NELP (National Employment Law Project) notes: For administrative reasons, states need to shut down their extended unemployment programs in advance of the federal government’s Nov. 30 cut-off. NELP estimates that 800,000 people will lose unemployment benefits in the coming weeks and 2 million workers will lose their benefits by December if Congress fails to act. […]
The Washington Post notes more on foreclosures is coming, this time from The Congressional Oversight Committee today. No link yet. A congressional oversight panel is set to warn on Tuesday that a widespread problem of flawed and fraudulent foreclosure paperwork could upend the housing market and undermine the nation’s financial stability, just as the issue […]
The Japanese economy grew 3.9% at a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate in Q3 2010 and over 2X the pace in Q2 2010 (data here). According to Bloomberg, the headwinds to Q4 growth are household consumption and the yen: Consumption, accounting for about 60 percent of GDP, led the gain as households stepped up purchases of fuel-efficient […]
by Bruce Webb On Thursday I put up an extract from a SSA Office of the Actuary score of one of two of the Simpson-Bowles draft Social Security plans, that is the bottom line of Plan 2A Bottom Line Score on Simpson-Bowles. This post expands on that by including the cover letter and plan details […]
Purpose of trade policy in the summary Congressional Rsearch Service paper March 24 2010 caught my attention. U.S. trade policy is at a cross-roads as the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress face a range of policy issues and challenges. The future direction of trade policy and how the issues will be addressed are unclear […]
Mainly from minute 10 to 20 for the story, start at minute 17 to listen to the jist of some Wallstreet laments from several regular traders about the bailout and how it is framed: Bailout blues??? Shame? Nah…just smarter than most.
Reader HM suggests this sort of letter to Congress: Senator/Representative _________: I am writing to you to ask you to join the fight against those who want to “privatize” / “personalize” or otherwise roll back the Social Security retirement insurance program as we know it. As I’m sure you know, to ensure Social Security had […]
There was a question on what ACO meant for health care practices and as part of reform of current practices. Rusty sends two links he thinks might help: A guide to Accountable Care Organizations… from Health Reform Watch offers a glimpse: Specifically, their findings illustrate that there exists wide variations in the cost of care […]
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care: Religious, Gender and Cultural Issues The Muslim population in the U.S. is now about 7 million, some having been here many generations and others being new immigrants. Muslims arrive with various cultural backgrounds and various degrees of cultural conservatism. Americans of other religions and beliefs also have cultural […]
by Rebecca Wilder Ireland: the battle against “markets”crossposted with Newsneconomics Is it the sheer size of its contingent liabilities that is driving Irish spreads? Finance Minister Brian Lenihan thinks so via the Irish Independent: “There is no doubt in my mind that while the announcement on the banking sector in September was not disbelieved by […]