Our Turn?
by ilene - March 29th, 2010 8:21 pm
Very dismal forecast from our friend James Kunstler, he writes so beautifully but I hope he’s wrong. – Ilene
Our Turn?
Courtesy of James Howard Kunstler
Nations go crazy. It’s terrifying when it happens, especially to a major nation with the ability to project its craziness outward. We look back on the psychotic break of Germany in 1933 and still wonder how the then-best-educated population in Europe could fall under the sway of a sociopathic political program. We behold the carnage and devastation left in the wake of that episode, and decades later you still can do little more than shake your head in bewilderment.
China had a psychotic break in the 1960s in its "cultural revolution," provoked by the mad neo-emperor Mao. He sent cadres of Chinese baby boomer youths rampaging across the land, turned every institution upside down, and let millions starve. Mao’s China lacked the ability then to export this mischief, but enough of his own people suffered.
Cambodia was the next humdinger of a national nervous breakdown when the Paris-educated classic marxist Pol Pot decided to make the world’s biggest omelette by cracking a million eggs. He took everybody wearing eyeglasses, everybody who appeared to have a thought in his or her head, and sent them out to the bush to be worked to death, or shot in ditches, or disposed of otherwise. The mounds of skulls remain to tell the tale.
Lately we’ve had the Hutu-Tutsi genocides in Rwanda, the craziness in former Yugoslavia, the cruelty of Darfur, the international suicide-bomber craze (including today’s blasts in Moscow). Surely, I’ve left a few out… but these are minor episodes compared to what be coming next.
Am I the only one who senses it might be America’s turn to go nuts? I don’t mean a family squabble, like the Boomer-Hippie-Vietnam uproar that was essentially an adolescent rebellion against bad parenting in the national household. I mean a genuine descent into madness, with the very high probability of persecution, violence, murder, and mayhem — all more or less sponsored by various authorities and institutions.
The Republican Party is doing a great job in provoking such a dangerous episode by making consensual governance impossible in a time of awful practical problems and challenges. They’re in the process, right now, of transforming themselves from…
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Remedial Economics with Obamacare
by ilene - March 27th, 2010 1:59 pm
Remedial Economics with Obamacare
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Some of us obviously need a refresher in Econ 101 (Ben Bernanke, OMGObama if he ever actually took it, Nancy Pelosi, etc etc) but it’s all good; Obamacare is here to teach us that there is no "something for nothing". Pelosi should probably listen to the lesson twice.
AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Friday it would record a $1 billion non-cash charge for the current quarter related to the new U.S. health care reform law, as lawmakers called on the company and three other large employers to testify about expected cost hikes.
AT&T’s charge appeared to be the largest in a series of charges announced by U.S. companies this week.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee said on Friday it will call on the chief executives of AT&T, Caterpillar (CAT.N), Verizon (VZ.N) and Deere (DE.N) to testify on April 21 about how the reform might adversely affect their ability to provide health insurance.
"The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern," the subcommittee said in the letters.
AT&T, whose annual revenue is expected to be $124.1 billion this year, said the charge is the result of a provision in the law related to the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies.
And where, exactly, are companies supposed to come up with the difference? Public company accounting – in case you are not aware, I’ll save you the filthy GAAP details – is not like government (fund) accounting. While the Obama administration may have the advantage of a conveniently-located printing press in town at Bernanke’s place and fund accounting on its side, public companies actually have to make balance sheets balance and put something aside or borrow to comply with this awesome new health reform plan.
Way to encourage economic growth, Washington.
Money that could have easily gone into infrastructure, technology, inventory, human capital, or R&D ends up going to Washington (as if the printing press and fund accounting weren’t pay day enough in DC. Here’s a hint: there is never enough) to be redistributed. Partially to the IRS to pay all these new "auditors".
See where we’ve gone wrong yet?
And hey! All you asshat iPhone users can also blame Obamacare for the ever-crappier network you’ll be on as AT&T will, naturally, have to take $1 billion from somewhere else.
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Health Care Passed; How will Individuals and Corporations React? Who will Opt Out?
by ilene - March 25th, 2010 7:53 pm
Random thoughts on healthcare reform. – Ilene
Health Care Passed; How will Individuals and Corporations React? Who will Opt Out?
Courtesy of Mish
President Obama managed to arm-twist Congress into passing an unpopular healthcare bill. Not a single Republican voted for it.
Supposedly the bill will guarantee coverage of 94% of the US population.
Many corporations complain it will increase costs. For example: Deere says health care law will raise expenses
Deere & Co. said Thursday that changes to the health care law signed into law this week will raise related costs this year by $150 million.
The biggest U.S. maker of farm equipment became the second major company in as many days to say it would take a charge for fiscal 2010.
Deere and Caterpillar were among the 10 companies that sent a letter to Congressional leaders in December warning of cost increases. Others were: Boeing Co., Con-Way Inc., Exelon Corp., Navistar Inc., Verizon, Xerox Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., and Met Life Inc.
The companies say federal subsidies have covered 28 percent of the cost of retiree prescription drug coverage. The government offered the subsidies so that more companies would continue to offer coverage to retirees and keep them off of government-funded Medicare Part D.
Under the health care reforms passed this week, that subsidy will be taxed starting next year, which the companies predicted could significantly increase government health care costs because companies may drop coverage.
"Taxing the subsidy means that more companies will eliminate or reduce the coverage, and more retirees will shift to Medicare Part D, which will create more cost for both the government and the retirees," the companies wrote in their letter.
How Will Corporations React?
Inquiring minds are reading interesting anecdotes about Healthcare on Silicon Investor. A well respected poster Hawkmoon writes …
Mish,
Had a VERY INTERESTING conversation this evening with a CFO for a local business who employs about 100 people total..
I asked him how this health care bill was going to affect the company he works for.
He told me that he had run the numbers based upon providing health care for all of their employees and realized that he could save the company 1/2 million dollars by just paying the $2000 per employee penalty and not offering any coverage at all.
Is this how the government plans on taking over all health
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site