Political Economy category archive

Glomarization translates a judge’s ruling.

What happened to median income in the aughts:

Trickle down . . . the drain.

Via Atrios.

That was me. I was on the road all day.

That wasn’t these folks.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance declined to a lower-than-expected seasonally adjusted 545,000 in the week ended Sept 12 from 557,000 the week before, the Labor Department said. It was the lowest reading since early July.

That’s slightly over a three per cent decline in the number masquerading as good news.

Follow the link. A kewpie doll if you can figure out the explanation of “seasonally adjusted.”

By the way, these are the folks who don’t get bonuses when companies screw up. They just get screwed.

Glomarization has the story.

The problem with using “leverage”–investing in stuff using somebody else’s money–is that it works only so long as you can keep borrowing money.

Dubai investment firm Istithmar World may be the first sovereign wealth fund to liquidate after a $27 billion spending spree financed largely with borrowed money, people briefed on the matter said.

Talk of the cost to the government of fixing health care never seems to mention the countervailing savings to the private sector:

When Columbus, Ohio, health care lobbyist Rick Colby writes his monthly check of $2,556 for his family’s health insurance, his hand trembles.

TPM:

Total spending on health care, per person, 2007

United States: $7290
United Kingdom: $2992
Italy: $2686
Spain: $2671
Japan: $2581 (2006)

Reuters:

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to 550,000, according to a government report on Thursday that also showed the number of those collecting long-term aid tumbled.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected initial claims to drop to 560,000, after reaching 576,000 the prior week, which had previously been reported as 570,000.

As regards the “tumbling” number of persons collecting long term benefits, it “tumbled” all the way 6,247,000 to 6,088,000. That’s a “tumble” of about 3.5%.

I’ll be looking to know whether it “tumbled” because persons got jobs or because their benefits expired.

Unemployment benefits do expire.

This is still a Republican scorecard. Their policies caused this. And this was the result of policy–not of blind dumb luck.

To the extent things might be looking up a little, it’s not their doing.

Choose your indicator: upsy or downsy.

A Labor Department report on Thursday showed initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 570,000 last week. However, the four-week moving average for new jobless claims, considered a better gauge of underlying trends, rose 4,000 to 571,250.

Still over half a million.

Addendum, the Next Day:

9.7% Unemployment. QOTD from Marketwatch:

Economist Robert Brusca said the trend is favorable, adding that he couldn’t understand the pessimism of so many observers. “I feel like a parent locked in a car with a little kid screaming ” DADDY! ARE WE THERE YET?”

Many economists think the unemployment rate will top out near 10%, late this year or early next year. “What really matters is when payrolls and the jobless rate will turn, and we still believe that the timeframe on both is soon, probably sooner than most other forecasters expect,” wrote Stephen Stanley, chief economist for RBS Securities.

Joseph DiStephano discusses the walking dead.

This is wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to start.

I’ll put it this way. Somebody burns down a house. Someone else comes along and tries to rebuild the house.

That does not change who set the damned fire to begin with.

570,000 is a decrease from last week.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to 570,000, and those collecting long-term unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level since April, government data showed on Thursday.

(snip)

Continued claims fell to 6.133 million in the week ended August 15 from 6.252 million the prior week. That was the lowest since the week ending April 4 when they were 6.045 million.

In other news, GDP didn’t fall as much as expected.

It could have been worse has become a bright spot.

Medical-insurance prices for adults of working age will rise more than 10 percent again this year, says Aon Consulting, after collecting prices from Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., and dozens of other private and Blue Cross health insurers.

How is that possible, when the Consumer Price Index is flat, and prices for food, clothing, and other basic goods have been falling?

“It’s unsustainable,” said Joseph Reilly, head of Aon’s Northeast health and benefits advisory practice in Parsippany, N.J., which advises big employers on what benefits to buy, and what to cut.

(snip)

But managers aren’t eating all those costs. “Employers might see a 5 percent increase,” Reilly explained. “They’re passing the other 5 percent on to the health-care population” – that’s the public – through higher co-payments, higher drug payments, higher employee contributions.

After all, someone has to make up for all the money those CEOs lost in the stock market.

Soap opera audience increases:

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 576,000 in the week ended August 15 from 561,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

(snip)

The number of people collecting long-term unemployment benefits edged up 2,000 to 6.24 million in the week ended August 8, the latest week for which the data is available. However, the four-week moving average declined 2,500 to 6.27 million.

The end of government:

Public services in the US city of Chicago have been shut down for a day as the authorities face an expected budget shortfall of some $300m (£184m).

Non-essential services such as rubbish collections, libraries and health centres were closed, in the first of three planned reduced service days.

It’s what insurance companies do. Richard Blair explains the dangers of allowing persons with a fiducuiary interest in (that means who will make money from) denying care to be making decisions about care:

Ms. Sarkysian had leukemia, and was admitted to a California hospital for a bone marrow transplant. As is possible with such procedures, there were complications, and her kidneys and liver failed. Her brother donated a kidney. She was ready for a liver transplant (a relatively routine procedure in this day and age), but even though hers had failed, her family’s insurance company would not approve the procedure by claiming it was “experimental”. In other words, a bean counter at Cigna made the decision that since they had already shelled out a lot of cash for the bone marrow and kidney transplant, that the cost of a liver transplant and followup care was just too high.

(snip)

To Cigna, the cost of Nataline’s transplant was like buying a Nintendo Wii. When you buy a Wii, it’s not so much the initial investment in the game machine, but the ongoing followup costs in purchasing games and other hardware add-ons. The risk managers at Cigna who made the decisions in Nataline’s case weren’t so much looking at the cost of the initial transplantation procedure, but the annual cost of followup care and medication.

Nataline was 17 years old. The average lifespan of a woman in America is 79.1 years.

(snip)

The (possible projected–ed.) cost of her followup care for the next (projected) 62 years: $1,302,000.

Noz ruminates on how all the lies about healthcare got so much traction:

the conservatives who i have been arguing with are not lying. they don’t think they’re misleading anyone, they’re just repeating what they think is true, even though it comes across as nuts to anyone who has tried to follow the legislation. their seeming detachment from the real debate is more of a byproduct of the alternate universe that the conservative media has built for itself. if you get you information from fox news, rightwing blogs and talk radio, you’re probably unfamiliar with any of the basics that are necessary to participate in any substantive discussion of the real policy issues.

I think he has a point. The teabaggers screaming “read the bill” clearly have not.

I gave up on broadcast news a long time ago. Not just cable. All of it. Even the folks who try to do a good job (that is, who try to be accurate) don’t have enough time to be thorough. And it seems that the folks who have the most time (such as three-hour radio shows) have no interest in accuracy.

Full disclosure: There are some more or less sane NPR shows that I listen to via podcast, because they devote and hour to a story and really do dig into it.

Atrios reports that the monthly job losses for July were less than projected.

Wonder whether any banks will bite the dust tonight.

When even makers of pain relievers are hurting:

Whisky producer Whyte & Mackay has confirmed plans to cut dozens of jobs at sites across Scotland.

Up to 85 posts will be lost, with another 15 overseas sales staff facing the axe. A month-long consultation and review of operations is under way.