Often people look at the cost of various infrastructure projects and shudder, as well they oftentimes should, how can these exorbitant costs be justified? I think a way to look at this might be to look at what some existing infrastructure is worth. According to a 2010 piece a 28 [...] Read more »
The Curtain Fracking Hides Behind.
From Bloomberg News a piece on how the fracking industry has aggressively sought to silence people who filed complaints about issues ranging from medical problems to ground water contamination through out of court settlements and confidentiality agreements. There is this sense that despite warnings from concerned parties fracking must be safe because no horror [...] Read more »
“Per qualche dollaro in più” or For A Few Dollars More . . .
Having helped quite a few younger people rearrange student loans from the private sector to Direct Loans or consolidate loans to achieve lower interest rates or payments; I just find this market-place-staging by some politicians offensive. July 1st the rates are expected to double (3+% to 6+%) for subsidized and [...] Read more »
31 million Uninsured Under the PPACA
Over at Economists View, Anne and Muses are having a discussion over why some 30-something million will be uninsured under the PPACA http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2013/05/paul-krugman-the-obamacare-shock.html “Paul Krugman: The Obamacare Shock”. The conversation goes back and forth citing references without giving any real explanation of what the 31 million is composed of and why [...] Read more »
Medicare Claim Costs Growth Under 1% in 2013??? Why?
” “All nine of S&P Healthcare Economic Indices showed slower annual growth rates for February 2013 compared to January 2013. As measured by the S&P Healthcare Economic Commercial Index, healthcare costs covered by commercial insurance plans rose by 4.62% in February, down from +5.41% reported for January. Annual growth rates [...] Read more »
The Inevitable Frailties.
So I am sure everyone has heard about the 45 million dollar global ATM Heist. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/nyregion/eight-charged-in-45-million-global-cyber-bank-thefts.html?hpw I am sure everyone has also heard about how the Pentagon has officially blamed China for hacking attacks, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/world/asia/us-accuses-chinas-military-in-cyberattacks.html?pagewanted=all We are also well aware of the continued efforts of “hacktivism” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/15/anonymous-digital-culture-protest None of this should be [...] Read more »
What Is The Out of Pocket Maximum You Will Pay Under the PPACA?
There are quite a few blogs in the blogosphere who tend to get the PPACA wrong and conflate the issues of it well beyond what is reasonable and truthful. Maybe they just do not know what the facts are and miss the benefits of the PPACA to dwell on the [...] Read more »
What Fiscal Crisis?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/05/01/180335095/the-federal-deficit-is-actually-shrinking NPR ran a piece on May 1st called, “The Federal Deficit Is Actually Shrinking”. Some excerpts, “During the housing bust, taxpayers were forced to bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But thanks to the real estate recovery, Fannie Mae could end up paying tens of billions [...] Read more »
A Misplaced Responsibility.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/economy/fed-unlikely-to-expand-asset-purchases.html?hp A new piece in The New York Times talks about how although the economic recovery has failed to produce many jobs the Fed isn’t eager to do more to stimulate the economy. “The share of American adults with jobs has hovered around 58.5 percent for more than three years, [...] Read more »
Japanenomics Is The World’s Future.
For the last couple decades there has been worry that the U.S.might fall into a Japanese style deflationary spiral, the worries were misplaced, not because the U.S. won’t fall into such a trap but because it won’t just be the U.S. that falls into this trap, it will be the [...] Read more »