Hmmm, that’s a tough one. If I understand the bill, and it is quite likely nobody actually understands the thousands of pages that it entails, it’s vastly better for the insurance companies then the consumer and the taxpayer. It was probably written by the insurance industry and the drug lobby just like the Bush Era [...]
Archive for the ‘economy’ Category
Is the Senate Health Care Bill Better than Nothing?
Posted in economy, health care, public policy, tagged health care, obama, Senate Health Care on December 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
When Will Unemployment Get Better?
Posted in economy, politics, public policy, renewable energy, tagged 1929, CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, great depression, renewable energy, Unemployment, wall street on November 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The duh answer is. when companies start hiring, but that doesn’t really provide a meaningful answer. Meaningful gains in employment might be a decade away. The economy is still broken, Wall Street is still a ponzi scheme, small businesses are still failing by the thousands every month, big businesses are in worse shape, and housing [...]
Why do we need derivatives?
Posted in economy, investing, tagged bailout, derivatives, Goldman Sachs, investing, wall street on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In large part, financial derivatives caused the meltdown of the world financial system. Do you know what a derivative is? If you found a derivative on your doorstep, would you recognize it? Do you think your local banker knows what a derivative is well enough to describe it to you? Could your financial advisor educate [...]
Is the Recession and the Financial Crisis Almost Over?
Posted in economy, government, health care, investing, politics, public policy, renewable energy on October 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you watch the nightly news or read the news on the web, it sounds like things are getting better. The stock market is up 40% over its low, the banks appear to be stable, job losses are tapering off, real estate sales are up 6% from the month before, and on and on – [...]
Health Care System Needs a Radical Change
Posted in economy, government, health care, politics, tagged economy, health, health care, insurance industry, obama on August 11, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Everybody hates something about all the healthcare proposals out there, so here’s another one to hate. How about if we have the government provide a system whereby it provides a basic level of healthcare below which the patients pays nothing, fills out no paperwork, needs no adjudication, it is just there and available to all [...]
Goldman Sachs Reports 2.72 Billion in Profits
Posted in economy, investing, tagged 2 Billion Profits, Goldman Sachs, greed, wall street on July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Does this headline bother anyone else? Forget about the fact that the taxpayers had to bail these guys out and then they were allowed to repay the bailout, essentially depriving the taxpayer of any profits from its investment; but consider where those $2.72 billion in profits came from. Those $2 billion in profits are $2 [...]
The California Economy in Crisis
Posted in economy on May 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I left California for Nevada about 15 years ago because I felt that, despite a robust economy at the time, the State of California was doomed. I felt that there were too few taxpayers paying for too many services and there was a swelling number of people paying little or no tax yet expecting the [...]
Hot, Flat, Crowded, and Stupid
Posted in economy, energy, renewable energy, tagged crowded, energy policy, flat, globalization, hot, Thomas Friedman on May 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I am reading Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded. It is an excellent book and addresses the essence of the problems the world faces, primarily global warming, although I get this nagging feeling that it is like so many such books, overly optimistic about the possibilities for the future. I suppose it has to be, [...]
Is a Mac Bettter than A PC – Notes from an ex-Windows User
Posted in economy, tagged mac, Mac and PC, macintosh, OS/X, pc, Windows on May 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Actually the title to this article is a little misleading. I still use Windows, just not intentionally. You may already get the drift of this article. I have been using Windows almost since the beginning. It sucked then, it sucked when it became Windows 3.0, 3.1 … then Windows NT arrived and it looked like [...]
Should Pot be Legalized?
Posted in economy, politics, tagged drug trade, legalization, legalize pot, legislation, marijuana, pot, war on drugs on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m not a drug user but I am in favor of legalized pot, but only if it is taxed and taxed reasonably. The reasonableness test is an added stipulation after reading about California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s proposal to tax pot at $50/ounce.
Pot is about as easy to come by for kids as cigarettes, it’s the [...]
