KeithHennessey.com

CBO: Preventive care does not save money (in the aggregate)

I began this blog at the end of March after the stimulus bill had become law.  I had been struck by how much the stimulus debate had focused on whether the bill was efficient.  (It clearly was not.)  There was much less discussion of whether the stimulus would be effective, and of the timing of [...]

Many of you are new to this blog since I wrote extensively about autos six weeks ago.  As background, I coordinated the auto loan process for President Bush last fall as the Director of the White House National Economic Council (the position now held by Dr. Lawrence Summers).  I wrote a series of posts on [...]

KeithHennessey.com has now been live for eight weeks.  I would like to thank you for reading and give you a status update.

I am pleased with the traffic for this fledgling effort.  I’ve had about 150K visits in eight weeks.  I am not certain how good that is, but it feels pretty good, especially given that [...]

This is good language from the President in bold:
America’s dependence on oil is one of the most serious threats that our nation has faced.

This is not:
They’ll be jobs building the wind turbines and solar panels and fuel-efficient cars that will lower our dependence on foreign oil …

Nor is this:
And just last week I visited the [...]

I had missed this from the President’s remarks to Congress on February 24th:
This budget builds on these reforms.  It includes a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform – a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.

Budget Director Peter Orszag repeated the “down payment” language on his [...]

When I was growing up, I was taught that you change the oil in your car every 3,000 miles.
Suppose I take my three-year old car to Jiffy Lube for an oil change.
Jiffy Lube has all the latest information technology, as well as good data on both manufacturers’ recommendations and best practices.
After entering my license plate [...]

Budget Director Peter Orszag wrote on his blog yesterday that he thinks “Debt held by the public net of financial assets is the most meaningful measure of current federal debt.”
I wrote earlier today why I think Director Orszag’s new metric is misleading and dangerous.  Now, however, I’m going to take his argument [...]

Yesterday on his blog the President’s Budget Director, Peter Orszag, asks himself and then answers the question, “How much does the federal government owe?”
This sounds like a technical question of concern only to “those of us wearing the green eyeshades,” but the Director’s suggested answer has dangerous ramifications, and could mislead or at [...]

Almost two months ago, President Obama set a specific employment goal for his Administration:
I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs.

It is clear that this “create or save” phrase is now a standard and important part of the Administration’s economic message.
Greg Mankiw quickly identified both the quantitative ambiguity and [...]