Yearly Archives: 2013

States with toughest gun laws have triple the amount of gun deaths

"The ten states given the highest ratings by the Brady Campaign for having the most stringent gun control legislation have about triple the amount of gun deaths compared to the ten states that have the least restrictive gun legislation, according to data compiled by the Examiner. Using data from Slate, the Examiner also found that the Brady Campaign's highest rated state for having the most restrictive gun legislation, California, also had the highest number of gun deaths(677) since the Sandy Hook shooting. The state with the fewest restrictions on firearms (and therefore the lowest scored), Utah, has had 29 gun deaths since Sandy Hook." Continue reading →

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Amidst Detroit Banktruptcy, Spontaneous Order and Market Anarchy Flourish

"One needs to look no further than the city of Detroit to find the spontaneous order, civic cooperation, and peaceful market forces that take over when government simply isn’t around. Dale Brown and his organization, the Threat Management Center (TMC), have helped fill in the void left by the corrupt and incompetent city government. Law enforcement isn’t the only 'essential government service' that the private sector is taking over and flourishing in. The Detroit Bus Company (DBC) is a private bus service that began last year and truly shows a stark contrast in how the market and government operates." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmidst Detroit Banktruptcy, Spontaneous Order and Market Anarchy Flourish

Robots playing larger role in operating rooms

"Introduced commercially a little more than a decade ago, robotic surgery is becoming more routine in hospitals and is the preferred method for patients who need to have a prostate or cervix removed as well as a host of other procedures. In the last four years, the number of hospitals nationwide using the da Vinci robot has risen by more than 80 percent, and the number of procedures performed each year has risen by 300 percent to more than 300,000 operations each year, according to the multi-billion dollar company." Continue reading →

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Polish doctors carry out world’s first life-saving face transplant

"Polish doctors carried out the world’s first life-saving face transplant, the centre’s spokeswoman said Wednesday, weeks after a 33-year-old man was disfigured by a machine in a workplace accident. The man, an employee at a stonemason’s workshop and only identified as Grzegorz, was severely maimed on April 23, when a machine used to cut stone ripped out a large chunk of his face. With time of the essence, doctors were lucky to find a donor within two weeks, a man in his thirties whose family immediately agreed to the operation." Continue reading →

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Walk-in clinics gaining popularity

"Nontraditional healthcare sites such as urgent care centers and retail clinics are gaining popularity with consumers looking to avoid the long waits and high prices of the doctor's office or emergency department. The trend is expected to continue as the Affordable Care Act's full implementation looms and concerns grow over a shortage of primary care physicians. Visits to the country's three largest retail clinics — CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic, Walgreen's Take Care Health and Kroger's Little Clinic — have skyrocketed in recent years. Their popularity, a report found, is due to their convenience, accessible hours and low cost. The average cost of a visit is about $78." Continue reading →

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A Rare – and Encouraging – Glimpse at How a Free Market Could Work in the Health Sector

"I’ve already cited the case of a North Carolina doctor who decided to use market-based pricing, and I’ve shared a very powerful video from Reason TV about a hospital in Oklahoma that’s doing the same thing. Now we have a free market revolution by a doctor in Maine: Dr. Michael Ciampi took a step this spring that many of his fellow physicians would describe as radical. The family physician stopped accepting all forms of health insurance. In early 2013, Ciampi sent a letter to his patients informing them that he would no longer accept any kind of health coverage, both private and government-sponsored. He posted his prices on the practice’s website." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Rare – and Encouraging – Glimpse at How a Free Market Could Work in the Health Sector

Police ignore Taser heart attack risk and keep firing at suspects’ chests

"British police have fired Tasers hundreds of times at suspects’ chests despite explicit warnings from the weapon’s manufacturer not to do so because of the dangers of causing a cardiac arrest, the Guardian can reveal. Following the death last Wednesday of a man in Manchester after police hit him with a Taser shot, figures obtained from 18 out of 45 UK forces show that out of a total of 884 Taser discharges since 2009 – the year when Taser International first started warning the weapon’s users not to aim for the chest – 57% of all shots (518) have hit the chest area." Continue reading →

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Ohio Dept. Of Insurance: Obamacare To Increase Premiums By 88 Percent

"Last week, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, 'representing an increase of 88 percent' relative to 2013. 'We have warned of these increases,' said Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a statement. 'Consumers will have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014.' According to actuarial firm Milliman, the two biggest drivers of the increase are (1) risk pool composition changes and (2) Obamacare’s required expansion of insurance benefits." Continue reading →

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Realty Mogul Review: Fractional Investment Property Ownership, Hard Money Lending

"Realty Mogul is a new 'crowdfunding' start-up that lets you invest in residential investment property for as little as $5,000. You either take a partial ownership position in a property, or you become a lender to (experienced) house flippers. The new thing here is that you can do it completely online with a few mouse clicks (no mortgage brokers, real estate agents, or tenants) and again that low minimum $5,000 investment. Taking an equity ownership position means that you own a little slice of a single-family home or multi-unit complex while a professional does the buying, fixing up, renting out, and eventual selling." Continue reading →

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Marc Faber: Even QE99 won’t help US; India best in Asia

"Despite quantitative easing (QE) not really bearing any fruit for the common man, the Federal Reserve is likely to continue with it and go 'up to QE99,' says investment guru Marc Faber. He strongly feels easy money has not boosted employment for the ordinary people; instead it has given a philip to asset prices owned by very small portion of the population. Property prices over the last 12 months are up 35 percent, but all this has not helped the man on the street, he says." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarc Faber: Even QE99 won’t help US; India best in Asia