This is one of those posts that requires a fairly long preface, so bear with me here.

I will not make the egotistical assumption that all of you know my history, but to save those of you who do the excruciating pain of going into the full bio, let me say "I've come a long way, baby."  My thinking has been so changed since arriving at TPM exactly one year ago yesterday, I hardly recognize the woman I was then. I was a non-thinking sheep, staunch Republican whose mind was closed to anything said by a Democrat. Now, I am a Democrat who fights everyday to avoid becoming a non-thinking, staunch Democrat whose mind is closed to anything said by a Republican. In other words, for really the first time as an adult, I am trying to learn as much as I can and make a decision based on reality, or at least as much reality as it is possible to have when all your information comes from people who have biases, regardless of whether those biases are ill-intentioned or not.

I have admitted on many occasions that I am troubled by the notion of "single pay" although I've warmed to it over the months. I see people struggling with illness and an inability to afford health care. The idea of anyone dying in America because they can't afford a doctor, or losing their homes because of the overwhelming costs of health care brings me to tears, literally. My compassion sometimes overrides logic, and I have gotten to the point where I am almost ready to throw caution to the wind and support single pay. Almost.

I've participated in several discussions here about the pros and cons of single pay vs. reforming the insurance industry. My hesitation about single pay has always been the expansion of the government's role in our health care. I have always been, and continue to be wary of the government. I do not trust our elected officials as far as I can throw them. I have more faith in President Obama than I have ever had in any president before, but trust? I'm not completely there. The point is, our elected officials have done little to inspire my confidence. In truth, the more I pay attention, the more convinced I become that the "republicrats"  do not have the country's best interests at heart, let alone ours as individuals, but rather, their own selfish interests. Be it power, money, sex...they all want something other than seeing this country be the best it can be for ALL of its citizens.

I see most of our elected officials and most, if not all the big wigs in the insurance/pharma/medical arena (as well as most, if not all CEOs of ALL corporations, but that is best left for another post) as being akin to a highly aggressive melanoma. Rather than being simply parasites that latch onto a host, then milk it just enough to get what it needs, but leaving the host healthy enough to survive, these CANCERS just greedily eat away until the host is dead, in spite of the fact that they will die as well (but it'll be a helluva party until then!)

So then, it is no wonder that after reading the essay I will present just a little further down, I find myself rethinking my rethinking. This is not an easy essay to read (It's not hard reading, just hard to ignore the snipes to get to the meat.) It is obviously written by a person who has much disdain for the left and the current administration. I was only able to get through it because I promised my husband I would read the whole thing with an open mind. I almost couldn't get through the third paragraph (the first two were pretty funny.)  As much as I want to disregard the whole essay, it contains some uncomfortable (possible/probable) truths that I think we need to at least examine before we cast them off, in spite of the partisan rhetoric I abhor.

I am tempted to give you a few teasers, but I would truly like to have a discussion on the essay itself, with people who have taken the time to read it. THE WHOLE THING. But I will give you the disclaimer at the end so you can get a taste of the writing style of the author, a man by the name of Clifford S. Asness, Ph.D. (Managing and Founding Principal AQR Capital Management, LLC.


"This is Cliff speaking now. AQR's legal department would like me to add that I am criminally insane and barred by an order of rhetoric protection from speaking on AQR's behalf. Anyone trading on my advice, or a client, consultant, employee or Iraqi insurgent thinking he has been wronged by my attitudes or opinions can have a $250 out-of-court settlement right now if you'll sign a waiver, otherwise we'll break you. Oh, and we lied about the $250, but seriously, we will break you. Please note, nobody can predict where markets will go in the short-run and sometimes even the long-run. When I point out individual things in the marketplace that I think are strange, or wrong, it doesn't mean I have the perfect answer or can easily make money from it for my clients, for myself, or certainly for you reading this essay! Furthermore, if you read one guy's opinion and do anything based solely on that, you are an idiot. Next, as the legalese above alludes to, the actual funds and accounts AQR manages are run using models that may or may not agree with what I'm writing herein, particularly as our models will generally have a shorter time horizon than the things I'll be writing about. Listen to me at your own risk! If you choose to read what I write please only use it as one input for you to critically evaluate in your decision process.

Finally, my style is to write very aggressively and passionately about what I believe. So unless you are a libertarian/objectivist, small government and free market loving, socialist hating, value investing geek you probably won't agree with everything or anything I say. If you find the way I say it insulting, I'm sorry about the first few words you couldn't help reading, but if you read a moment past that (in this disclaimer or later), it is on you. I agree we need to censor things occasionally but only to protect children and madmen (and of course the children of madmen). If you believe in censoring anything else short of a nuclear secret you'd probably look good in hobnail boots and the crooked cross. Thanks for listening."


So, What do you think guys? Is there any of what he says that we need to consider before heading forward? Or is this just propaganda? And if you believe it is, why do you think so? Even though a lot of what he says makes sense, I don't know this guy. I value your opinions.