Up From Facebook

A typical administrative response to financial difficulty in large organizations is to hire consultants. The theory is that the expertise of consultants will uncover efficiencies that will (a) relieve the difficulties and (b) repay the investment in the consultants. So how’s that working out for American nonprofit hospitals, many of which struggling and threatened with closure? “ Findings     Nonprofit hospitals in the US (n = 2343) collectively spent more than $7.8 billion on management consulting services from 2009 to 2023. A stacked difference-in-differences design comparing 306 US nonprofit hospitals that used a management consulting firm for the first time with 513 matched hospitals that did not use a management consulting firm during the study period found little evidence of substantial, statistically significant, or systematic changes attributable to management consulting engagements.   “Meaning     These findings raise questions about the net value that ...

I recently retired as a professor in the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Who was Edward A. Doisy? He was the only Nobel Laureate from Saint Louis University. He shared the 1943 prize in Physiology or Medicine for identifying the two forms of vitamin K and determining their structure, enabling synthetic production to treat bleeding disorders. Vitamin K is routinely given by injection to newborns to prevent Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB), a dangerous condition caused by low clotting factors. Newborns have limited vitamin K stores, breast milk provides low levels, and their intestines cannot yet produce it, making the shot crucial for preventing sudden, severe internal bleeding. Now, in the third decade of the 21 st  century, parents in the richest nation on the planet are refusing to protect their newborns from preventable death because they’ve been duped by conspiracy theories.  “At the morgue,...

  From a PBS post on Facebook yesterday: “ On May 5, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution.   “It all began when the state of Tennessee passed a law making it a crime to teach evolution in public schools. The newly-organized American Civil Liberties Union responded immediately, placing an ad inviting a teacher to help test the law in the courts.   “A group of local businessmen selected Scopes to provoke the indictment, both to challenge the law and to draw publicity to Dayton during an economic slump.   “But once the trial got under way, a pair of big-name lawyers—Clarence Darrow for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution—overshadowed Scopes' role.” I took Biology II as a senior in a public high school in Tennessee, 1972-73. When we reached a section on evolution, the teacher asked if there were any concerns. Nobody voiced any, so we moved on.

As I told a guy today up at Slater Park, I plan to live to 100 because very few people die after that age. I didn’t tell him that I plagiarized that George Burns line. I could also have quoted Woody Allen: I plan to achieve immortality by not dying. There are certainly things one can do to prolong life. The most reliable, in every animal in which it has been tested is caloric restriction. That means  reducing average daily calorie intake by typically 20–40% below normal requirements while maintaining proper nutrition. Is that living? We report, you decide. As for the “Blue Zone lifestyle”: The secret to Blue Zone lifestyle longevity is poor record-keeping. Be careful what you wish for. A long life with Alzheimers is a curse, not a gift. https://science.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/dr-saul-newman-has-uncovered-secret-living-110  

I’ve read over 200 history books and biographies. The two great drivers of history are war and money. For a dose of military history, I recently read “The Dark Path” by Williamson Murray. A big take-home of that book was how often victory depended on superior finances. For economic history, I’ve read “ Money: The true story of a made-up thing” by Jacob Goldstein, “ The world for sale” by  Jack Farchy and Javier Blas   and “Our dollar, your problem” by Kenneth Rogoff. But to understand the history of international finance, I turned to “Money Beyond Borders:  Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto ” by Barry Eichengreen.   This book begins with deep dives into the minting of Greek silver tetradrachms and Roman silver denarius, and the consequences of debasement by rulers like Nero. Both nations reached well beyond their borders with their coins, both through trade and by paying their far-flung militaries in coin.. Eichengreen argues that the fall of th...

  It was clear by the late ‘60s that America was doing far more harm than good in Vietnam and should just sue for peace and get out. Eventually, the US left and the Vietcong took over. Eventually, Vietnam became a reliable US trade partner. America is doing far more harm than good in Iran. Trump should just negotiate the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz and get out. Eventually, the religious dictatorship in Iran will give way to a government better able to work with its neighbors and with the US.