TWO PIECES OF GOOD NATIONAL NEWS There have been two pieces of excellent news in the past week, one prominent and one below the radar. The prominent piece is bouyant economic growth, in the 5% range, that looks to be part of a genuine recovery that includes job growth. (Whether it is due mainly to lower fuel prices, monetary policy, or simply the working-out of the financial crisis is uncertain, at least to me.) The second piece of good news is that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been well contained in the US and well handled by public officials, using standard patient isolation techniques. (I could add a third piece of positive news: this years open-enrollment of Obamacare has been very smooth. That success does not imply the program itself is working well, is financially stable, or will survive the latest court challenges, but the enrollment period has surely gone well. To me, that suggests that it would be better to start big programs small and correct the problems initially.) Since public policies so often fail us, its worth remembering when they work well.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 18:06:40 +0000