Greatest Paper Ever

The NY Times continues to encroach on the intellectual space occupied by The Onion.

First, economics columnist David Leonhardt writes about wage stagnation in the US. We have a no-prize for guessing what he does not mention:

After almost 15 years of a disappointing economy, it’s easy to get pessimistic. Incomes for the middle class and poor have now been stagnating over a two-term Republican presidency and well into a two-term Democratic one. Thegreat wage slowdown of the 21st century has frustrated Americans, polls show, and raised serious questions about what kind of policies, if any, might change the situation.

Yet if you look around the world, you can find reasons for hope.

While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent.

These aren’t just any countries, either. They’re among those most similar to the United States: far-flung, once ruled by Britain, with a frontier culture and a commitment to capitalism. Though Australia and Canada obviously are not identical to the United States, it certainly seems worth asking what they’re doing differently.

It may be worth asking, but it won't be worth answering if the answer includes "restricted, skill-based immigration".

And for more grins, Margaret Sanger-Katz has good news on ObamaCare!

Financial Distress Connected to Medical Bills Shows a Decline, the First in Years

Whee hee! And a big "Told ya so!" to the haters out there!

Left unmentioned by Ms. Sanger-Katz is the self-declared mission of the Commonwealth Fund behind this study:

The mission of The Commonwealth Fund is to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.

So ACA cheerleaders are cheering for the ACA - did anyone see that coming?

Fortunately this is not a pro-pharma study funded by Big Pharma or a global-warming skepticism piece funded by Big Oil or libs would be leaping from window ledges.

I will leave it to the pros to pick apart this study. My quick thought is that the data surveys are from 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2012, and 2014, with a lot of "Peak Bad" occurring in 2010 and 2012, as we emerged from the recession.

I am also intrigued by the news that among those earning over $200,000 with insurance coverage, 25% skipped a prescription or treatment becausee of cost (high earners without insurance skipped at a 55% rate.) That makes me think it ain't all about the money.

As to the Times headline, the brief includes this:

Fewer Americans reported medically related financial difficulties in 2014. The number of adults who said they had problems paying their medical bills in the past 12 months or were paying off medical debt declined from 75 million people in 2012, or 41 percent, to 64 million, or 35 percent, in 2014 (Exhibit 7, Table 3). This is the first time since The Commonwealth Fund began asking these questions in 2005 that these numbers have dropped. The 2014 rates were similar to those reported by adults in 2005.

Again, was 2005 a halcyon year for health insurance or just a better economic year than 2010-2012?

And the link between medical bills, health insurance and bankruptcy has been and continues to be phony. The loss of income and lack of disability insurance are surely bigger drivers of an eventual bankruptcy than the actual medical bills. And in any case, if bankruptcy was the problem, catastrophic coverage would be the solution, not the free annual physicals touted by the ACA.

SOME RECENT FLAVOR: A couple of days back the Commonwealth Fund explained why charging smokers higher health insurance premiums is unfair. I'll have more if/when I recover from the eyeburn.

Comments

[lyle]

“The international jihadist movement has declared war. They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they would think and act. They have declared war on any country like ourselves that values freedom, openness and tolerance.”

- Stephen Harper, Canada PM.

What strikes me is that you could replace "international jihadist movement" with "western leftist movement" and it would be equally true.

[Danube on iPad]

"the feds were also threatening his innocent kid brother, arguably just to get Milken to fold"

That's exactly what they did.

[rich@gmu]

hahaha ...

[pagar]

Preventing business starts and putting private businesses (not approved by leftists) out of business. A US government mess newly created by the leftists

"A government report pegs the price of the work at $210 million — $120 million more than initial estimates, with off-site leasing costs included."

The government does not own the bldg. None of this was necessary.

http://watchdog.org/192713/consumer-protection-bureau/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=watchdognewsletter_3

"We want to help consumers make smarter decisions.”

The agency is funded largely by fees banks pay to the Federal Reserve. Cordray said the bureau has levied more than $141 million in fines,"

http://www.weeklystandard.com/keyword/Consumer-Financial-Protection-Bureau

"Federal Regs Making it Difficult for Members of Military to Borrow Money"

[Dave (in MA)]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/media/2015/01/15/011515protestmg008.jpg

My second-favorite photo so far.

[rich@gmu]

my last was in ref to Dave's comment on the other page ... very clever.

[lyle]

"Aqualung Jr."

Heh.

[Jane]

Via Howie's facebook feed:

Black Lives Matter Boston

UPDATE: Court Support NOW
Protesters are appearing in court NOW at Somerville Courthouse and Quincy Courthouse.
JOIN US in supporting them!
‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬
Donate to the bail fund via PayPal: Blmboston@gmail.com

~~

[cathyf]

Good thing we took out core al qaeda. Whew.

We took out core al qaeda...

...from gitmo and released them to return to the battlefield.

[rich@gmu]

the Belgians aren't screwing around. capped two and hauling in a few more.

[Rob Crawford]

Aqualung Jr?

Sitting on a highway,
Watching as the pretty cars zoom by...

[Marlene]

Jane @ 4:19...they didn't have any support this morning when the traffic finally started to move. A caller to Howie was on one of the overpasses observing the scene and every commuter who passed the protesters yelled and cursed them.
Howie is preparing an article for Breitbart.

[lyle]

Big Dem conflab comes up with this as a fresh new idea:

[I]n a sign of local Democrats’ struggles to change voters’ minds, Price said the best prospect for reversing the trend — in the South, at least — is in lawsuits that allege racial bias in the way Republicans drew district boundaries.

Of course...lawsuits. And why not? With jackasses like Lindsey and Sidney in the Senate ready to roll over and confirm LOLynch as Holder's hand picked successor, this seem like a slam dunk. Suing your way into a Dem majority again is 21st century thinking.

[lyle]

Aqualung Jr?

Sitting on a highway,
Watching as the pretty cars zoom by...

Drying in the cold sun
Watching the frilly Pampers run.

[jimmyk]

Good for the Belgians. Take no prisoners.

On a lighter (sort of) note: If Hillary had taken this approach with Clenis, she might be more sympathetic:

http://fox2now.com/2015/01/14/angry-wife-cuts-off-cheating-husbands-penis-twice/

[Thomas Collins]

Marlene at 4:07 PM:

"A listener texted Howie earlier in the hour and said it is a darn good thing the state troopers were there, because who knows what irate commuters would have done."

About 17 years ago, I was driving my aunt, who was clearly in distress, to the hospital (it turned out to be a stroke). If I had encountered slime blocking the streets, I wouldn't have hesitated to run them over, and I would do so today if a family member were in distress. In fact, I was driving the same aunt home when she lived in NYC, when we were confronted by squeegee slime with masks waving their squeegee thingies at us. I kept driving and the squeegiers spread like bowling pins being knocked over to avoid getting hit. One day not too soon, these traffic snarlers are going to come up against a driver in an emergency situation who is going to decide that the snarlers' lives are less important the situation the driver is confronting.

[Buster McCloud]

"As a overly-priviledged, homophobic, islamaphobic, misyogonist white male with a fully-vested family trust fund from over 450 years ago, I am delighted to support my local police and their discriminate use of firearms to protect you, me and themselves. I only wish the rest of my fraternity of overly-priviledged white men and women would feel the same way but they would rather wear dredlocks, smell bad and listen to Chris Hayes than live in reality"

[Miss Marple]

WAL reports Duke has reversed its ok for the call to prayer from the chapel tower.

I believe Billy Graham came out against it this morning.

[Thomas Collins]

Of course, with Mayor deSandinisto in charge, I suspect I'll have the opportunity to interact with squeegee slime again when I drive in NYC.

[Miss Marple]

WRAL, stuck keyboard.

[Ben]

Once again we see the US print and TV media serving as a ministry of propaganda for Washington," wrote Paul Craig Roberts in the article, which was originally published on his own website. "In place of investigation, the media repeats the government's implausible story." Roberts wrote that the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo "has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation." He speculated that the U.S. perpetrated the attack to bring France under greater American control. "Clearly, France was showing too much foreign policy independence," Roberts wrote. "The attack on Charlie Hebdo serves to cow France and place France back under Washington's thumb."

Hmmm. I hadn't considered the recognition of Palestinians and BiBi crashing even after Hollande asked him not to attend might have been the trigger for the trigger men. How can we light more fuses on rogue terrorists? What is the solution? Oh yeah. We should trim back more of our freedumbs. That'll do it.

[Miss Marple]

Leaving for the evening.

Will check in later this evening.

[Thomas Collins]

Ben, how could Bibi attending be a trigger when the event hadn't even been planned when the jihadists slaughtered the civilians?

If you are concerned about loss of freedom, Ben, why don't I see some posts from you decrying the attempt to suppress "offensive" speech on campus? Perhaps (I hope) you can show me to be wrong, but I don't recall a single post from you attacking suppression of speech from a progist leaning institution.

[Jack is Back!]

Jane,

The Belgian press is reporting that the take down in Verviers was "an avoidance of what happened in Paris". IOW's they feel they nipped it in the bud.

I doubt that seriously. All the arms used in Parish by the Kouachi's and Coulibaly were from Belgium. The Afro bought his machine pistol in Verviers from the guys the Belgians just wasted.

Belgium and the Netherlands are mini-France when it comes to Islamic yutes looking for a war. Both Brussels and Antwerp have zones of heavy Islamic thugism. I have driven through them (mostly by accident) but also on purpose because I had to for the address I was going.

The other shoe(s) have yet to drop.

[Captain Hate]

Bane created such a fertile ground for mocking by not keeping the Wilhelm moniker.

[Ben]

I was referring to Belgium, Thomas. Why don't you hang around long enough to respond to my replies? And why are you asking me to be more honest. You've got your work cut out for the rest of the Team here.

[NKvirusedand back]

Ben/Dana always reverts to his hate the jews form. Just t'is.

[lyle]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/14/sport/kareem-abdul-jabbar-charlie-hebdo-terrorism/index.html

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Murder and mayhem not what Islam is about

Then jump on a plane to Syria and give those misunderstood ISIS fellers a good talking to, pal.

[Dave (in MA)]

Do not engage the feather passer.

[Ben]

"Do not engage the feather passer."

Yeah. You might learn something new.

[Peter]

lyle @ 4:51 heh

[Thomas Collins]

Ben, I hang around as much as I am able to given my work and family responsibilities, and my occasional predilection to party.
In any event, thanks for the clarification. And before you make a reference about someone not replying to you, start to put your own intellectual house in order by reflecting on your seemingly genetic inability to attack the left for impinging on freedom. Or perhaps I missed a post of yours on speech codes.

By the way, Ben, how many of the idiots in the "Black Lives Matter" movement do you think would have the "speak truth to power" courage to block a road in an area controlled by Boko Haram to protest Boko Haram's kidnapping of young women and to confirm that the lives of black African young women matter to them?

[Eric in Boise]

Then jump on a plane to Syria and give those misunderstood ISIS fellers a good talking to

"I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag ISIS up and down the court for 48 minutes!"

[Ben]

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/maybe-the-two-party-system-in-the-us-should-should-be-in-the-creation-museum-with-the-dinosaurs

The two-party system reminds me of corporations. Soon we'll have two corps in the entire world, notwithstanding shadow and shell spin-offs.

[Jeff Dobbs]

cathyf:
We took out core al qaeda...
...from gitmo and released them to return to the battlefield.

And they're on the run.

[Ben]

" how many of the idiots in the "Black Lives Matter" movement do you think would have the "speak truth to power" courage to block a road in an area controlled by Boko Haram to protest Boko Haram's kidnapping of young women and to confirm that the lives of black African young women matter to them?"

Good point, thomas. We do enjoy some freedom in the good old USA where protestors are merely tazed or clubbed, rather than murdered outright or taken as sex slaves. It's a win for Team USA. We also have choices, like at the supermarket where your bag can be paper or plastic.

[Thomas Collins]

Ben, isn't one big corporation the ultimate goal of the leftist anarchists? Oh, that's right, the corporations and THE STATE will wither away, and we'll all be living in Herbert Marcuse's dreamworld.

[lyle]

Do "corpsemen" work at "corps," Ben? Oh, sorry, is too reductive for your towering intellect? I don't know why it should be, your boy king uttered it with no snickering from the press. Why is that?

[Thomas Collins]

Ben, overly burdensome regulations that inhibit startups and speech codes are the leftists' bag. The burden on freedom in this country is far more a function of leftist thought and action than anything the right has done.

[lyle]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/396442/pennsylvania-lawmaker-seeks-ban-human-shaped-shooting-targets-katherine-timpf

Guess which party the lawmaker belongs.

[Ben]

Thomas; If you are interested in a discussion beyond painting your questions into a corner, ask what reforms to our system (as it stands) might improve the status of our democratic republic. That would be a place to start without pointless snark.

[Buster McCloud]

Doesn't one of the people here live in Coronado where the GOP are meeitng? Can they mosy up to the bar and put some hemlock in Boehner's wine?

[Buster McCloud]

Sorry about that. Did not mean Hemlock but Bitters.

My mind sometimes can never catch up with the cocktails I am making. Not that I am making one with Hemlock.

[MarkO]

Rudolph Giuliani and a classmate of mine, Gary Lynch, also threatened to indict Milken's mother as well as his brother.

They had charged Milken with "parking," an offense with no real or provable definition. Milken's lawyers were beating Giuliani so he took hostages, the brother and mother.

In this, Rudy was following the proven practice of colonial England. When the British wanted to take over a settlement, they kidnapped the local king and threatened to kill him unless the savages agreed to their terms.

Lovely.

[Ben]

I guess Thomas had his say with some prejudice and an open mind. :)

[rich@gmu]

yikes ...

[daddy on iPad]

Way way behind but just wanted to say that I read the linked Zerohedge column on the Swiss Bank move today and, speaking only for myself, there are so many GD'd acronyms in the damn piece that I am incapable of understanding almost anything about the column except that Stock in Swiss made Swatch's fell off 15%. BFD.

If anyone can explain this Swiss move today and some of it's ramifications ,( good and bad) please do so. Have we just struck an iceberg, or is manna suddenly falling from Heaven?

I am on margarita Number 1 BTW, but even if sober I think I'd still be asking the same question.

[Buster McCloud]

I grew up on a farm in upstate New York where we made a big deal out of castrating the pigs. Joni Ernst should do the same thing in her rebuttal.

The more we talk about pork and nuts the more we encourage the jihadis. If they come here PD and I can finally have the perfect target practice regime.

[Ben]

No one can translate in a few words what's happening, daddy.

" and who are not only facing epic margin calls, but are unable to cover their positions, as one after another retail FX brokerage has commenced "Rubling" the Swissy and the CHF pair is suddenly not available for trading for retail accounts."

It's been a house of cards long before 2008 but the bottom-line seems to be connected to the shifting of assets (check-kiting) is reaching a peak based on Brent Crude prices. Imagine if your credit cards were maxed and you were making minimum payments to stay afloat, then your hours were cut at work. Something like that.

[Old Lurker]

Daddy, the Swiss have a tightly run ship financially, low debt and high reserves of foreign currency. Tethering their strong currency to the Euro was like tethering one's lifeboat to the Titanic. I couldn't last and be good for the Swiss, so it didn't.

Good for them. The Euro makes no sense in that it ties poorly run countries with less poorly run countries, so better to be on their own.

[jimmyk]

daddy, I haven't followed it closely, but off the top of my head I think it's related to the plans to create the illusion of prosperity in the Euro zone via Fed-style quantitative easing and zero interest rate policies, i.e. debasing the Euro. (I resisted saying QE and ZIRP.)

[Threadkiller]

I hope Extraneous can navigate through all the Ben related cow pies.

[jimmyk]

or what OL said.

[exdemocrat]

"That would be a place to start without pointless snark"

A better one, I find, is just to treat the content-free 'pointless snark' peddled by trolls as one would the nightime barking of a neighbor's unattended dog.

[Buster McCloud]

Who the hell is this idiot Ben?

He knows nothing about monetary economics but does know a lot about Marxist intervention in free market economics.

I wonder why?

[exdemocrat]

... But with rather less latent sympathy, of course.

[exdemocrat]

... And considerably more chance of 'learning something' about the world around us.

[Threadkiller]

http://giveusliberty1776.blogspot.com/2015/01/when-is-enough-enoughfrom-internet.html

[Threadkiller]

Ben is the product of the voters who don't hold their noses.

[Ben]

Heh. My snark has a point and it's to the pointy-heads. :)

[Extraneus]

I haven't stepped in one yet, TK.

I honestly don't see the point in the R's having a formal, televised response to the SOTU in the first place.

Agree 100%, James. They could easily have said "We'll be responding with legislation."

[Captain Hate]

Tammy Bruce talked about this feel good story of Masha the feline heroine:

http://nypost.com/2015/01/15/hero-cat-saves-baby-from-freezing-to-death/

[Threadkiller]

I think the baby saved the cat.

[Threadkiller]

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday he said he was giving serious consideration to a bid for the 2016 presidential ticket. Cruz joined members of the GOP conference from the House and Senate in a retreat in Hershey. It's the first joint retreat in 10 years.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/01/gop_retreat_republicans_hershe_3.html

10 years?

I blame Bush.

[rse]

And that's why OL has multiple lovely homes. What a way to get to the essence.

I was wondering precisely what the Swiss had done myself.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/01/i_93_victim_s_daughter_highway_protest_moronic

The chubby, diaper-wearing neo-hippies got in the way of an ambulance trying to get a seriously injured 83 year old to Mass. General after he'd gone off the road into some trees when he hit a patch of African-American ice.

[Captain Hate]

Clemsoning again:

http://weaselzippers.us/211118-sensitive-clemson-students-demand-university-prosecute-defamatory-speech-on-campus-and-social-media/

[Buster McCloud]

Anyone know if David Cameron has the balls to counter Obama in their presser tomorrow regarding ISLAMIC terrorism or will he be the spawn of John Kerry?

[rse]

OK, OL. Now that I have praised your succinct erudition, can you look at this?

http://www.naco.org/programs/csd/Pages/Innovation-Challenge.aspx

Maybe you know a place so this deliberate shut down and then manipulating the response can be aired publicly?

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane broke Twitter.

[rse]

This applies to this morning's discussion on entrepreneurship and innovation.

https://www.livingcities.org/resources/286-city-accelerator-guide-for-embedding-innovation-in-local-government

The words now have a transformational meaning. Living Cities by the way is funded by all the major foundations.

[RickB]

Daddy,

OL is correct about the Swiss central bank leaping off the EUtanic but you also have to consider that they've already paid $100 billion for the ride to this point (equivalent to the Fed laying out $2 trillion). That's quite a chunk to toss away unless there is a very high degree of certainty there will be no survivors when the EUtanic goes down. It's also a clear indication the gnomes of Zurich feel the iceberg is much closer than it appears.

[Thomas Collins]

Start with the elimination of campus speech codes, Ben.

I do appreciate your ironic self-deprecating joke of accusing me of posting pointless snark at JOM.

[Jane]

Jane broke Twitter.

I did?

Do I get a prize?

[Jane]

Thanks for the update JiB. What do you expect to happen next?

[lyle]

Whether you get a prize or not, you'd have MY undying gratitude I'd you did, Jane. That counts for something, right?

[Jack is Back!]

Jane,

More surveillance, the BIV (*Belgian Anti-Terrorism Group) on the case, more busts, but, but, Belgium is long gone as is France and Netherlands. Maybe Sweend also. Germany has a chance.

In 10 years Europe will be an Islamic colony. Believe me. There is no way in hell yiu can reverse it brecause the natives don;t beleiuve it and live in denial.

Pretty sorry but its real.

[Danube on iPad]

Paul Craig Roberts is a 9/11 Truther and a certifiable loon.

[Ben]

"That's quite a chunk to toss away unless there is a very high degree of certainty there will be no survivors when the EUtanic goes down."

Gawd. Yes, we are an island unto ourselves. Reasonable people consider the connectivity of markets, but that won't be seen here.

[Jane]

It certainly does Lyle. But why?

[Ben]

"Start with the elimination of campus speech codes, Ben."

i don't think so, especially since you disrespected my suggestion.

Fear is the mind-killer.

[Some Guy]

Fear is the mind-killer.

You must have been willy willy afwaid then Ben.

[Ben]

Mark it on your calendar. My response to daddy is the correct one.

[daddy]

Thanks OL, JimmyK, and Rick.

So the Swiss did what was in the best interest of the Swiss, and that has caused the EU to go apeshit.

[Ben]

There's the harbinger.

daddy; Your expertise should stick with avionics.

[Miss Marple]

Home!

Thanks everyone for discussing the Swiss situation because I have to admit I didn't understand it.

Unlike a certain person here, I don't claim to be an expert in everything.