Today in the economy

[Kirkland Laing]

3/26/09

USA - GDP

Actual-6.30%|Forecast-6.60%|Previous-6.20%

The gross domestic product measures the total market value of all final goods, thus serving as an indicator for national income and output.

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New Zealand - GDP

Actual-0.90%|Forecast-1.10%|Previous-0.40%

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3/27/09

UK - GDP

Actual-1.60%|Forecast-1.50%|Previous-1.50%

Not good. Consumer spending fell 3% too when you ignore the adjustments. These monthly numbers don't really tell the full story though. The best clue you can get from them is to look for is the direction of the revisions they make to them a month or three after they post these original numbers. Eventually these numbers all get revised when more accurate data can be produced. If they're revised down, as they have been for over a year, then that's a bad sign. When the direction of the revisions is positive and the year-over-year numbers are starting to stabilize, then we will know things are starting to turn around. Look at the year-on-year numbers too.

Can you provide that data, or give me a good source for it?

Go to the website of whoever produced the numbers, (BLS, Census Bureau etc.) and look up their previous numbers.

[Kirkland Laing]

Do healthcare like social security. There's one single insurance scheme with one payer. Everybody is covered, everybody gets the same coverage they had before and the whole thing works out 30% cheaper. Because you're cutting out so much of the profit for the system healthcare costs remain easily manageable for the government over the next few decades. Remove profit from Medicare too so everybody gets their meds for $10 a scrip instead of two or three hundred a month for some drugs. The Medicare bill that got pased in 2006 had over one billion dollars change hands just in lobying fees. Those fees allowed healthcare corporations to physically write the legislation, guaranteeing them massive increasing ongoing profits. Tear it up and let a single payer buy all meds, then everybody only pays a few dollars a scrip.

So that's the economy, healthcare, pensions, radical Islam and terrorism all solved.

[killersheep]

Do healthcare like social security. There's one single insurance scheme with one payer. Everybody is covered, everybody gets the same coverage they had before and the whole thing works out 30% cheaper. Because you're cutting out so much of the profit for the system healthcare costs remain easily manageable for the government over the next few decades. Remove profit from Medicare too so everybody gets their meds for $10 a scrip instead of two or three hundred a month for some drugs. The Medicare bill that got pased in 2006 had over one billion dollars change hands just in lobying fees. Those fees allowed healthcare corporations to physically write the legislation, guaranteeing them massive increasing ongoing profits. Tear it up and let a single payer buy all meds, then everybody only pays a few dollars a scrip.

So that's the economy, healthcare, pensions, radical Islam and terrorism all solved.

Sounds great, but how the hell you gonna sell that to DC?

[Andre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

[Kirkland Laing]

The Boston Globe has an important piece out on how the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to shift its holdings from bonds to equities, just about the time the bottom fell out of the stock market:

Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks. Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds. ...
No statistics on the fund's subsequent performance were released.
Nonetheless, analysts expressed concern that large portions of the trust fund might have been lost at a time when many private pension plans are suffering major losses. The guarantee fund would be the only way to cover the plans if their companies go into bankruptcy.

The kicker, though, comes from the Bush-era official who oversaw the switchover:

Charles E.F. Millard, the former agency director who implemented the strategy until the Bush administration departed on Jan. 20, dismissed such concerns. Millard, a former managing director of Lehman Brothers, said flatly that "the new investment policy is not riskier than the old one." ... Asked whether the strategy was a mistake, given the subsequent declines in stocks and real estate, Millard said, "Ask me in 20 years. The question is whether policymakers will have the fortitude to stick with it."

A finance professor who had previously advised the agency not to make the switch away from bonds compared the move to an insurance company writing policies to cover hurricane damage and then investing the premiums in beachfront property.


Bush was able to do for the PBGC what he tried and failed to do for Social Security.

[Kirkland Laing]

Do healthcare like social security. There's one single insurance scheme with one payer. Everybody is covered, everybody gets the same coverage they had before and the whole thing works out 30% cheaper. Because you're cutting out so much of the profit for the system healthcare costs remain easily manageable for the government over the next few decades. Remove profit from Medicare too so everybody gets their meds for $10 a scrip instead of two or three hundred a month for some drugs. The Medicare bill that got pased in 2006 had over one billion dollars change hands just in lobying fees. Those fees allowed healthcare corporations to physically write the legislation, guaranteeing them massive increasing ongoing profits. Tear it up and let a single payer buy all meds, then everybody only pays a few dollars a scrip.

So that's the economy, healthcare, pensions, radical Islam and terrorism all solved.

Sounds great, but how the hell you gonna sell that to DC?

This is what I would do to fix everything, not what's actually possible. Since the American President and senior lawmakers continue to arrogantly assume that they're capable of running the country properly without first taking then acting on my advice I'm powerless to actually do anything.

[VictorCharlie]

Kirk if I am following you, than the overall price of medical care won't really fall so I our brightest minds will still spend 8-12 years in school so that deals with one of my concerns. Will we have health care rationing though? I don't really want the federal govt telling people when and what type of health care they can receive. I also feel that an "everyone pays the same, everyone gets the same" program takes personal accountability out of the equation. If I don't use tobacco, drink heavily, use drugs or have multiple sex partners and I eat a balanced diet and exercise why should I have to pay the same as someone who isn't as healthy? I don't think there is any question that the insurance companies are the issue and we need to dramatically decrease the cost of health care. I think there has to be a middle ground between the system we have and a single payer system

[killersheep]

Kirk if I am following you, than the overall price of medical care won't really fall so I our brightest minds will still spend 8-12 years in school so that deals with one of my concerns. Will we have health care rationing though? I don't really want the federal govt telling people when and what type of health care they can receive. I also feel that an "everyone pays the same, everyone gets the same" program takes personal accountability out of the equation. If I don't use tobacco, drink heavily, use drugs or have multiple sex partners and I eat a balanced diet and exercise why should I have to pay the same as someone who isn't as healthy? I don't think there is any question that the insurance companies are the issue and we need to dramatically decrease the cost of health care. I think there has to be a middle ground between the system we have and a single payer system

This same thing happens with independent insurance though, my rates just went up dramatically, because someone at my company is going through cancer treatment right now. Insurance really has a strangle hold on the American consumer right now. Not only that, but imagine the bargaining power we could have for medications, buying in bulk at the national level.

[Kirkland Laing]

Kirk if I am following you, than the overall price of medical care won't really fall so I our brightest minds will still spend 8-12 years in school so that deals with one of my concerns. Will we have health care rationing though? I don't really want the federal govt telling people when and what type of health care they can receive. I also feel that an "everyone pays the same, everyone gets the same" program takes personal accountability out of the equation. If I don't use tobacco, drink heavily, use drugs or have multiple sex partners and I eat a balanced diet and exercise why should I have to pay the same as someone who isn't as healthy? I don't think there is any question that the insurance companies are the issue and we need to dramatically decrease the cost of health care. I think there has to be a middle ground between the system we have and a single payer system

Healthcare costs would fall by 30% if you cut out the huge bureauocracy that runs the system now and created one national single payer system. Doctors will still get paid the market price for their work, nobody would see any change to their healthcare apart from less form filling and no denial of coverage. Uninsured/unhealthy peoples' healthcare is already paid for by insured active healthy people, it would just get much cheaper to pay for with this system. Most of the things you hear about how a single payer system is one step from socialism are not true. It just means that a buyer representing 300 million people negotiates costs and benefits for everyone versus one guy/firm trying to buy individual healthcare for himself/employees. This makes everything much cheaper. The single payer then aggregates those costs and divides by 300 million without adding another layer of profit. It's not entirely fair on healthy versus unhealthy people although if a healthy person is in a car wreck or gets some disabling disease and needs decade of healthcare then they're going to get it and not have to worry about denial of coverage etc. so it's all good in the end and much cheaper than the current system. For a few years now CEO's like GM's CEO have been calling for such a system because the US system makes building cars in America versus abroad uncompetitive. America spends vast quantities more per person than other countries for often crappier results.

[VictorCharlie]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

[CFH]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

I like our health care system. It's far (very, very far) from perfect, but it is one of the proudest accomplishments as a nation. From what I know of the U.S. system, I much prefer the Canadian way. However, with the aging baby-boomer generation and changing demography, it might be in peril in the not too distant future.

[VictorCharlie]

At yalls leisure check out this series..Vids 1-6 and let me know what you think

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[VictorCharlie]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

I like our health care system. It's far (very, very far) from perfect, but it is one of the proudest accomplishments as a nation. From what I know of the U.S. system, I much prefer the Canadian way. However, with the aging baby-boomer generation and changing demography, it might be in peril in the not too distant future.

Okay so I've met one Canadian who likes it

[CFH]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

I like our health care system. It's far (very, very far) from perfect, but it is one of the proudest accomplishments as a nation. From what I know of the U.S. system, I much prefer the Canadian way. However, with the aging baby-boomer generation and changing demography, it might be in peril in the not too distant future.

Okay so I've met one Canadian who likes it

I wasn't trying to stir shit up or anything, just giving my opinion. Most of the people I know take great pride in our system and laud it as one of Canada's few great accomplishments. However, it is very true that there are plenty of other people here who feel differently.

[Kirkland Laing]

Whats different about your system versus what Canada has? B/C I've never met a Canadian that liked their health care system. And how do you choose the insurance company to negotiate the price with? I also don't see how this forces doctors/hospitals to compete against one another and conversely their prices. Obviously we would then do away with medicare/medicaid but whats the real cost to the taxpayer? How much does a guy like me on $50,000 a year pay in taxes so myself and everyone else gets it?

The insurance companies go out of business. There's only one company and that deals with all the hospitals and doctors. Doctors and hospitals don't compete against each other, they just do what they're doing now except with infinitely less paperwork, so they save time and money. The number one complainr of doctors is that they spend all their time and their staff do too filling in forms that the insurance companies use to try and cut/deny healthcare to people. The whole thing works out vastly cheaper than the current system, not more expensive. It would cut yearly costs by hundreds of billions and extend care to everyone. Here's the doctors themselves to explain it :

What is Single Payer? | Physicians for a National Health Program

Why the US Needs a Single Payer Health System | Physicians for a National Health Program