Political Economy category archive
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
570,000 is a decrease from last week.
(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.
We Need Single Payer 0
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.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Soap opera audience increases:
(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.
ReagoBushonomics: The Dream 0
The end of government:
Non-essential services such as rubbish collections, libraries and health centres were closed, in the first of three planned reduced service days.
Rationing Health Care 0
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:
(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.
Alternate Realities 0
Noz ruminates on how all the lies about healthcare got so much traction:
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.
Jobs May Be Looking Up 2
Atrios reports that the monthly job losses for July were less than projected.
Wonder whether any banks will bite the dust tonight.
How To Know Times Are Really Bad 0
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.
Private Health Insurance . . . 0
. . . slopping at the public trough.
Cookie Jill points out that five of the 20 biggest cases of private companies bilking the federal government involve those bastions of fee enterprise, health insurance companies.
They don’t want their gravy train to end.
Revised Numbers 0
As Atrios pointed out recently, people don’t pay attention to the revisions. Maybe because it’s usually worse than they thought:
The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Gross domestic product has shrunk 3.9 percent in the past year, the report said, indicating the worst slump since the Great Depression.
Follow the link for more revised numbers.
And, remember, this was the logical outcome of Republican economic theory. People who weren’t blinded by the DOW saw it coming.
GDP Down–but Not So Far 0
Bonddad considers reports that Gross Domestic Product last quarter was down at an “annualized” rate of one percent, rather than the 4.5% that was forecast. His conclusions (follow the link for the full analysis):
1.) Government spending really saved the day last quarter — it was the one positive area of growth.
2.) The rate of decline in several important areas occurred at a slower rate. Gross private domestic investment decreased at a far slower rate as did exports and imports.
3.) The rate of decline is more along the lines that occurred in the 4th quarter of 2008 rather than the 1st quarter of 2009.
Sacks of Goldman 0
Michael Lewis dispels some myths about Goldman Sachs. A nugget:
Rumor No. 1: Goldman Sachs controls the government.
Every ninth-grader knows the U.S. government has three branches. Goldman owns just one of these outright; the second we simply rent; and the third we have no interest in.
What small interest we maintain in the government is, we feel, in the public interest. The financial crisis has its roots in a single easily identifiable source: others’ envy of Goldman Sachs.
The bozos at Merrill Lynch, the dimwits at Citigroup, the nimrods at Lehman Brothers, the louts at Bear Stearns, and even that momentarily useful lunatic at AIG took risks that no non-Goldman person should take, in a pathetic attempt to replicate our returns.
Now we are working with Tim Geithner and Congress to ensure that we alone are allowed to take the sort of risks that might destroy the financial system.
Read the whole thing.
We Need Single-Payer 0
Report from the field. Ashley Sayeau writes in the Guardian:
It wasn’t until I arrived in England that I understood this completely. Thirteen weeks before my recent operation, I had given birth at the same London hospital. I was able to hold my daughter for maybe 20 minutes before the midwives and doctors discovered that I had a very serious and rare fourth-degree tear in my perineum. After the finding, I was immediately wheeled into surgery, where for the next three hours, I was stitched up by, I’m told, one of the best surgeons in the field.
(snip)
Indeed there was nothing bureaucratic about any of it. Far from impersonal, I had repeated conversations with the surgeon himself about the injuries and the operations. The clinic’s nurse, a wonderful woman named Ann, held my hand through some seriously uncomfortable pre-operative exams. This Monday, her babysitter called in sick. I know because I talk to her all the time. Not once in any of these encounters did anyone bring up money. Not once was a politician present.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Betting it gets revised upwards:
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 584,000 in the week ended July 25, the Labor Department said, a touch above market expectations for a reading of 570,000.
However, the four-week moving average for new claims, considered to be a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell by 8,250 to 559,000. This was the lowest level since late January.
CalWreck 0
What happens when persons are not willing to pay the cost of living in a civilized society taxes.
No more la la la in LalaLand.
Not Just a River in Egypt 0
(Or maybe it’s “Egypts.” Noz wonders here.)
It’s a way of life. George Monbiot in the Guardian:
He goes on the discuss some of the consequences of blundering into the future with blinders on. It’s worth the five minutes it takes to read.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Bushonomics: The Hangover continues:
The Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 554,000 in the week ended July 18, after a revised 524,000 in the preceding week.
California Reamin’ 0
Howard Jarvis finishes off California:
It also calls for the state to divert more than $2 billion of tax receipts meant for local governments, redevelopment agencies and transportation districts. That money would be repaid with interest. Local governments could sell bonds backed by the promise of repayments. The agreement also shifts $1.5 billion between accounts to save money and moves the last payday for state workers in the current fiscal year into the next.