Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Labor share is chopped liver to Mr. Krugman

When someone is not being noticed, there’s the saying, “What am I? Chopped liver?” There is something that Paul Krugman is simply not noticing. First, let me quote Mr. Krugman from his recent post, The Depressed Economy is all about Austerity. “I don’t want to pretend to spurious precision here. Instead, I just want to […]

Health Care Thoughts: Obamacare Updates

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Health Care Thoughts: Obamacare Updates Latest news on Obamacare: Narrow Networks – Some customers of the new insurance exchanges may be surprised at the “narrow network” included in their insurance coverage. Narrow networks have a limited list of approved provider and will likely make out-of-network treatment difficult if not impossible. This […]

TPP, Fast track, secret to you

Sorry for such thin postings lately but life happens. Hat tip to stormy for this reminder of a trade agreement not making the news. Use TPP in search to see other postings from Kenneth Thomas and Dan Becker: Via Truthout comes this item So far, the TPP has been drafted with an unprecedented degree of […]

Maggie Mahar Healthbeat Blog: Reverse “ Sticker Shock”— Why are Insurance Rates in the State Marketplaces Lower Than Expected? — Part I

Even Forbes’ columnist Avik Roy is recanting. Earlier this month he acknowledged that under Obamacare, many Americans who buy their own coverage in 2014 will find that insurance is significantly more affordable than it was in the past: “Three states will see meaningful declines in rates: Colorado (34 percent), Ohio (30 percent), and New York […]

Nauseating Health Care Idiocy from Forbes

A non-blogging friend points me to this new article at Forbes by Chris Conover purporting to show that the “typical family of 4” will see its health care spending rise by $7450. He quotes the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), saying “in its first ten years, Obamacare will boost health spending by ‘roughly […]

William Dudley on the economic outlook… An “Effective” response

William Dudley is the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He gave a speech about the economic outlook. The speech is standard talk about economic improvement that is not good enough yet. He states that demand is a constraint on the economy. “Turning first to consumer spending, such spending has […]

Do investors really not get it regarding US paying it’s debt?

A question has been nagging me. First, does the rest of the world not get that the republicans are playing a game with the US’ bank account? Does anyone really believe that the US won’t pay as in the renter just skipped out the back door? Or maybe I should say; as in the capital […]