OUR NATIONAL MOOD is currently characterized by two things: anger and anxiety. Many people are angry because of the Trump presidency and his ongoing contribution to political deterioration. Others are angry because his presidency did not continue. But a wider feeling, traumatizing all except the fringes, is anxiety stemming from concern about how our national […]
Edward M Murphy
Edward M. Murphy worked in state government from 1979-1995, serving as the commissioner of the Department of Youth Services, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, and executive director of the Health and Educational Facilities Authority. He recently retired as CEO and chairman of one of the country’s largest providers of services to people with disabilities.
Posted inOpinion
Can Mass. launch the fusion revolution?
SINCE THE 1950s physicists have researched something they knew was theoretically possible but technically challenging: the effective generation of fusion energy as a substitute for carbon-based power. The prospect of clean, unlimited, and inexpensive electricity generated by safe devices that will not melt down or produce nuclear waste is a holy grail for climate change. […]
Posted inOpinion
What Joe McCarthy and Donald Trump have in common
McCarthy: Power Feeds on Fear is a new documentary nationally available from PBS. The film details Joe McCarthy’s rise in the late 1940s from political obscurity in Wisconsin to become the most famous and intimidating US Senator. He achieved that distinction by promoting and exploiting the “Red Scare” fear of communist subversion that existed in […]
Posted inHealth Care
The reality of Medicare for All is not what you think
DEBATES AMONG CANDIDATES for the Democratic presidential nomination feature discussions of how to address the significant shortcomings of the US healthcare system. All the candidates appear to support versions of expanded coverage and many of them have endorsed the idiom that has arisen from Bernie Sanders’ two presidential campaigns: “Medicare for All.” From a political […]
Posted inOpinion
Progressive taxation — let’s do it right
ON MAY 8, THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE restarted the lengthy process that may put a constitutional amendment requiring a “millionaire tax” before voters in 2022. Advocates had hoped that the amendment would appear on the statewide ballot in 2018, but the Supreme Judicial Court found a significant procedural error that prohibited it being placed before the electorate. That decision derailed several […]
Posted inOpinion
Cost of drugs in the US is an outrage
THE HIGH COST OF PHARMACEUTICALS in the United States is an embarrassment. Americans don’t consume more prescription medications than their counterparts in other developed countries but, on a per capita basis, we spend almost twice as much. The traditional rationale for this disparity is that we are more innovative and must pay up for pharmaceutical […]
Posted inOpinion
Our Know Nothing heritage on immigration
THE HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION to the United States is also the history of the response to immigration. Since the founding of the republic, intermittent surges of foreign-born newcomers have consistently produced hostility in parts of the population who feared economic competition and cultural subversion. In addition, with each wave some politicians exploited that fear by […]
Posted inOpinion
Why does Humira cost less in Europe?
POLITICIANS FREQUENTLY TALK about doing something to address the high cost of pharmaceuticals. President Trump has made especially loud promises that he would lower drug prices “really, really substantially.” On October 15 the administration announced an “historic proposal” intended to accomplish Trump’s goal. A new rule would require manufacturers to disclose drug prices in any […]
Posted inOpinion
The real driver of health care spending
THE HEALTH CARE DEBATES that occurred in Washington over the past year were largely irrelevant to what’s happening in the health care marketplace. Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act but they made some changes that weakened it. Those changes will increase insurance premiums in the individual market but they do nothing to address the […]
Posted inEducation
The Mount Ida Rorschach test
TWO MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGES announced plans to close this year. The demise of Atlantic Union College in Lancaster went virtually unnoticed. The closure of Mount Ida College in Newton has created a lot of contention and continues to generate stories, editorials, and opinion columns in multiple news outlets. The location of Mount Ida in metropolitan Boston […]