Pulse: US


Change of Edge - EconVue Spotlight October 2022

Are central banks overreacting to inflation? Are we in for a positive surprise?

Hospital REITs Revisited: Rebutting Misleading and Inaccurate Policy Analysis

Steward Health Care System has pioneered the creation of accountable care networks nationwide through private funding sources. Steward was the first for-profit healthcare system to use private equity funding (Cerberus) to rescue, reimagine and reinvent a nonprofit health system (Caritas Christi). Steward subsequently became the first health system to use REIT financing (Medical Properties Trust) to fund aggressive expansion of their operating model to new markets.

Healthcare’s Jobs to Be Done (Part 2): Application

Clay Christensen’s insights on disruption and innovation have shaped my perspective on health industry transformation and featured prominently in both of my books. In Part 1 of this series, I detailed his pathbreaking work on “Jobs to be Done (Jobs)” at Harvard Business School. By understanding what “jobs” customers “hire” products to do, innovative companies can design their products to get those jobs done.

Nicaragua: Dictatorship and Collaboration with Extra-Hemispheric U.S. Rivals

This work looks at how the Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua has further clamped down on dissent and consolidated power since the rigged November 2021 Presidential elections, and how it is increasingly serving as an entry-point for expanded activity in the region by Russia, Iran, and the PRC.

Healthcare’s Jobs to Be Done (Part 1): A Primer

I’ve been an admirer of Clay Christensen’s work since the late 1990s. Shortly after he published The Innovator’s Dilemma in 1997, Christensen headlined a Merrill Lynch global retreat for managing directors. During his keynote address, he presented and applied his theory of disruptive innovation. I was mesmerized.

Hidden Damages: August Spotlight 2022

Is Covid just a dress rehearsal? What have we learned about living with our biological and geopolitical adversaries?https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/19/long-covid-brain-effects/

The Evolution of Peru’s Multidimensional Challenges, Part II: Transnational Organized Crime

Peru’s crisis of politics and governability has reinforced economic and fiscal pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic and increased in food and fuel prices due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, to greatly complicate grave challenges from transnational organized crime and terrorism in the country. Those crises have also undermined the resources available to the country to effectively respond through investing in the modernization, adaptation, and strengthening of its security institutions, and other parts of its whole-of-government response.

Separate And Unequal (Part 2): Overcoming Healthcare’s Profound Facilities Maldistribution

In Part 1 of “Separate and Unequal,” I took the Biden Administration to task for its proposed 2022 regulatory initiatives to advance health equity and improve maternal-health outcomes. These initiatives include five new reporting measures for hospitals and a new “birthing-friendly  hospital” designation. My complaint is that they add to hospitals’ regulatory burden without improving health access and service provision for people living in low-income communities.

We May Not Have a Recession

The media’s view of the economy has turned dark. The Washington Post instructs, “How to Recession-Proof Your Life,” ABC News counsels, “How to Prepare for a Possible Recession,” and Bloomberg says, “U.S. Recession Is Now More Likely Than Not.” These doomsday reports are reliable clickbait, and faltering consumer confidence suggests that many people believe them. Yet they fail to consider what’s happening in business investment, employment, corporate profits, and consumer spending. 

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