Apple stock as a hedge

Many people seem upset when Apple prices its products too high, or too low. Others are upset at the relentless pace of Apple product releases because they either make previous generations of  products seem obsolete too quickly or inspire such gadget lust that people find themselves spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on Apple gear regularly.

Here's my tip: buy some shares of Apple stock.* ​I've spent a healthy chunk of change with Apple every year now for years and years, but my guilt is assuaged by Apple's consistently strong stock price performance (I've owned Apple stock for that same period of time). The stock feels like a hedge of sorts against my personal spending on their products.

* I'm being facetious, of course, and won't give out serious stock purchase advice here, but I'm serious about their share appreciation offsetting some of my Apple spending guilt. Every time Apple holds a keynote event I can feel my credit card in my wallet heating up, like the Sankara stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Even fictional journalism is hurting

Superman, err, Clark Kent, quit his job at The Daily Planet today, to start his own blog. Not over decreasing ad rates because of pressure from the increased supply of free alternatives on the internet, however.​ According to the writer Scott Lobdell:

This is really what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind a desk and he has to take instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren't really his own. Superman is arguably the most powerful person on the planet, but how long can he sit at his desk with someone breathing down his neck and treating him like the least important person in the world?

More:​

Rather than Clark be this clownish suit that Superman puts on, we're going to really see Clark come into his own in the next few years as far as being a guy who takes to the Internet and to the airwaves and starts speaking an unvarnished truth.

Clark Kent as Andrew Sullivan?​ It sounds ridiculous, but stories that humanize Superman have always been far more interesting than those that deify him. This new plot doesn't sound like a bold enough move to take the character into territory, but they should continue to push in those directions.

Why does Superman even pose as a reporter in the first place? Is it for cultural assimilation, or as a way to better empathize with the people he needs to protect? Didn't he get enough of that in high school? If he really wanted to maximize the good he does the world with his superpowers shouldn't he just fly around 24 hours a day dealing with crime and despots and natural disasters? Is the mental strain too much to handle full time? Does he need to sleep? Does posing as a commoner reveal some deep-seated need to be anonymous? Maybe he's a social misfit at heart? Does he get too lonely and need to kick back with coworkers for the occasional beer? Superman has always been one of the weakest written of superheroes, and the mythology hasn't aged well. But a brave writer could really use Superman as a platform to explore some interesting themes.

Does anyone even read physical comic books anymore? Is the readership enough to justify the real profit business which is licensing the characters for movies? I suppose if the business even breaks even or turns a slight loss the movie licensing revenue is still worth it, but it seems odd to even print any comic books on paper anymore. Maybe Apple's 30% commission on digital comics makes that channel no more profitable than physical book sales, though it's hard to imagine given paper printing costs and returns.

​Too bad Alan Moore seems done taking the occasional swing at rewriting famous superheroes. He wrote some of the more intriguing Superman stories, like this and this.

The healthcare market

Yichuan Wang argues that conservatives who believe that replacing ObamaCare with a market for individual health insurance is ​not as simple a free market solution as that for many other goods and services in his post Healthcare and Cars are Not Isomorphic.

Wang notes that as healthcare is a service, not a good like a car, "one productive hospital cannot simply 'export' its health care services across the country.​

Some of the commenters on the post argue that healthcare is easily exportable, just like any other service (McDonald's and WalMart are cited as examples, among others). However, a study by Georgetown University​ that looked at George, Maine, and Wyoming, three states that allowed sale of insurance across state lines found that nothing happened. The primary deterrent was "the localized nature of how health care is delivered."

Respondents universally reported the enormous difficulty that out-of-state insurers face in building a network of local providers, and insurers identified doing so as a significant barrier to market entry that far surpasses concerns about a state’s regulatory environment or benefit mandates. State officials and insurers also noted that across state lines legislation ignores the primary cause of high prices—the cost of delivering care—and fails to account for often dramatic differences in the cost of care between states and regions.

Practical barriers and administrative obstacles also hinder success. Many state regulators are reluctant to relinquish some or all authority to enforce state standards by taking the risk of allowing another state to establish and enforce consumer protections that affect their residents. Respondents in five states reported difficulties in implementation because other states have little incentive to establish across state lines partnerships. In addition, officials and insurers in all six states noted the complexity of health insurance as a practical barrier to across state lines proposals and that establishing the rules under which an interstate health insurance compact would operate would likely demand more time and resources than states are willing to commit.

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While it is certainly the case that many consumers and small businesses lack meaningful choices among insurers and struggle to find affordable coverage, our findings suggest that across state lines legislation does not appear to be the “silver bullet” that proponents are searching for.

​More importantly, though, Wang notes one critical difficulty with healthcare: determining the quality of service.

But this is an incomplete justification. Haircuts are also services, but few people think barbershops require regulation. Yet, they differ in one key respect. While it is easy for me  to determine the quality of my haircut, it is much more difficult for me to determine what counts as “good” health care. A large part of this is linked to the uncertainty inherent in any kind of biological process. How does one determine if one is receiving sufficient care? Of course, if there is any gross negligence, it can be detected. Yet if the care is just slightly worse than it should be, there's no real way for the consumer to know. The problem is compounded by the fact that most people rarely get sick. If you go to get a haircut every month, you can quickly determine which barbershop is the best. Unfortunately for neoclassical economists but fortunately for society as a whole, people need catastrophic care substantially less often than they need haircuts, thereby impeding the market from finding the most efficient solution.

​I think of this every time I need to find a doctor for one reason or another. Determining who to choose from the hundreds of doctors listed on the website of my insurance provider might as well be like picking a blind date out of a phone book. I have so much more information to help me pick the best tablet computer or the best running back to pick up off of waivers this week in fantasy football than I do to choose a doctor to care for a critical health issue that it's like a plot scenario out of an absurdist tragedy.

Nitro

Certainly, moving the emissions from the vehicle’s exhaust pipe to the power station makes it easier to control the pollution. So, the question becomes whether there is a more efficient way of packaging electricity for use in vehicles, other than charging batteries or making hydrogen by electrolysis of water?

A growing body of opinion seems to think liquid air is the answer (or, more specifically, the nitrogen component that makes up 78% of air).

​Overview of a potentially viable alternative to batteries or hydrogen to power emission-free vehicles. As a bonus, liquid nitrogen can be used to make some crazy modern dishes in the kitchen.