Megan McArdle

People love to freak out about incursions on their privacy. And by "people" I mean cable news shows. More »

It might not be worth trying to steer more students towards science professions because, in many cases, there simply aren't enough jobs More »

The space program has been a laughable mess for years now, sending elderly (and occasionally combustible) space busses back and forth More »

The contraception contretemps is a case study in how thoughtless laws and policies drive up the cost of health care, making it less accessible to those who are most in need. The path to truly affordable health care involves moving in exactly the opposite direction: restoring the notion that health insurance is meant as protection for catastrophic costs, and letting people buy birth-control pills for themselves. More »

Has anybody noticed how similar the French and U.S. healthcare systems are? More »

Do you remember the "Louisiana Purchase?" I don't mean Jefferson's acquisition from Napoleon, but Democrats' acquisition of Sen. Landrieu's support for Obamacare. More »

It really is harder to innovate in a large drug company (I can speak from personal experience) More »

How much more is the federal government going to spend making the case that obesity = bad? More »

Innovators don't "stand on the shoulders of giants" so much as stand on the shoulders of dozens of giants, each of whom stands on yet more shoulders More »

For the first time in over ten years, I'm taking a break from blogging to work on another project. More »

In the comments to my colleague's excellent post, one thing did surprise me: the era of the tiny downpayment is still very much with us.Obviously, I knew this at some level--it's the reason that the FHA has become such a large fraction of mortgage originations. They're about the only people in the market these days who will let you buy a home with 3.5% down.And yet, it's shocking to me to see so many people who positively assume that it's natural to buy a house… More »

My colleague, Derek Thompson, has collected comments from young people explaining why they think it's a bad idea to buy a house. There's a lot there to think about--one thing that jumps out at me is that after the last five years, it's finally starting to sink in that buying a house is not some sort of fantastic retirement plan that also comes bundled with granite countertops.A lot of it is, however, reminiscent of the way that I thought even before the housing… More »

We spend about three times the OECD average on home health care. Part of it is wages, and regulation. There's also density. More »

If you've been wondering about the rather light posting schedule, here's most of the explanation: two Saturdays ago, my mother's appendix burst. It was a lengthy, draining saga that fouled up a rather full writing schedule. We just brought her home from the hospital today; she'll be staying with us while she finishes a course of IV antibiotics. Luckily, we're both writers with a great deal of flexibility about where we can work, and we have a spare bedroom, and… More »

I saw a fair amount of chortling this morning about this Bloomberg piece on wealthy financial-industry types who are having to cut back because of plummeting bonuses. And to be sure, some of the cuts are in the "Call me a Waaaah-mbulance" category: can't go to Aspen any more? Had to cut back that three-bedroom summer rental to only one month? Why yes, that is the sound of the world's smallest violin playing a dirge.And yet, some of the difficulties that people… More »

Last week, when I was all over the Heartland fakes, people demanded to know why I don't post more about the problem of global warming, if I'm all in favor of a carbon tax and all. That's a somewhat complicated answer, so bear with me.The first reason I don't post a lot is that I'm not an expert, and I'm not planning to become one. I've basically outsourced my opinion on the science to people like Jonathan Adler, Ron Bailey, and Pat Michaels of Cato--all of whom… More »

The Continent’s problems are as much demographic as financial. They won’t go away soon.

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was on why we should eliminate the corporate income tax. This is not because I just looooooooove corporations, or wish to put more money into the hands of rich people--on the contrary, I want to pair an elimination of the tax with an end to the special low tax rates for dividends and capital gains, and maybe even an increase in rates for higher brackets if that's necessary to keep the thing revenue neutral. Which would… More »

I just received a new mailer from BarackObama.com. Even before the primaries are finished, Obama is apparently kicking off the campaign against his now-inevitable opponent: the Koch brothers.Friend --In just about 24 hours, Mitt Romney is headed to a hotel ballroom to give a speech sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a front group founded and funded by the Koch brothers.Those are the same Koch brothers whose business model is to make millions by jacking up… More »

I know that many of you are probably sick of this story, for which I apologize. I'm crunching on a column after a weekend family emergency, so the other blogging which would normally be interspersed with the Heartland stuff is going to be very light through at least tomorrow.There's been a bit of back and forth with some correspondents, asking why I was not outraged about the East Anglia hack? Interestingly, no one has asked me why I wasn't outraged by the… More »