The older I get, the more firmly I believe that economics and policy "research" are nothing more than the black art of burying externalities. The whole point of most soft sciences related to policy of any kind is to argue that some things aren't worth arguing about. This is generally done to the benefit of whoever pays the best.

And the older I get, the more firmly I am convinced that actual progress is done in darkness where it doesn't cost anything. The Treasury department repatriating swiss bank accounts, for example. Never so much as made the news. It's one of the things Piketty said was an unalloyed good and not a single reporter bothered to follow up on it whatsoever. The fact that cryptocurrency fucking eliminates counterfeiting, black market and gray market goods.

Know what's been biting my ass all year? Depending on who you ask it's either the "9.5% affordability threshold", the "9.83% rule" or the "family glitch." Here's how it works:

- You, a citizen of the greatest economy the world has ever seen, get sick sometimes. This can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. In order to defray this utterly avoidable and utterly lamentable tragedy, you are required under penalty of law to buy health insurance.

- They, the Government, as part of the most cynically "sweeping" healthcare reforms in generations, have determined that you should never be required to pay more than (currently) 9.83% of your adjusted gross income for health insurance that does effectively fuckall until you get hit by a bus or are diagnosed with cancer.

- So they, the healthcare exchanges, will knock off a giant chunk of exchange plans such that the price you pay for health insurance can be as low as... nothing. Especially if you work part-time.

- So I, your plucky employer who would really really really like to give you health insurance, should be able to pay for what's left of your cheap insurance but

- They, the government, says "there can be only one" subsidy so if I want to offer you insurance, You get zero help from the government

- Unless I, your employer, make my health insurance plan so shitty you have to pay more than 9.83% of your AGI for it

- At which point you are allowed to buy it from the government again.

Round numbers? I'm looking at a $60k/yr disincentive to provide my employees health insurance. They're all effectively on "single payer" despite the fact that I've got three employees making six figures(!) because the way we calculate AGI is every bit as gerrymandered as anything else. Yet the right is still about Death Panels.

As a private employer, I am an utter fucking dumbass if I try and offer you insurance. What will truly disturb you is that the vagaries of this reality are so well-hidden that a conversation with a friend-of-a-friend, who is the chief litigator for the Department of Labor in this state, did not reveal any of it. "Can my employees pay for health premiums out of their Section 125 cafeteria plan" was met with a resounding "...maybe? Maybe not? Try it and see?" from the literal guy who would take me to court if I couldn't. (the answer is "yes you can if it's dental and vision, no you can't if it's medical" - there saved you six months).

So if you want to make actual progress in the current climate, you're busy wondering if the Sicilian Defense is cost-effective when you're down a rook and Ezra Klein is all "if you jump all the way to the other side of the board you get a king".

There are ways to attack the drug price problem without radically changing the way drugs are manufactured and delivered.

It's called Medicare For All and it's so fucking obvious that the chinstrokers and talking heads are convinced it'll never work.