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Ezra Klein on the three questions on which the Supreme Court will decide after three days of hearings on March 26-28, 2012- the Anti-Injunction act, The Individual Mandate, and Medicaid Expansion. Related to the Individual Mandate question are Severability issues.

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The political risk in China as the change of leadership takes place in 2012, and with the removal of Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai. The slowing of manufacturing activity and slowdown in growth expected in 2012-2014. Export growth declines to 6.8% from 14.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011. Quarterly surveys by the central bank shows demand for loans is dropping. And the HSBC purchasing managers index shows a reading of 48.1 in March, declining from 49.6% in February, showing shrinking manufacturing activity in China- anything less than 50 means contraction is taking place.

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Friedman describes the "Lies" of U.S. officials of this and previous administrations, in their policies towards the Middle East and South Asia, that ignore the legitimate interests and aspirations of the people in the region.

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The views of Anne-Marie Slaughter and other high ranking current and former officials in the Defense Department and State Department on the idea of a military strike by Israel or the U.S. on Iran and the unforeseen consequences.

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Experts view the behaviour of 10 year Treasury yields at different periods following the 2008 financial crisis. Twice in early 2010 and early 2011 there were signals that the economy was not so weak before faltering, each time 10 year Treasury yields went up to 3.75-4% before going down to the 2.24% level. This situation appears to be happening again in 2012 with rates dropping in the first quarter to between 1.82%- 2.11%. The yields on 10 year Treasury jumped again, this time to 2.39% on March 19, 2012, as the eurozone crisis fears and U.S. economic growth fears subsided for the time being.

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An average of major opinion polls compiled by Real Clear Politics website shows 50.5% of Americans opposed to the Obama U.S. health care law.

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President Obama picks Dartmouth College president, Jim Yong Kim, as the U.S. choice for president of the World Bank. Kim is a physician who co-founded Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization for providing health care to the poor. He was a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization. Working with Partners in Health in Lima, Peru, mid-1990's, he helped establish a large scale treatment program for drug resistant tuberculosis. Such programs are being promoted in 40 countries since then. Under the leadership of Mr. Zoellick, the World Bank provided $57 billion in assistance to low and middle income countries in 2011. About $90 billion was raised in a fund to be used for aid to the poor in developing countries, including China and India.

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Krauthammer cites Congressional Budget Office numbers that show the Obama U.S. health care law continues the spiralling costs of health care with new government mandates at a time of severe budget cuts in education and other areas- for 2013-2022 the costs come to $1.76 trillion. The initial Obama administration figures of 10 year costs of $938 billion announced in 2010 reflected the fact that the new U.S. health care law would take 4 years to fully go into effect. Costs after 2021 are shown to be $250 billion each year in the CBO figures. The law is now before the Supreme Court in 2012, which has to decide on the basis of the limits of the Commerce Clause.

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Watching a YouTube clip for 15 minutes can use up about a third of the $20 monthly 1 gigabyte Verizon wireless data plan for the iPad. Verizon is asking users to use thier WiFi networks as much as possible, and the iPad defaults to those networks.

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Some features of the U.S. health care law are likely to be retained even if the Supreme Court overturns the health care law- the feature that lets parents carry a teenager on their polcy till age 26, and the feature that private insurers cover preventive services without copays. These are very popular and preventive services make sense for the insurance companies to reduce higher costs later on. Other features such as the discount pharmaceutical companies must give to seniors falling under the Medicare gap, and annual physicals without copays may not be retained. 3.6 million Medicare benificiaries saved $2.1 billion on prescription drugs, $604 per person, from the Medicare gap discount. And 32.5 million Americans took advantage of the annual physical without co-pays in 2011. About 50,000 Americans insured temporarily for people with a pre-existing condition also may lose their coverage. Another provision which prevents states from tightening eligibility rules for Medicaid before 2014, may be questioned also as states feel burdened by these rules during a period of budget cutting in areas such as education....