal Aliens
Live in relatives
Pregnant teenagers
Exchange students
Organic wines
Nitrox and Dry Suits
Nascar
Kodak Stock

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