Experts in the News

"With lower competition, we suspect there is simply less incentive for providers to keep patients content," says the Center for Health and Biosciences’ Marah Short of the integration of hospital and doctor services. Health Leaders: https://bit.ly/2DYH4vx

President Trump's plan to declare a national emergency to fund a border wall is "more akin to the abuses of executive power we are accustomed to seeing by presidents in flawed presidential democracies than in the United States," fellow Mark Jones says. Houston Chronicle (subscription required): https://bit.ly/2SPQMdh

A drop in U.S. monthly retail sales to a decade low last December could be a sign of an economic slowdown, fellow John Diamond says. “It does make a recession in 2020 a little more likely.” Texas Standard:

Mexico, not the United States, bears the burden of investigating El Chapo's wide range of criminal allegations, says Mexico Center expert Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera. She doubts that the new government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador will take serious action.

"I've seen nothing ... to suggest there is any kind of national emergency at the border that would justify such a diversion of federal funds to build a wall," fellow Neal Lane says of speculation that disaster recovery funds could be redirected for the wall.