• About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives
Angry Bear
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
« Back

Open thread Sept. 23, 2014

Dan Crawford | September 23, 2014 6:03 am

Tags: open thread Comments (8) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
8 Comments
  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 9:30 am

    http://rollingjubilee.org/

    “On September 17th, the Rolling Jubilee, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, announced the abolition of a portfolio of debt worth nearly $4 million [of student loan debt]”

    “To date, the Rolling Jubilee has abolished nearly $20 million dollars of medical and educational debt by taking advantage of a little-known trade secret: debt is often sold to debt collectors for mere pennies on the dollar. A medical bill that was originally $1,000 might sell to a debt collector for 4% of its sticker price, or $40. This allowed the Rolling Jubilee project to make a multi-million dollar impact with a budget of approximately $700,000 raised in large part through small individual donations.”
    * * * * * * * * * *
    This is in the “why didn’t we think of that” category. Don’t know if it would help your credit rating if you then reported the loan paid to credit agencies (paid yourself) — that is with the new credit agency rules changes in mind that will remove bad marks for debts that are finally paid off (don’t know if that will cover part settlement either). Rules will change back quickly of course. But — a big but — you wont have to spend years ducking nasty phone calls or payroll garnishments or law suits if you have attachable assets.

    Why didn’t we think of that? 🙂

  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 9:32 am

    Bad news and good news. Bad news: About 90 percent of unpaid student loans are owed to the U.S. government — not subject being bought off cheap. Huffington Post (6th para from bottom)
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/17/occupy-wall-street-student-debt_n_5839174.html

    Good news: Government student loan debt can be sliced very thin by something called Income Based Repayment.
    http://www.tgslc.org/borrowers/repay/ibr.cfm

    Using the online calculator I input one person, $20,000 income, $40,000 student debt — and it came back with this:
    Based upon the information you provided, it is likely that you may qualify for Income-Based Repayment (IBR), and your estimated monthly payment amount would be $31.19. Your monthly payment amount may vary from year to year as a result of changes to your family size or income.

    I understand that after 25 years your loan is canceled — but in today’s law the IRS will consider the unpaid part income for that year. Hopefully we will have a more humane country in 25 years.

    [took a chance putting two htmls in this]

  • little john says:
    September 23, 2014 at 9:59 am

    HHS paper on 2013 health insurance rates.http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2014/RateReview/rpt_RateReview.pdf

  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 10:06 am

    http://www.pilotstrike.com/media/payscales/
    “Pay Scales”

    “Regional Airline Pilot pay is extremely low. Here is an example of what a First Officer will make in his first year at a few regional airlines. These numbers are derived by simply multiplying the first year hourly pay rate by the minimum monthly guarantee.

    “GROSS YEARLY WAGES OF A NEW FIRST OFFICER

    “Great Lakes Airlines: $14,400
    Silver Airways: $18,900
    CommutAir: $27,000
    Mesa Airlines: $20,064
    PSA Airlines: $21,600
    Endeavor Airlines: $22,500
    Envoy Airlines: $23,400
    ExpressJet Airlines: $20,700
    Republic Airlines: $20,700

    “Unlike what the RAA and industry stakeholders would like you to believe, there is no pilot shortage. Just a pay shortage. We cannot feed our families or ourselves on these miserable wages.”
    * * * * * * * * * *
    COMPARES WITH:
    http://teamsterslocal804.org/story/biggest-pension-increases-country

    30 years and out at $3900 a month for truck drivers at my old New York Teamster local 804.
    * * * * * * * * * *
    THE DIFFERENCE:
    Cenralized bargaining — in the Teamster’s case in the form of their National Master Freight Agreement

    In Germany’s case it is legally mandated centralized bargaining — ask Lufthansa flight crews.

    I catch some flak around here for my never ending-one note tune but I will chance cross-posting a comment I left on Brad DeLong’s yesterday because it really says how all or nothing at all the institution of centralized bargaining in the US is.

  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 10:07 am

    My cross-posted one not tune (same tune elsewhere too)
    * * * * * * * * * *

    In the US Piketty’s grim future can be (easily) fended off by adopting the labor market system promoted by the US’s most successful union, the Teamsters with their National Master Freight Agreement, and the world’s most successful economy, Germany, with their most systematically worked out version of legally mandated, centralized bargaining (similar employees negotiate a single contract with all firms — no more race-to-the-bottom).

    Rebuilding unionization (by law; just have to talk it up enough; no scab/labor riots involved :-]) automatically reconstitutes legislatures filled with (the same?) legislators (now) waiting on what labor (the average person) wants as to reining in private equity looting and too big to fail speculating and ridiculous health system, etc.

    Just have to talk it up to make it happen — or we can go on bemoaning for the rest of our lives why the present system is getting worse and worse. (Rehabilitating might be a better word since the current state of unionization can only be described as pathological.)

    Card check kind of stuff: race-to-bottom will result in same end as supermarket, now so-called, contracts ended thanks to Walmart: where the most that most can aspire to is $400 a week.

    PS. Practical applications from just last week. New Yorker article tells of fasts food employee putting 60 hours at _three_ different outlets of the same company — no overtime. And of how difficult it could be to organized fast food companies if they have to organized at tens of thousands of individual franchisees. Centralized bargaining: problem solved.

    New York state passed a law specifically designed to allow 3,500 Fed-X drivers to negotiate with the company as employees — not private contractors. Law added same coverage to 29,000 other New York commercial drivers but Fed-X morphed itself into a company that sells routes to companies that lease trucks to drivers — and slipped out from under. Centralized bargaining: problem solves.

    Why run from symptom to symptom; why not reform America’s labor market and political forum with one easy step? Don’t hide this modality under a bushel basket; shout it from the rooftops!

  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 10:27 am

    I should have included this very revealing unionized — without centralized bargaining — story. $100,000 educations, $16,000 a year pay (with desperate hopes of someday being promoted to the major airlines).

    SGrassroots regional pilots group pushing for Labor Day walkout

  • coberly says:
    September 23, 2014 at 1:25 pm

    Denis

    don’t worry about the one note. i onlyhave one note to my tune and i keep playing hoping some day someone will understand it and DO something about it.

    but i am not so sure about the inhumane society that cancels your debt after 25 years but you have to pay taxes on the cancelled part as “income”.

    maybe i don’t understand the dynamics of all this, but i worry about a culture in which “free money” and “government pays” are the expected norms.

    there is plenty of crooked business going on we could concentrate our hopes for universal justice on and maybe even find some allies among the “haves.”

  • Denis Drew says:
    September 23, 2014 at 6:08 pm

    http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/08/28/union-northwestern-hospital-closing-cafeteria-forcing-employees-to-unfamiliar-jobs/

    “Northwestern Memorial has said more than two dozen cafeteria employees at Northwestern Memorial Hospital will be forced into jobs they weren’t trained for when the cafeteria closes in two weeks.”
    …
    “Khan said the most junior person in the cafeteria has been there for a decade. The most senior employee is a cook who’s been there 40 years.”
    …
    “A union spokesman said the concern is that one of the wealthiest hospitals in the city is outsourcing food service by bringing in a variety restaurants that pay minimum wage.”
    * * *
    Would this have happened if Northwestern had to pay everyone the same no matter who they worked for (a.k.a., centralized bargaining)? T’was a grand — mult-variety-counters — cafeteria, BTW.

Featured Stories

Index of leading indicators says recession almost certain; so what of the coincident indicators?

NewDealdemocrat

Extending Capital to Nature, Reducing Nature to Capital

Peter Dorman

Trump and the debt ceiling

Eric Kramer

And the King of Coincident Indicators rolls over

NewDealdemocrat

Contributors

Dan Crawford
Robert Waldmann
Barkley Rosser
Eric Kramer
ProGrowth Liberal
Daniel Becker
Ken Houghton
Linda Beale
Mike Kimel
Steve Roth
Michael Smith
Bill Haskell
NewDealdemocrat
Ken Melvin
Sandwichman
Peter Dorman
Kenneth Thomas
Bruce Webb
Rebecca Wilder
Spencer England
Beverly Mann
Joel Eissenberg

Subscribe

Blogs of note

    • Naked Capitalism
    • Atrios (Eschaton)
    • Crooks and Liars
    • Wash. Monthly
    • CEPR
    • Econospeak
    • EPI
    • Hullabaloo
    • Talking Points
    • Calculated Risk
    • Infidel753
    • ACA Signups
    • The one-handed economist
Angry Bear
Copyright © 2023 Angry Bear Blog

Topics

  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics

Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives