samedi 16 février 2013

French recipe of recession (1): the minimum wage

According to G Mankiw the minimum wage is almost only a political issue to get votes but it hurts especially young workers. It is exactly what we observed in southern Europe, in Spain, Greece but also now in France:

"The minimum wage has its greatest impact on the market for teenage labor. The equilibrium wages of teenagers are low because teenagers are among the least skilled and least experienced members of the labor force. In addition, teenagers are often willing to accept a lower wage in exchange for on‑the‑job training. (Some teenagers are willing to work as "interns" for no pay at all. Because internships pay nothing, however, the minimum wage does not apply to them. If it did, these jobs might not exist.) As a result, the minimum wage is more often binding for teenagers than for other members of the labor force.

Many economists have studied how minimum-wage laws affect the teenage labor market. These researchers compare the changes in the minimum wage over time with the changes in teenage employment. Although there is some debate about how much the minimum wage affects employment, the typical study finds that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage depresses teenage employment between 1 and 3 percent. In interpreting this estimate, note that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage does not raise the average wage of teenagers by 10 percent. A change in the law does not directly affect those teenagers who are already paid well above the minimum, and enforcement of minimum-wage laws is not perfect. Thus, the estimated drop in employment of 1 to 3 percent is significant. 

In addition to altering the quantity of labor demanded, the minimum wage also alters the quantity supplied. Because the minimum wage raises the wage that teenagers can earn, it increases the number of teenagers who choose to look for jobs. Studies have found that a higher minimum wage influences which teenagers are employed. When the minimum wage rises, some teenagers who are still attending school choose to drop out and take jobs. These new dropouts displace other teenagers who had already dropped out of school and who now become unemployed.

The minimum wage is a frequent topic of political debate. Advocates of the minimum wage view the policy as one way to raise the income of the working poor. They correctly point out that workers who earn the minimum wage can afford only a meager standard of living. In 2005, for instance, when the minimum wage was $5.15 per hour, two adults working 40 hours a week for every week of the year at minimum-wage jobs had a total annual income of only $21,424, which was less than half of the median family income. Many advocates of the minimum wage admit that it has some adverse effects, including unemployment, but they believe that these effects are small and that, all things considered, a higher minimum wage makes the poor better off.

Opponents of the minimum wage contend that it is not the best way to combat poverty. They note that a high minimum wage causes unemployment, encourages teenagers to drop out of school, and prevents some unskilled workers from getting the on-the-job training they need. Moreover, opponents of the minimum wage point out that the minimum wage is a poorly targeted policy. Not all minimum-wage workers are heads of households trying to help their families escape poverty. In fact, fewer than a third of minimum-wage earners are in families with incomes below the poverty line. Many are teenagers from middle‑class homes working at part-time jobs for extra spending money."

Diclofenac: augmentation des accidents cardiovasculaires

Les noms de masque:
Artotec, Flector, Solaraze, Voldal et Voltarène, Xenid

Ce que dit l'ANSM:

Réévaluation du rapport bénéfice /risque des médicaments à base de diclofénac :


Le PRAC a initié une réévaluation des médicaments contenant du diclofénac, afin de préciser leur sécurité d’emploi sur le plan cardiovasculaire.
Le diclofénac est un médicament largement prescrit (deuxième rang des prescriptions en France parmi tous les AINS), appartenant à la classe des anti-inflammatoires non stéroïdiens (AINS) de type non sélectifs, utilisés dans le traitement de la douleur et de l’inflammation. Une analyse de données les plus récentes de la littérature scientifique sur les effets indésirables cardiovasculaires des AINS non sélectifs (notamment infarctus du myocarde et accident vasculaire cérébral) a été effectuée et met en évidence un risque cardiovasculaire plus élevé avec le diclofénac qu’avec les aux autres AINS non sélectifs. Ce risque est similaire à celui des coxibs (inhibiteurs des Cox-2, autre classe de médicaments utilisés dans le traitement de la douleur et de l’inflammation)[3] .
La réévaluation va prendre en compte l’ensemble des spécialités contenant du diclofénac à usage systémique (c'est-à-dire les formes orales ou injectables). Le PRAC va évaluer ainsi l’impact de ces dernières données sur le rapport bénéfice-risque des spécialités à base de diclofénac. L’autorité sanitaire danoise en charge du médicament est responsable de cette évaluation.

Bizarre quand même que l'ANSM ne recommande PAS AU MOINS DE RECOURIR EN PRIORITE A D'AUTRES AINS...

1/ McGettigan P, Henry D. Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that elevate cardiovascular risk: An examination of sales and essential medicine lists in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. PLoS Med 2013; DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001388. 


2/ http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001389

3/ http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=pages/news_and_events/news/2012/10/news_detail_001637.jsp&mid=WC0b01ac058004d5c1

Open data: une autre étude impossible en France

Interdiction de fumer dans les lieux publics et naissance avant terme: un effet rapide et mesurable.
Protéger les enfants à naître! Voilà un rôle régalien et surtout quand il s'intéresse aux externalités négatives parfaitement évitables des comportemenst des adultes.



http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f441

vendredi 15 février 2013

L'hypocrisie continue: pas d'open data sur les infections nosocomiales

Nous ne savons toujours pas si le nombre d'infections nosocomiales s'améliore en France.
En effet seuls les moyens mis en oeuvre pour lutter contre ces infections sont mesurés.
Donc on achète toujours plus d'aseptisants.
Oui mais quels sont les résultats?
Les résultats?
Pas de gros mots Monsieur...

http://www.cdc.gov/hai/national-annual-sir/index.html

Aux US la situation est mieux connue grace à la publication du SIR.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/779195?nlid=28291_1382&src=wnl_edit_medn_surg&uac=7267HX&spon=14

Migraine treatment without drugs

http://www.cefalymedical.com/shop/traitement-migraine/francais_a/checkout/cart/

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/778875

http://www.neurology.org/content/early/2013/02/06/WNL.0b013e3182825055.abstract

Quantifier et comparer le risque de mourir...

Il est essentiel de visualiser ce graphique:


Il manque cependant un élément:
il y a des causes évitables de mort et d'autres aléatoires...


La presse française

"Les journalistes militent, plus qu'ils n'informent. Et comme de plus, les directeurs de rédactions doivent être approuvés par un vote des rédactions, ils doivent satisfaire leur exigence déplorable d'endogamie et  d'homogénéité politique."
En savoir plus sur http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/succession-tete-monde-anti-liberalisme-echevele-est-maladie-transmissible-au-sein-presse-francaise-benjamin-dormann-639474.html#U6ighSszypFxFeTt.99 


Benjamin Dorrman

mardi 12 février 2013

B Lemaire doit revoir son histoire de France

Il critique les apparatchiks français politiciens à vie et cumulards. Bon c'est une révélation soudaine? Il vient d'entrer en politique ou bien préparae-t-il une candidature plus blanche que blanche?
Hum je frémis à l'idée que Mme Taubira puisse interpréter mon propos...
Bref Le maire crache dans la soupe avec bruit.
Mais là où il se méprend ou bien devient un simple démagogue c'est qu'il nomme cette classe d'apparatchiks aristocratie!
Non Mr Lemaire l'aristocratie c'est autre chose. Elle ne cumule pas elle ne prélève pas 57% du PIB elle se contente de la dîme... L'aristocratie esten principe, fondée sur le mérite, l'éducation.
Le seul problème de la France c'est le poids et la atille de l'état. réduire l'état à ses rôles régaliens réduira aussi les parasites qui en vivent et le pays repartira.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/02/12/97001-20130212FILWWW00756-le-maire-critique-laristocratie-francaise.php

Addiction to painkillers among patients with headaches


"Not only can sustained medication overuse cause headache but it can result in tolerance and
addiction to drugs."


"Medication overuse headache
1.2.7 Be alert to the possibility of medication overuse headache in people whose
headache developed or worsened while they were taking the following drugs
for 3 months or more:
triptans, opioids, ergots or combination analgesic medications on 10 days per month
or more or
paracetamol, aspirin or an NSAID, either alone or in any combination, on 15 days
per month or more."


http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13901/60854/60854.pdf

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/13901/60853/60853.pdf

Wet-induced wrinkles in fingers and toes

http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/328223

Le meilleur article sur les lasagnes de cheval: laissez faire les flics!

http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/que-scandale-findus-revele-infiltration-mafias-en-europe-stephane-quere-636220.html

Quote of the day

"We have come to define capitalism as strictly a market phenomenon based on efficiency and trading. This narrative has both alienated and impoverished us. We need to recast capitalism as a social movement led by entrepreneurs generating new products with high economic value."

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671836/4-things-obama-could-do-to-foster-americas-creativity?partner=newsletter

Ce qui ne se voit pas en recherche pharmacologique ou interventionnelle

Les ennemis de la liberté et de l'entreprise ne sont pas avares de critiques sur les trusts pharmaceutiques et leurs méga profits...
Seulement voilà on ne parle pas des échecs de la recherche. Bien sur je ne veux pas parler de quelques mini études mais des gros échecs qui coûtent très très chers.
Le NEJM vient d'en publier un... Je ne sais pas combien a coûté l'essai mais c'est à coup sur une affaire de plusieurs millions de dollars. La seule chose à noter est que l'essai a été stoppé précocement en raison de l'inefficacité du traitement proposé.
Il y a eu d'autres exemples:
" When Pfizer announced that it was halting clinical testing of its new cholesterol drug, torcetrapib, the company's market value fell by $21 billion overnight. Ten thousand job cuts followed. The ongoing promise of nearly $3 billion in annual sales vanished when Merck pulled Vioxx (rofecoxib) from the shelves, and the company's market value fell by $25 billion. For decades, blockbuster drugs have nourished Big Pharma, but it is increasingly uncertain whether they can be counted on to support the industry in the future. "

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078020



http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1214300#t=article

Open data and health issues: what we cannot know in France

Despite having a huge data base France's state illness insurance forbids statistical studies on these data. Contrary to the point of view of the french bureaucracy this secrecy  do not protect individuals from misuse of these data by private businesses. It only impairs research and development of better treatments.
But that is not the only issue raised by the retention of data.
Some others issues are critical as appears in this week in Drug and alcohol dependence a journal devoted to publish papers on drugs alcohol and tobacco use.
Drug overdose is increasing in NYC.
What happens in Europe and France?




Prescription opioid mortality trends in New York City, 1990–2006: Examining the emergence of an epidemic 


In order to have a look to open data in health within the hexagone:

http://www.data.gouv.fr/content/search?SearchText=Financement+et+d%C3%A9penses+de+la+s%C3%A9curit%C3%A9+sociale


http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ENDO/39963?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2013-06-20&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g432148d0r&userid=432148&email=guyandrepelouze@gmail.com&mu_id=5529932

US welfare state is becoming frenchy! Achtung the $ will plummet



lundi 11 février 2013

Universe and cosmos: look at them as a computer scene

Frankly I am not sure of my title and comments are wellcome!
But I am not kidding:

"In this work, we have taken seriously the possibility that our universe is a numerical simulation.
In particular, we have explored a number of observables that may reveal the underlying structure of a simulation performed with a rigid hyper-cubic space-time grid."



And they add eventually:

 


"Nevertheless, assuming that the universe is finite and therefore the resources of potential simulators are finite, then a volume containing a simulation will be finite and a lattice spacing must be non-zero, and therefore in principle there always remains the possibility for the simulated to discover the simulators."

For those with a good background in physics they said in the conclusion:




"A number of elements required for a simulation of our universe directly from the fundamental laws of physics have not yet been established, and we have assumed that they will, in fact, be developed at some point in the future; two important elements being an algorithm for simulating chiral gauge theories, and quantum gravity. It is interesting to note that in the simulation scenario, the fundamental energy scale defined by the lattice spacing can be orders of magnitude smaller than the Planck scale, in which case the conflict between quantum mechanics and gravity should be absent."


http://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.1847v2.pdf

Stress and cancer: no statistical link!

This meta-analysis is about 116 000 participants...
I suspect that other factors are so strong like smoking, obesity, sedentarity, W6 PUFA imbalance in diet, carcinogens from high temp cooking... that stress is far from appearing in statistical analysis. It is an important finding because public health policies should focus on the actual factors of cancers and not on supposed factors favored by subjective evaluation of patients.
On the other hand stress could be protective against cancer as the hormesis hypothesis states. This is in keeping with an evolutionary perspective of cancer.








http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f165.pdf%2Bhtml

dimanche 10 février 2013

Gender?


"Testosterone from the fetal testis is aromatized to estradiol within the fetal brain.
During the critical period estradiol causes organization of the CNS. The
organizational effects which occur during fetal development in long gestation
species or postnatally in short gestation species are permanent. In contrast the
activational effects of the hormones are transient and occur in adulthood, ie
puberty. Exposure to testosterone / estradiol during the fetal period
masculinizes and defeminizes the brain. Masculinization of the nuclei is essential
for male-typical adult behaviors. Defeminization is the loss of adult femaletypical behaviors and suppression of estradiol to induce an LH surge."


http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/bms/PDF/640_TD_sexdiffnotes.pdf

http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2010/04/wired-for-sex.html

http://endo.endojournals.org/content/150/9/3980.full.pdf+html

Viande de cheval au lieu de la viande de boeuf: B Lemaire a une solution...

Alors même que l'enquête n'a pas commencé et que nous ne savons rien de sérieux sur cette affaire les politiques rivalisent d'ingéniosité réglementaire...
B Lemaire veut un étiquetage plus cher et ne sait pas qui va payer...
Si l'étiquetage comprend des données de métrologie ou de qualité supplémentaires il faudra payer ces mesures. Et je suis sur que cela ne sera pas le vendeur de Lasagnes.
Et derrière tout cela il y a le vieux réflexe protectionniste: l'origine géographique de la viande. Comme cela est une garantie. Ce n'est nullement l'origine de la viande qui garantit sa qualité c'est ce que mange les animaux.
Attendons donc les résultats de l'enquête pour proposer des "mesures". Car si on réfléchit sereinement force est de constater que les accidents sont très très rares.
Et surtout soyons réalistes il s'agit d'une fraude et donc c'est à la police d'arrêter le ou les coupables et à la justice de le les juger. Les politiques se font mousser à nos frais.
Plus de réglementation plus de taxes c'est moins de croissance.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/2013/02/10/97002-20130210FILWWW00116-le-maire-veut-ameliorer-l-etiquetage.php
 
Paperblog