Please celebrate the students who earned 556 degrees in Economics at Commencement this May! This year the program honors: 14 Ph.D. recipients 215 Master’s degree recipients (MA, MAPE, MAEP, MAGDE MA/MBA, BA/MA) 327 BA recipients (including BA/MA) This total of 556 degrees is up from 498 (12%) since 2016. These numbers may undercount the total […]
This blog revisits a posting from four years ago, in a series on Time to Change the Tax Discussion. Whenever Congress (federal or state) proposes legislation that cuts taxes or increases net spending so that our national debt will increase, they should have to end every statement about why they favor their proposal with … […]
April 28, 2017 at 10:55 am
One of my students today just sent me this link to an article in this week’s Economist about end-of-life planning. How to have a better death http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721371-death-inevitable-bad-death-not-how-have-better-death It led me to also view its link about conversations about serious illness by one of my favorite authors. “Serious Illness Conversation Guide” drawn up by Atul Gawande […]
March 18, 2017 at 5:13 pm
Two interesting links related to the recent Republican health care proposal called the AHCA. The first is a serious but also humorous Forbes article by my BU colleague Larry Kotlikoff in his series about Stupid Economics, this one targeting Tom Price and the AHCA bill. (A 3-minute read.) Tom Price’s Liver And ‘The Coverage They […]
January 29, 2017 at 4:42 pm
Bottom line: Trump’s racism predicted to cost US households $147 billion in extra payments to the rest of the world. Like many people, I am appalled by president Trump’s recent executive order banning refugees – and even US legal immigrants – from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country. In the process, Trump has […]
January 26, 2017 at 1:40 pm
I invite you to read this Forbes posting on Stupid Economics by Laurence Kotlikoff. I don’t always agree with my dear colleague, Larry Kotlikoff, but this posting at Forbes is one that I can really get behind. Our president needs to start listening to serious economists instead of acting solo as an autocrat. […]
December 22, 2016 at 12:49 pm
The Raven The Ellis-Huber Christmas Poem 2016 Once upon a year so dreary, politics so wild and weary, Arguments so quaint and curious, unfamiliar use of lore— While I nodded, sometimes napping, suddenly there came a yapping, As of candidates gently snapping, snapping as if t’were a war. “’Tis only a primary,” I muttered, […]
December 22, 2016 at 11:52 am
Health economists and every concerned citizen should disseminate the facts in this NEJM article about Donald Trump’s nominee of Tom Price to be the next secretary of HHS. Coauthor Richard Frank is also a BU Ph.D. alum! Randy Ellis Care for the Vulnerable vs. Cash for the Powerful — Trump’s Pick for HHS Sherry […]
December 20, 2016 at 11:12 am
One more ranking in which BU rates very highly in the world. BU Grads Ranked among the World’s Most Employable 11th worldwide, 7th in the nation in international survey The employability of BU graduates was recently ranked 11th in the world and 7th in the nation in a report published in Times Higher Education. The […]
November 14, 2016 at 4:08 pm
I can’t help wondering how the election outcome would have been different if the headline that was prominently featured in the news for the last month had been the one we just received in the email message from the Boston University Human Resources Department that said: Contribution rates for 2017 – we are pleased to […]
November 14, 2016 at 9:17 am
In order to better understand what happened in last week’s US election, and perhaps also to encourage more students to both register and vote in the NEXT election, I created a very simple one-question survey using SurveyMonkey and arranged for it to be sent to all Economics students at Boston University. I first polled graduate […]
November 9, 2016 at 9:44 am
Dear BUHealth friends, alumni, students and colleagues. Like most of the people I know, I am immensely saddened by the results of the US presidential elections, which have elected Donald Trump as president and elected republicans to run both houses of congress. My view is that hate and party loyalty won out in the end […]
October 28, 2016 at 12:25 pm
By Randall P. Ellis, Boston University, Department of Economics October 28, 2016 A great deal has been made recently about the large increases in certain Health Insurance Marketplace premiums announced for 2017. I present here five arguments for why these increases are no big deal, and are not the right thing to focus on when […]
September 21, 2016 at 10:08 am
Everyone can see that Trump is surging in the polls, but few understand why. Like most professionals, I am appalled at this possibility. Why do I now think it is almost inevitable that Trump wins? Democrats have not figured out how to affect how Trump appeals to his supporters. As I blogged on June 3, […]
August 22, 2016 at 5:31 pm
Boston University Working Paper Randall P. Ellis Boston University, Department of Economics August 22, 2016 Abstract This paper presents four arguments for why the US should ban or at least heavily tax the sale or transfer to civilians of weapons designed for mass shootings (WDMS), which would include most semi-automatic guns and weapons with large […]
July 12, 2016 at 10:40 am
There is a very important article in this week’s JAMA – Internal Medicine, written by Barach Obama. It highlights the effects of the ACA/Obamacare. It is free on-line. United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698 If you are short on time, then the following link to just the figures provides […]
Partly just to keep track of them for my BU annual report, this post links to my press interviews and quotes. Meeting basic needs under Trump Fed funds key for landlords, affordable tenants; Trump’s health secretary opposes Obamacare Bay State Banner Jule Pattison-Gordon | 12/7/2016, 1:13 p.m. Effects of Brexit on the world economy and […]
Much was made recently about how UnitedHealth decided to drop out of the ACA Federal Exchange in several states. It is important to realize that far from being a failure to large insurers (UnitedHealth is the largest insurer in the US), health insurance remains extremely profitably under ObamaCare. Below is a bar chart of the […]
My previous post was discouraging in that it was all about the techniques Donald Trump is using to build support. This one is much more upbeat. I had heard about but not actually watched or listened to Hillary Clinton’s Memorial day speech, which has been getting a lot of favorable reviews. I just finished listening […]
This email will interest people who are closely following the US presidential election. I invite you to watch the following four minute video on Trump and Hillary when you have time. It changed my thinking. On the Friday June 2 Real Time with Bill Mayer, Scott Adams (who is the genius creator of the Dilbert […]
