Daily Archives: January 30, 2014

Does the Debt Ceiling Have to Be Raised?

By Joe Firestone

Lately, the word out of Washington, DC from the plugged in people is that there will be no debt ceiling crisis coming up before the election. Politico says so, and so does the National Journal. MSNBC also agrees.
But not so fast, says the Washington Post, echoing the Wall Street Journal provided the House Republicans can agree on “. . . an extortion demand.” If they can, then we wll have another debt ceiling crisis.

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The Powerful “Black Effect” v. Peltzman’s Hyped Effect

By William K. Black

My title extends the humorous theme of I found in an article by Dr. David S. Pisetsky’s (M.D., Ph. D).  Pisetsky’s riff is that he was eager to become famous by announcing “Pisetsky’s Rules” about rheumatology treatment risks and discovered to his great disappointment that Sam Peltzman had got their first and the risk phenomenon Pisetsky wished to warn about was already known as the “Peltzman effect.”  

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