These first two shoot more holes in the meme from the Obama admin and Dems that there is no evidence to suggest that ObamaCare is causing employers to cut hours. It goes with the increased cost for insurance, and some who are losing what they currently have.
It’s also why about 75% of new jobs were part-time. This is not helping the economy to recover. Quite the opposite.
We’re all aware of the numerous pitfalls, delays, and missed deadlines that have plagued ObamaCare. Looks like Dodd-Frank has the same problem with missed deadlines. The Obama admin isn’t real punctual with anything.
Next up, an interesting read, which is surprising considering it’s from Rolling Stone. I don’t agree with some of their ideas for solutions, but it’s a good read.
Last night Ichiro Suzuki singled to left for his 4,000th career hit. Although some came professionally in Japan, it’s an impressive accomplishment from a guy who’s been fun to watch for his entire career.
Rolling Stone says that the President claims that direct lending by the government would eleminate the middle man and reduce waste.
The way to increase waste is to get the Government into the mix. They have no incentive to reduce waste and save money. There’s more where that came from.
It isn’t about economy, it’s about control.
We’re all waiting to see what our health insurance offerings will be for 2014 — they usually roll them out in November. But already those who have dependents on their insurance are being asked to jump through a lot of hoops, including producing marriage licenses, birth certificates and other documentation for family members they intend to include on their insurance plans.
I’ve been on the Anthem PPO but have pretty much concluded I can simply not afford the plan anymore based on the high co-pays, deductibles and high out-of-pocket costs if one really does get sick — so I tentatively (and reluctantly) might move to the “modified” Kaiser HMO, the only other plan we’ve offered for the past couple years.
But who knows what will even be offered to us for 2014. We may not have the same choices at all.
The monthly premium costs for both of our existing 2013 plans jumped significantly for us, and I’m guessing employee and employer costs will be higher yet again next year, regardless of what plans are offered.
P/T work — The ACA is not the driving force here. Most of the new jobs created in Canada were also part-time and there’s nothing resembling an employer mandate. As the article states P/T staffing is more flexible and cautious.
Implementing laws — Under the Obama administration, federal and state bureaucracies actually shrunk in size. Perhaps a return to lets say Reagan like staffing levels might improve the implementation rate of new laws. (and a less obstructionist Congress)
Health care — rates increase every year much like my car insurance. However, rate increases were lower than expected in several states which already implemented the exchange markets. In fact, the uncertainty and hyperbole surrounding the ACA and its effects are probably more responsible for businesses being slow to get involved than the actual ACA. Once the doom and gloom and hyperbole dies out, perhaps businesses will be more cooperative.
I read the Rolling Stone piece about a week ago and Matt Tabbi is bang on (as he usually is). The left has been predicting the student loan program as the next bubble, criticizing it for being a drag on the economy and heavily critical of for profit education. They also cite out of control tuition rates as part of the death of the American Dream … now that America has one of the lowest income mobility rates in the OECD. AJ you should cross over to the dark side more often there’s more of this type of criticism than you think.
Chas — taking out the middleman is more efficient and should lower the cost of the student loan program. Unfortunately the federal gov’t is probably keeping the savings for themselves. Look at health care — The US is the only nation to use private for profit health care insurance companies as the main providers. All of the other OECD countries have taken out this middleman for primary care and enjoy far lower administrative costs than the US.
And a book recommendation for today. I’m halfway through the 500 page Dirty Wars by Jeffery Scahill and can’t recommend it enough. An extremely detailed and documented look at the “terror wars”. He ignores the conventional aspects of Iraq and Afghanistan focusing on secret operations, drone strikes, assassinations, etc. I just finished the Bush section which details how Rumsfield and Cheney used the JSOC (joint spec ops) as a parrallel miltiary for covert and clandestine operations away from the prying and legalistic minds at the CIA, FBI and Armed Forces. There’s the usual and will known stuff around torture, rendition, and some sp. ops we already know about but there’s a lot more and his chapters on Somalia are worth the read alone. I’m at Chapter 24 entitled “Obama is set to continue the course set by Bush”
A friend spoke of her daughter and son-in-law today on the subject of student loans: “they’re chained forever by that huge expense.”
When the federal government got involved, cost controls went out the window. Every time the Pell grant is raised, tuition goes up. It is a travesty and we’ve got serfs left, who can only work jobs that didn’t require a college degree before.
An intern at my husband’s work, an engineering graduate out of UC Berkeley, told him half her engineering friends can not find engineering jobs. I’m sorry, but this is one the top colleges in the country and it cannot find employment for its engineers–what is happening elsewhere?
Major problems folks, and having the federal government now control the serfs, er, college loan recipients, is not a good solution.
You cannot buy off everyone indefinitely. Someone, ultimately, has to pay.
Regarding healthcare– Just today I was listening to Rush Limbaugh screech about the government driving up cost of healthcare because they are coming between the doctor and patient.
He tells of his own experience paying for an overnight hospital stay with his personal credit card instead of insurance. The hospital automatically reduced the charge by almost 75% because they didn’t have to deal with the insurance company.
I can attest to this. Last year I was in the hospital overnight and my bill came to about $14,000, but when they found out I was not paying with insurance, they said it is their policy to automatically reduce the bill when there is no insurance company involved. So my $14,000 bill was immediately reduced to under $6000 solely on that basis.
But based on these examples, speaking of the of the government as the “middleman” in healthcare is a joke. The middleman that is obviously driving the costs up is the for profit insurance company. I was never that confident about the efficiency of single payer healthcare, but every time Rush brings this up I think he makes a great case for it, and he doesn’t even have a clue. At this point, I’m thinking we would be better served by single payer rather than the subsidized insurance policies being currently offered.
I don’t know if you have already talked about this one or not (I haven’t been on the blog every day), but it is an encouraging development, so I’ll bring it up:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen.John McCain have joined together to propose a 21st Century Glass Steagall Act. The bipartisan legislation attempts to put some brakes on big banking and investment firms that are still “too big to fail”.
Currently, these institutions use our personal FDIC insured deposits to “invest” in risky Wall Street offerings, including the types of derivatives that were instrumental in fueling the 2008 crash.
serfs is right, the system is a modern form of feudalism. My eastern European friends call it debt slavery with a couch.
At the heart of the problem is the lack of moral hazard. Since student loans cannot be wiped out by bankruptcy, banks (and gov’t) are willing to lend to anyone creating a huge bubble similar to the housing bubble. (mortgages after being sliced and diced into derivatives were thought to have no risk ie no moral hazard). Originally, the only thing preventing an onrush of money was the limited number of students but corporations (and some universities) saw the potential and moved to a model of for profit education effectively letting just about anyone in. This in turn results in a flooded market of supposedly qualified young people ready to be unemployed and stuck with loans for life.
Now one solution is to reinstall the moral hazard — make student loans eligible for bankruptcy. This will tighten the money supply, probably bankrupt some the for profit mediocre institutions and fewer students earning a degree or training in a specific field, thus minimizing the chance of a flooded market.
Personally I like the European method of free education for all but you have to qualify for the limited spots available. The state is not going to waste its money. Thus education is well streamed and very competitive. In most countries, you are streamed in a general way around gr 6-7 and then in a more specific occupation/career way by the end of grade 10. Thus by grade 10 your formal schooling can come to an end and you will complete the rest of your education ie training at a job site.
Wandering Views 
Rolling Stone says that the President claims that direct lending by the government would eleminate the middle man and reduce waste.
The way to increase waste is to get the Government into the mix. They have no incentive to reduce waste and save money. There’s more where that came from.
It isn’t about economy, it’s about control.
LikeLike
We’re all waiting to see what our health insurance offerings will be for 2014 — they usually roll them out in November. But already those who have dependents on their insurance are being asked to jump through a lot of hoops, including producing marriage licenses, birth certificates and other documentation for family members they intend to include on their insurance plans.
I’ve been on the Anthem PPO but have pretty much concluded I can simply not afford the plan anymore based on the high co-pays, deductibles and high out-of-pocket costs if one really does get sick — so I tentatively (and reluctantly) might move to the “modified” Kaiser HMO, the only other plan we’ve offered for the past couple years.
But who knows what will even be offered to us for 2014. We may not have the same choices at all.
The monthly premium costs for both of our existing 2013 plans jumped significantly for us, and I’m guessing employee and employer costs will be higher yet again next year, regardless of what plans are offered.
LikeLike
P/T work — The ACA is not the driving force here. Most of the new jobs created in Canada were also part-time and there’s nothing resembling an employer mandate. As the article states P/T staffing is more flexible and cautious.
Implementing laws — Under the Obama administration, federal and state bureaucracies actually shrunk in size. Perhaps a return to lets say Reagan like staffing levels might improve the implementation rate of new laws. (and a less obstructionist Congress)
Health care — rates increase every year much like my car insurance. However, rate increases were lower than expected in several states which already implemented the exchange markets. In fact, the uncertainty and hyperbole surrounding the ACA and its effects are probably more responsible for businesses being slow to get involved than the actual ACA. Once the doom and gloom and hyperbole dies out, perhaps businesses will be more cooperative.
I read the Rolling Stone piece about a week ago and Matt Tabbi is bang on (as he usually is). The left has been predicting the student loan program as the next bubble, criticizing it for being a drag on the economy and heavily critical of for profit education. They also cite out of control tuition rates as part of the death of the American Dream … now that America has one of the lowest income mobility rates in the OECD. AJ you should cross over to the dark side more often there’s more of this type of criticism than you think.
Chas — taking out the middleman is more efficient and should lower the cost of the student loan program. Unfortunately the federal gov’t is probably keeping the savings for themselves. Look at health care — The US is the only nation to use private for profit health care insurance companies as the main providers. All of the other OECD countries have taken out this middleman for primary care and enjoy far lower administrative costs than the US.
LikeLike
Link for the day.
And a book recommendation for today. I’m halfway through the 500 page Dirty Wars by Jeffery Scahill and can’t recommend it enough. An extremely detailed and documented look at the “terror wars”. He ignores the conventional aspects of Iraq and Afghanistan focusing on secret operations, drone strikes, assassinations, etc. I just finished the Bush section which details how Rumsfield and Cheney used the JSOC (joint spec ops) as a parrallel miltiary for covert and clandestine operations away from the prying and legalistic minds at the CIA, FBI and Armed Forces. There’s the usual and will known stuff around torture, rendition, and some sp. ops we already know about but there’s a lot more and his chapters on Somalia are worth the read alone. I’m at Chapter 24 entitled “Obama is set to continue the course set by Bush”
LikeLike
A friend spoke of her daughter and son-in-law today on the subject of student loans: “they’re chained forever by that huge expense.”
When the federal government got involved, cost controls went out the window. Every time the Pell grant is raised, tuition goes up. It is a travesty and we’ve got serfs left, who can only work jobs that didn’t require a college degree before.
An intern at my husband’s work, an engineering graduate out of UC Berkeley, told him half her engineering friends can not find engineering jobs. I’m sorry, but this is one the top colleges in the country and it cannot find employment for its engineers–what is happening elsewhere?
Major problems folks, and having the federal government now control the serfs, er, college loan recipients, is not a good solution.
You cannot buy off everyone indefinitely. Someone, ultimately, has to pay.
😦
LikeLike
Regarding healthcare– Just today I was listening to Rush Limbaugh screech about the government driving up cost of healthcare because they are coming between the doctor and patient.
He tells of his own experience paying for an overnight hospital stay with his personal credit card instead of insurance. The hospital automatically reduced the charge by almost 75% because they didn’t have to deal with the insurance company.
I can attest to this. Last year I was in the hospital overnight and my bill came to about $14,000, but when they found out I was not paying with insurance, they said it is their policy to automatically reduce the bill when there is no insurance company involved. So my $14,000 bill was immediately reduced to under $6000 solely on that basis.
But based on these examples, speaking of the of the government as the “middleman” in healthcare is a joke. The middleman that is obviously driving the costs up is the for profit insurance company. I was never that confident about the efficiency of single payer healthcare, but every time Rush brings this up I think he makes a great case for it, and he doesn’t even have a clue. At this point, I’m thinking we would be better served by single payer rather than the subsidized insurance policies being currently offered.
LikeLike
I don’t know if you have already talked about this one or not (I haven’t been on the blog every day), but it is an encouraging development, so I’ll bring it up:
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen.John McCain have joined together to propose a 21st Century Glass Steagall Act. The bipartisan legislation attempts to put some brakes on big banking and investment firms that are still “too big to fail”.
Currently, these institutions use our personal FDIC insured deposits to “invest” in risky Wall Street offerings, including the types of derivatives that were instrumental in fueling the 2008 crash.
You can read about it here—
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353404/21st-century-glass-steagall-act-james-pethokoukis
Or read the actual proposal here—
http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/21stCenturyGlassSteagall.pdf
This legislation isn’t a cure-all, but something needs to be done, and it’s a move in the right direction.
LikeLike
serfs is right, the system is a modern form of feudalism. My eastern European friends call it debt slavery with a couch.
At the heart of the problem is the lack of moral hazard. Since student loans cannot be wiped out by bankruptcy, banks (and gov’t) are willing to lend to anyone creating a huge bubble similar to the housing bubble. (mortgages after being sliced and diced into derivatives were thought to have no risk ie no moral hazard). Originally, the only thing preventing an onrush of money was the limited number of students but corporations (and some universities) saw the potential and moved to a model of for profit education effectively letting just about anyone in. This in turn results in a flooded market of supposedly qualified young people ready to be unemployed and stuck with loans for life.
Now one solution is to reinstall the moral hazard — make student loans eligible for bankruptcy. This will tighten the money supply, probably bankrupt some the for profit mediocre institutions and fewer students earning a degree or training in a specific field, thus minimizing the chance of a flooded market.
Personally I like the European method of free education for all but you have to qualify for the limited spots available. The state is not going to waste its money. Thus education is well streamed and very competitive. In most countries, you are streamed in a general way around gr 6-7 and then in a more specific occupation/career way by the end of grade 10. Thus by grade 10 your formal schooling can come to an end and you will complete the rest of your education ie training at a job site.
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Debra — single payer and separating investment firms and savings banks.Welcome to the dark side.
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/22/white-house-president-obama-to-fundamentally-rethink-reshape-higher-education/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=Share+Buttons
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