PIIGS

OOPS

I got so carried away with the gravity of yesterday’s moment (in cosmic time) I forgot the final paragraph (added mid-day) – that, yes, agriculture may have led to the population explosion, but now that we’re all here, and unless the plan is for most of us to starve, eating less meat would really help. At least until, as mentioned last Friday, we find an efficient way to grow meat cells in the lab.

TORT REFORM

The New York Times describes a new approach to medical malpractice tort reform – “judge-directed negotiation” – that they say is seen by the Obama administration as offering states a way to curb health care costs. It’s a great idea that should spread like mad. No panacea, but one more step in a sensible direction.

SHOULD YOU GO TO HARVARD?

I went Googling for the July issue of Money – to see how much older I look in the photos they took than in the one at upper left from a previous century – and chanced on this piece I evidently wrote for them 20 years ago that I thought might amuse you. (I have to think that in the original I used paragraph breaks.)

GREECE

A very smart friend who saw the last credit-default-swap crisis coming tells me that the banks have been writing similar insurance on sovereign debt on the PIIGS – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. If so, it could be a challenging summer.

Tomorrow, or soon: Claptrap