Submitted to the Economist:

Sir,

Your recent article on US tort reform legislation mentioned that spiraling medical-malpractice costs are pushing up medical care costs. A January 2004 brief published by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) investigated the potential outcome of such legislation. Research of states that have already instituted lawsuit caps found that they did result in a 25 to 30% reduction in claims paid, but since medical-malpractice claims account for only 2% of total medical costs their net result would probably lower health care costs by .4 to .5%. Perhaps most telling is when the CBO compared per capita health care spending between states with lawsuit caps and those without and found no significant difference. Tort reform legislation may temporarily gratify Congress' need to solve all of America's problems but will provide little change in health care costs.

I bought The Bands' "Music from the Big Pink" yesterday online at Barnes and Noble. It is almost impossible to buy an album that is over 30 years old that isn't subjected to the "bonus track." The extra songs added that generally double the album's size and are intended to add value. They are either songs that were not good enough to make the album the first time around or different versions of the most popular songs on the album. The bonus tracks are added to the end so if it is played straight through they can be avoided but if you put it in a multi-disc player and put it on random you might find yourself listening to three versions or "Let's Get It On" in an hour's time. This might be what you want if your Marvin Gaye's nephew but what about the rest of us?

Do people really want this stuff? Are people up in the air between a Rolling Stone's disc and the Beach Boys and the deciding factor was the addition of the “The Sloop John B” in stereo?

The Poor Man: Compare and Contrast

Ain't that the truth.