## Notes from 19 June 2025 [[2025-06-18|← Previous note]] ┃ [[2025-06-20|Next note →]] Today I read Luis Garicano’s latest [Silicon Continent](https://www.siliconcontinent.com/p/the-return-of-the-doom-loop) newsletter (brilliant as always) and his analysis of the eurozone’s unfinished banking union caught my eye because of Germany’s non-discussed politicisation of local [[Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe|Sparkassen]]: the system stays stable and avoids big crises, yet everyone accepts that municipal authorities control these banks; and, as Englmaier and Stowasser (2017) show, Sparkassen increase lending by 1.5 % (about € 30 million per bank) ahead of county elections. ___ Also read André Medici’s [post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mediciandre_panorama-dos-contratos-em-sa%C3%BAde-activity-7330976986942615554-s_v2/) on his always-excellent _Monitor de Saúde_, and I loved his international take on Brazil’s OSS model (a kind of quango but not quite) by comparing it to UK Foundation Trusts, Spain’s Alzira model, Chilean private foundations, and PPP hospitals in South Africa and India. He shows that these systems share performance‐based contracts, managerial autonomy, and clinical accountability; contrasts payment diversity with Brazil’s fixed‐budget, physical‐target approach; and suggests adopting standardized clinical indicators, care‐line payments, value‐based financing, transparent dashboards, and AI‐driven contract oversight. Excellent benchmark!