Blogroll
My pages
Visitors
 |
 |
Powered by
Header image of Hong Kong financial center courtesy of hleung on flickr.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Spatial Factors of EMV: A Case Study
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Population without Health Insurance
Medicaid Program in US is a shared responsibility between the Federal and state governments, with lots of variation across states on eligibility criteria and associated benefits.
The Economist (08/30) has a nice chart on the percentage of non-senior population (age under 65s) without health insurance in the states. (Americans ages 65 or older will be covered by a different program, Medicare.)
Massachusetts has the country's lowest rate of uninsured, at just 5.2%. At about 10%, Minnesota also belongs to the lowest group. In contrast, in Texas the uninsured rate is 26.3%. The sticking difference highlights the fact that the states vary significantly across service levels and spending priorities.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Interactive Guide to Reducing Government Debt
Check out the Economist’s new Daily Chart: The maths behind the madness. The interactive graph allows you to pick two counties/areas and then input your own long-term assumptions to project and compare the likely path of debt out to 2020.
Key assumptions include real interest rate (r), GDP growth (g), primary budget balance (p), and inflation (i). In the government-debt dynamics, in any given period, the debt stock grows by the existing debt stock multiplied by (r-g), less the primary budget balance p. Inflation helps reduce the total debt stock over time, as the real value of debt decreased with inflation.
Too bad the chart does not include China, where local government debts have been skyrocketing in recent years.