The Economic Populist
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
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Manufacturing Monday: Week of 12.28.2008
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Much Ado About Oil
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US oil supplies at a 36½ year low, SPR at a 39 year low; oil+products supplies at an 18½ year low
- 186294 reads
Manufacturing Monday: Week of 12.28.2008
- 16969 reads
Much Ado About Oil
- 106059 reads
The Golden Rule
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Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive?
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New York Post Claims Census Falsifies Unemployment Figures
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How Many Jobs Are Needed to Keep Up with Population Growth?
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VAT or Value Added Tax is Getting a Look in D.C.
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U3 and U6 Unemployment during the Great Depression
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The war on the middle class
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House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation
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Tax Cuts for the Rich Do Not Generate Jobs
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thetruthaboutmortgage found the less bad news.
That wasn't so hard,
And I also agree with Seebert's comment above. I believe that access to basic healthcare is a citizen's right, or it should be in this country. I don't know where you draw the line with things like hip replacements, cochlear implants, heart transplants, and that kind of stuff. But I do know that every expectant mother is entitled to access to pre-natal care. And every child is entitled to regular pediatric care, regardless if the mother accessed pre-natal care. A child of a crack addicted or alcoholic mother did not choose its parents. They are human beings with human rights. That is my starting point. Any discussion of health care efficiency, or cost containment, IMO, must start from this premise. Free market health care works pretty well though for those that are healthy enough not to need it or those that need it and can afford it. For all of our posturing of superiority to the rest of the world, we should be embarassed about our standing. We need some serious, serious reflection about who we want to be as a nation; and let's not start from the standpoint that free markets are all that good. They are not, as is being proven right before our lying eyes. Let's face it, some things like healthcare, basic banking, electricity, railroads, et al, are better off being treated as public utilities. We need to start thinking of each other as Tribe Americana.
is safe and has been saved.
The official denial has now been recorded.
What a surprise.. why would anyone need to raise capital now?
It has always been about class warfare.
"There is a real philosophical problem when sopmeone earning $83,000 a year isn't willing to buy a $100 a month insurance policy for their child."
If you've got a child with CP, it's more like $500-$1000/month to put that kid on insurance.
And that's for an untreatable disease where the damage has already happened!
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Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
It seems the good 'ol boy network is still intact.
It has always been about class warfare.
Link
Our health care system is broke when you have millions of people uninsured.
It is broken when you have an elderly couple needing $300,000 saved just for medical expenses.
It is broken when you have a major cause of personal bankruptcy is health care costs.
It is broken when health care costs amount to 17% of GDP and still have millions uninsured.
1) currently because reliance on employer provided insurance - high unemployment; and
2) employers cutting back on offering health insurance because of high cost.
"She does agree that more people are falling through the cracks of the system these days, and the numbers of uninsured are rising. But on a trip to Brussels last week, she came across a study which found that among Europeans, Germans are the most dissatisfied with their own system, although many studies show it to be among the best in Europe. "
Notice how even in the socialized countires uninsured is rising. Why? Because there are and always will be people that don't want to pay to participate.
Since 85 percent of America has insurance that means 15 percent are not insured.
In my State a family of 3 can earn $83,000 a year and still put their child on SCHIP. What the heck? There is a real philosophical problem when sopmeone earning $83,000 a year isn't willing to buy a $100 a month insurance policy for their child.
The Uninsured And The Affordability Of Health Insurance Coverage
"the number of people without coverage is much closer to point-in-time estimates and well above full-year estimates. In its most recent release, the Census Bureau stated that its estimates were more closely in line with point-in-time estimates of the uninsured."
Even the census bureau are starting to consider that the much ballyhooed 46 million uninsured my be just a snapshot. A person that is uninsured for a few days or weeks and we hear stats that sould like 46 million is a static statistic. Not so.
When I get to Germany you will see some information such as this and it points to a very, very sticky situation in some of the Europeon models. A situation where the elite, the people that due to income can opt out of the public system are treated better than their brethern in the public system.
"Private patients are preferred, publicly insured patients are brazenly turned away, just gotten rid of," Heinz Windisch, president of VKVD, an interest group for both privately and publicly insured individuals, told the newspaper.
All this has led to accusations that patients in the public system are second-class citizens, having to wait months for non-emergency doctor's appointments or procedures and paying ever more out of their own pockets as the list of covered treatments and medicines shrinks, all the while watching as their monthly health insurance contributions continue to rise"
Economics addresses risk and the acceptance or managment of it. As Ira Precible said above, people do not shop. I also feel people don't know how to manage risk. Why the heck would I want to pay someone (insurance schemes) a large amount of money so I can have a small doctors copay? I too have been self employed for a long time and have needed to manage my health care. I pay my doctors office visit. It is $78 to see my doctor. Will I be going to a doctor paying $78 for him to tell me I have a cold. I don't think so. But people that have a $15 copay could care less about the cost to hear their Dr. say it is a cold.
Medicaid health insurance in my State goes as low as a $5 copay. Now those people have no idea about cost because it is almost entirely "free" to them. Medicaid rules allowed nominal co-pays (i.e., $3 per service).
Gotta go. I'm in an e-mail fight with someone that supports the Patriot Act. A law I consider to be Orwealian (sp).
they should be required to sign an agreement that if they need any future taxpayer bailout dollars that they agree to be broken up.
Actually, maybe congress should make that an amendment to TARP law.
I'm opposed to most health insurance too, mainly because they are a profit model. You said,
Tell that to the 46 million (est.) uninsured and under insured in the country. Also, do you think having private or group insurance makes you more likely to be a hypochondriac or something? Get real, man, shit happens to people and it's pretty damn scary when it does. I know, I've been there, done that.
for additional capital requirements at Calculated Risk. If the additional capital total equals what is left in TARP then this whole exercise was a joke.
How many people know how much their doctor's visits, lab tests, etc. actually cost? How many people price-compare or shop for the best values in health care? I'm willing to bet that virtually no one does. One of the biggest problems with health care is that there is virtually no competition because people rarely shop around. Why don't they shop around? Because their insurance pays, not them. This leads to a distorted market.
What would be a good solution? I can't really answer that. I am personally opposed to most types of insurance. I can see a need for health insurance in certain cases. I carry catastrophic insurance for myself and my family. I pay cash for most services though. It's a consequence of being a small business owner. It has forced me to shop around when looking for health care, though. In the end, I'd much rather pay cash for my families' doctor's visits than have a socialized system (including private health insurance) where I am forced to subsidize my hypochondriac neighbor's weekly (or sometimes daily) visits along with the accompanying medications.
Unless there are some price controls put in place, nationalized health insurance won't be any better than the current system. People need to be aware of how much they are paying for services, or the system will never work. It will just be more of the same.
the hypocrisy was piled to the rooftop. They talked a good game, elite sounding to the core but when the rubber hit the road they were no place to be seen.
While living in SF, I had a penchant to help at soup kitchens (is that PC) in the Tenderloin and saw very few of the well heeled types.
Palo Alto is filled with companies that have a mission to help as many USA companies as possible to move offshore. They have no problem making 6 figure incomes while they watch America die.
To me I saw more of the me, me, me generation than anyplace I've lived. What I saw helped the cynical side of me grow larger and larger.
As before most of my sources are from Europe. I tried as best I could to use European sources so that there wouldn't be any conclusion of tainted information.
On the French post there was one from Business Week and the remainder were European sites such as the BBC.
What I have found is that in Europe papers they are willing to post the negative stuff on the different plans. Things that the USA papers will never print. I guess if you want to find the nity gritty dirt you go across the pond.
When I get to the UK is when you will see the dirty and the complaints from UK citizen groups.
Another thread that I will address at the end is that there are few if any government plans that are not wrestling with health care inflation and financing. It is a worldwide problem and I suspect, as we make gains on mortality the problem will get worse.
Yes, ok, now i can believe this, it's negative equity, which does indeed matter, on the other hand, the price of homes is still not in alignment with real wages.....which are now projected to go down even further!
If you back out the houses which are not mortgaged, then you get 33% of all mortgaged homes are underwater. See this post from TBP.
part about less bad?
I mean falling home values, negative equity .... blah, blah... but its not as bad as we thought it was going to be part.
I mean.. get on the love train braugh!
It has always been about class warfare.
That is incredible! Are you sure it's that high? Did something just "come out" because I thought it was less than 5%!!!
Banks passed stress tests. Economy is not contracting as fast as it was a couple of months ago. Oh, yeah, employment - don't worry about that we will have a jobless recovery. Everything will be fine.
Except, they forgot to tell us how do people and businesses pay their mortgages w/out income.
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