Question
What is the estimate of the number of humans who have ever lived on earth?
One Answer = 100,825,272,791 ---
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/significant-digits-for-thursday-oct-15-2015/
Jensen Comment
Due to issues of definition of when life begins and data errors this should
perhaps have been rounded to 100 or 101 billion.
Thomas Robert Malthus ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus
MIT: The United Nations now
projects 10 billion people on earth for reasons not given as much emphasis by
Malthus (who focused more on birth rates rather than death delays) ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/graphiti/542346/more-life-less-death/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20151013
"Nine
Billion Mouths to Feed: The author is sympathetic to anti-globalization
activists. But history amply shows that limiting people to local crops is a
recipe for famine," by Ronald Bailey, The Wall
Street Journal, October 18, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nine-billion-mouths-to-feed-1445206195?mod=djemMER
In the late 18th century, Robert Thomas Malthus
argued that human population growth would always outstrip food production,
thus perpetually condemning some portion of humanity to famine. His
disciples today are now pointing to recent steep increases in food prices as
harbingers of a new age of scarcity. Global food prices have indeed been
soaring, along with other commodity prices, since 2005. In real terms, the
Food and Agriculture Organization’s price index crested in 2011 at 60% above
its 2005 price levels. Farmers around the world predictably reacted to the
higher prices by growing more food. World cereal production rose from 2,348
million tons in 2011 to 2,540 million tons today. Since the 2011 peak, food
prices have been drifting downward, although they remain 18% higher than
they were a decade or so ago.
Cue the prophets of doom. Richard Heinberg of the
Post Carbon Institute has said that the world is now at “peak everything.”
He has further warned that humanity is “waking up to a century of declines.”
In 2013, Earth Policy Institute founder Lester Brown asserted: “The world is
in transition from an era of food abundance to one of scarcity.” Journalist
Joel K. Bourne Jr. declared earlier this year, in his book “The End of
Plenty,” that “the world is running out of food.”
Now comes the neo-Malthusian journalist David Rieff.
He argues in “The Reproach of Hunger: Food, Justice, and Money in the
Twenty-First Century” that “if significant changes to the global food system
are not made, a crisis of absolute global food supply could occur sometime
between 2030 and 2050.” Mr. Rieff’s argument is halfhearted in comparison to
Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich’s bold 1968 pronouncement, in
“The Population Bomb,” that “the battle to feed all of humanity is over. In
the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of
any crash programs embarked upon now.”
The chief question for Mr. Rieff is: Will it be
possible to feed the nine billion people who will most likely be living on
the planet by the middle of this century? He writes that, “in the main,” his
“own views are pessimistic.” But he immediately acknowledges the possibility
of predictive failure and declares: “I insist that it is entirely possible
that twenty years from now, it is the optimists who will be proven right.”
Mr. Rieff spends most of the book excoriating in
turgid prose those he designates as “optimists,” who argue that hunger and
poverty are technically solvable problems. He accuses them of “an
overreliance verging on mystical faith in the application of scientific
breakthroughs that will give farmers in the poor world the technological
inputs and market savvy needed to grow enough food to comfortably feed the
nine or ten billion human beings who will be alive on this earth by 2050.”
He has particular disdain for philanthro-capitalists as personified by Bill
Gates. When Mr. Gates’s foundation advocates harnessing technology to feed
the hungry and reduce poverty, Mr. Rieff sees only ideology. “Perhaps
twenty-first century liberal capitalism’s greatest trick has been convincing
so much of the world that it is not an ideology, and as it did so,
convincing itself as well,” he writes.
The author’s sympathy rests with anti-globalization
activists and their demands for “food sovereignty,” which amounts
essentially to autarkic agriculture by peasant farmers. As history amply
shows, limiting people to local crops is a recipe for periodic famine.
Mr. Rieff denounces what he sees as the global
development “consensus” that “only transformative power of liberal
capitalism in combination with science and technological innovation can end
hunger and extreme poverty.” He finds that the “only feasible” answer to the
problems of hunger and poverty “is to be found in the strengthening of the
state and in the promise and burden of democratic politics.” Ultimately,
politics is the key to fixing the “broken” global food system.
Broken? It is true that far too many people are
still hungry, but poverty is receding around the globe. Earlier this month
the World Bank released projections that the number of people living in
absolute poverty (defined as $1.90 per day) will have fallen from 902
million people (or 12.8% of the global population) in 2012 to 702 million
people (or 9.6% of the global population) this year. According to the World
Bank, these figures provide “fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long
sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic
goal of ending poverty by 2030.”
Continued in article
Update in 2015
Add to this the perils of irreversible climate change in that is probably more
of a disaster to food supplies than any other event in the history of mankind.
Crop production impacts in the USA are small potatoes compared to the
implications climate change on global food supplies. However, one great unknown
is technology for making desalinized ocean water cheap for irrigation around the
world.
Bob Jensen's Threads
Food, Agriculture, and Botany
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Botany
A 2007 Bob Jensen Tidbit ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2007/tidbits070716.htm
The latest (in 2007) from the campaign trail of Obama
"Shift Troops to Fight al-Qaida": "We cannot win a war against the
terrorists if we're on the wrong battlefield," Obama said. "America must
urgently begin deploying from Iraq and take the fight more effectively to
the enemy's home by destroying al-Qaida's leadership along the
Afghan-Pakistan border, eliminating their command and control networks and
disrupting their funding."
"Clueless," Powerline, July 14, 2007 ---
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/018232.php
Jensen Comment
While Commander and Chief Obama's U.S. military is "deploying form Iraq ...
[to]... the Afghan-Pakistan border," the al-Qaida's top leaders will deploy
from Pakistan to the vacated Iraq. To carry the fight to those warring
leaders, Obama's military will then have to re-invade Iraq or give
terrorism's command a safe haven. What will Commander and Chief Obama do if
the new battlefield in fact becomes Iraq? Much depends upon how much terror
the U.S. and its allies will tolerate before re-invading Iraq. Many anti-war
protesters hope that if we give al-Qaida 80% of the world's oil reserves
(which means give them the entire Middle East) that they will become
capitalists dependent upon a safer world to buy their oil. I think
"clueless" is a good word here for the strategy to pull completely out of
Iraq and shift the theatre of war to the Afghan-Pakistan border. Of course
we are and will continue to be worried about Pakistan, because Pakistan is a
major nuclear power teetering on the brink of control by Islamic militants.
If al-Qaida and its sympathizers get control of a nuclear arsenal in
Pakistan or Iraq, "someone will set the spark off and
we will all be blown away."
They're rioting in Africa. They're starving in
Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the
Germans. The Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans
hate the Dutch and I don't like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud for man's been endowed with a
mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day someone
will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran.
What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.
Kingston Trio, 1959 ---
http://www.kingstontrio.com/
Jensen Comment
ISIS and other insane enemies around the world are intent on weapons of mass
destruction far more lethal than atomic bombs. Attaining a world population of
10 billion is most assuredly not a sure thing in spite of climate change
disasters.
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth,
And he wasn't
even thinking about
Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days
Final Report of the President's Task Force on
21st Century Policing ---
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/TaskForce_FinalReport.pdf
InsideClimate News ---
http://insideclimatenews.org/
Real Climate: Data Sources ---
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/data-sources/
Too Much Debt
"HSBC: Norway and Sweden are in bubbles that 'may not be sustainable'" by
Jim Edwards, Business Insider, October 22, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/norway-and-sweden-bubble-may-not-be-sustainable-2015-10?r=UK&IR=T
Norway and Sweden may be in high-debt/asset bubbles
that look "unstable" and may leave them "vulnerable" to market corrections,
according to HSBC economist James Pomeroy. In Sweden, "growth may not be
sustainable," he says.
It's not the first time we've seen economists argue
that a bubble may be forming in Northern Europe. Analysts at
Moody's called one a few weeks ago in house prices in
Germany, the UK and — gulp! — Norway.
Pomeroy argues that the economies of both Sweden
and Norway are carrying huge debt loads relative to GDP, but consumers there
may be lulled into thinking everything is OK by their high property prices.
Both countries have central banks that have set
interest rates near zero. (Sweden's is actually negative.) The upshot,
Pomeroy says, is that if a recession comes — or interest rates rise — then
neither economy will be equipped to deal with it. Central banks can tackle
recessions by lowering interest rates, but that weapon is effectively
unavailable in both countries. Similarly, debt levels are comfortable now
because interest on debt is so low. If rates rise, then the risk of
consumers defaulting on their debts increases in both countries.
Here is Pomeroy's argument, excerpted from his
recent note:
Norway and Sweden's
high debt and asset booms look unstable
... Developed bubbles:
In the developed world, countries with buoyant asset prices and high
levels of household debt concern us. In Sweden and Norway, high
debt is coupled with central bank easing while Hong Kong's house price
growth is worrying.
... Sweden and Norway:
Both countries suffer from high levels of household debt, rising house
prices and have central banks that have cut policy rates to record lows.
This leaves them vulnerable to financial stability risks that could leave
the economies exposed to any downturn or, at some later stage, a rise in
rates. In Sweden, inflation remains very low (prompting negative rates and
possible further easing to come) and investment has boomed suggesting that
the recent run up in growth may not be sustainable.
Norway's growth outlook is blighted by a lower oil price despite no fears
over government finances or the current account.
... The concerns come
from Hong Kong, Norway and Sweden, where private sector debt continues to
rise. All three countries are seeing very fast house price growth and
debt is already at elevated levels. In the cases of Sweden
and Norway, the central banks have been cutting rates over the past year
(Norway -50bps, Sweden - 60bps), which serve to further fuel these risks.
And here's a chart showing how both countries come
near the top of countries with high credit to GDP, with both countries'
ratio between the two getting worse:
Continued in article
Barf Alert: How can anybody write such a misleading article?
"Why Is the CBO Concocting a Phony Debt Crisis? A simple accounting trick is
arming austerity hawks with a powerful, phony weapon, by Ari Rabin-Havt,
The Nation, October 18, 2015 ---
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-the-cbo-concocting-a-phony-debt-crisis/
How can there be such a large discrepancy in the
numbers? The answer is fairly simple. The CBO assumes that Social Security
and Medicare Part A will draw on the general fund of the US Treasury to
cover benefit shortfalls following the depletion of their trust funds, which
at the current rate will occur in 2034.
That would obviously lead to an exploding debt, but
it’s a scenario prohibited by law.
In the case of both programs, benefits must be paid
either from revenue collected via payroll taxes or from accumulated savings
in the programs’ trust funds. When those
funds run out, full benefits will simply not be paid.
“Because there is no borrowing authority, there is really a hard stop,” said
Goss.
Congress could pass a law saying that Social
Security and Medicare Part A would begin drawing on the US Treasury general
fund after 2034. Or, Congress could preemptively pass laws to avert the
situation before the deadline; it could take the approach favored by
progressives and increase revenue to the programs by lifting the payroll tax
cap, or alternatively raise the retirement age and lower benefits.
But the bottom line is the CBO projections
disregard the actual law and assume a worst-case legislative scenario—and
one that is politically unlikely, to boot. It’s hard to imagine Congress
would simply leave the problem alone and watch Social Security and Medicare
Part A devour the nation’s budget.
“Congress has always stepped up and done the right
thing, and made changes necessary. Now that is a fact,” said Goss.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
What a naive article. Ari Rabin-Havt assumes that if our deadlocked
Congress (it may be deadlocked ad infinitum) does not act responsibly before
Trust Funds run out the "full benefits will simply
not be paid" rather than tap the general fund.
In reality the entitlement trust funds for Social Security, Disability,
and Medicare are running out earlier than planned because Congress elected
irresponsibly to drain them to pay General Fund expenses. Now he thinks that
recipients promised such benefits will eventually receive much smaller
benefits when the Trust Funds expire. Technically, Congress replaced the
accumulated trust fund balances with IOU bonds that Congress is obligated to
repay ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States)
. . .
The Social Security Administration's authority
to make benefit payments as granted by Congress extends only to its
current revenues and existing Trust Fund balance, i.e., redemption of
its holdings of Treasury securities.
Therefore, Social Security's ability to make full payments once annual
benefits exceed revenues depends in part on the federal government's
ability to make good on the bonds that it has issued to the Social
Security trust funds. As with any other federal obligation, the federal
government's ability to repay Social Security is
based on its power to tax and borrow and the
commitment of Congress to meet its obligations.
In 2009 the Office of the Chief Actuary of the
Social Security Administration calculated an unfunded obligation of
$15.1 trillion for the Social Security program. The unfunded obligation
is the difference between the future cost of Social Security (based on
several demographic assumptions such as mortality, work force
participation, immigration, and age expectancy) and total assets in the
Trust Fund given the expected contribution rate through the current
scheduled payroll tax. This unfunded obligation is expressed in present
value dollars and is a part of the Fund's long-range actuarial
estimates, not necessarily a certainty of what will occur in the long
run. An Actuarial Note to the calculation says that "The term obligation
is used in lieu of the term liability, because liability generally
indicates a contractual obligation (as in the case of private pensions
and insurance) that cannot be altered by the plan sponsor without the
agreement of the plan participants
Ari Rabin-Havt assumes that rather than tax and
borrow to make good on its IOUs Congress will simply renege on
benefits. Has he heard of the Baby Boom where the old folks will essentially
control the elections to Congress unless liberals water down the power of
the disabled and retired Baby Boomers with tens of millions of new
immigrants. How naive can you get?
Assuming the USA does not open the gates to tens of millions of young
immigrants, the electoral powers of the older generation will be too
powerful to let Congress simply renege on its obligations to provide Social
Security Benefits, Benefits to the Disabled, Medicare Benefits, Medicare
Drug Benefits, and all the other entitlements that Congress has tacked on to
obligations of future generations.
In short, Ari Rabin-Hayt assumes that any entitlements that were promised
that cannot be funded when they come due will simply
become bad debts of the government and not be paid. I don't think
reality politics works like this. Assuming the exploding older generation
has the political clout to keep Social Security and Medicare Benefits
adjusted for eventual hyperinflation, those entitlements will be paid more
or less in full from the General Fund and more borrowing (if the USA has any
credit left in the world). And the impact on the General Fund will indeed be
the disaster that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is warning us about
in advance.
NBC News: Recent College Grads Might Not Retire Until 75, New Data
From NerdWallet Shows ---
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/recent-college-grads-might-not-retire-until-75-new-data-n448426
Bob Jensen's threads on the looming entitlement disaster ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm
"Hillary’s Benghazi Story Implodes: New evidence shows the depths of
deception," by James Freeman, The Wall Street Journal, October 23,
2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillarys-benghazi-story-implodes-1445599471?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb
“Thanks
to Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi testimony on Thursday, we now understand why
the former secretary of state never wanted anyone to see her emails,”
writes Kimberley Strassel.
Those emails and other State Department documents “show that the Obama
administration deliberately misled the nation about the deadly events in
Libya on Sept. 11, 2012.”
The new
documents from the Benghazi select committee show that while Mrs. Clinton
publicly blamed an Internet video for an allegedly spontaneous protest,
she privately told her daughter
that night
that it was an attack by “an Al-Qaeda-like group.” And the next day she told
the Prime Minister of Eqypt: “We know that the attack in Libya had nothing
to do with the film.
It was a planned attack—not a protest.”
When questioned on this evidence
by Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), “She dodged, and it was obvious,”
writes Peggy Noonan.
“All of
this is no mere game of gotcha,”
notes a Journal editorial.
“Mrs. Clinton’s private-public contradiction goes to the honesty of a public
official whose obligation was to protect Americans and who now wants a
promotion to the Oval Office. It shows that her first instinct even on a
matter of life and death was to
help the Administration conceal the nature of the Benghazi attack.”
Ms. Noonan raises other important questions:
“A secretary of state who supported a military action that unleashed chaos
and sends her friend, the ambassador, into that chaos has no awareness of
his requests for more security? Sidney Blumenthal had her personal email
address but Chris Stevens didn’t?”
The new
evidence also brings us back to questions
John Bolton
raised in our pages. If Mrs.
Clinton knew all along that her people were under attack by terrorists,
why did she leave the State Department
and
go home for the evening without ever calling the Secretary of Defense or the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to plead for a rescue mission?
Continued in article
"Tesla to fight Denmark's new tax on electric cars," TheLocal.dk,
October 12, 2015 ---
http://www.thelocal.dk/20151012/tesla-to-fight-denmarks-tax-on-electric-cars
The government has defended its move to gradually
phase out tax breaks on electric cars as a way to make things fairer for car
owners, but the maker of Denmark's most popular electric model has slammed
the plan as anti-competitive and a death knell for the industry.
A political agreement reached on Friday afternoon
will see tax breaks on electric cars phased out over the next five years.
As a result, the costs of some popular electric
models will skyrocket. The hardest hit will be the luxury model Tesla S
P85D, which will more than double in price from 875,000 kroner today to
1,807,100 kroner in 2020.
The Venstre government defended the move by saying
that the Tax Ministry misses out on 650 million kroner per year by not
applying Denmark’s 180 percent car registration tax to
environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. The Social Democrats, Danish
People’s Party and Social Liberals (Radikale) supported the phase-in of the
tax on electric vehicles.
In announcing the political agreement, Tax Minister
Karsten Lauritzen said that the new plan “balances the needs for the
continued expansion of electric cars in Denmark, the public purse and
fairness within the automobile market”.
“Electric cars have for a long time been better
positioned than other cars by being completely exempt from the registration
tax. Many regular Danes have a hard time understanding why they should pay
the full registration tax for their regular cars while those who can afford
an electric car have gotten off completely free,” Lauritzen said in a press
release.
Tesla, whose Model S is Denmark’s best-selling
electric car, expressed its immediate disappointment in the deal.
“All things being equal, this is not a phasing-in
of levies on electric cars but rather a phasing out of electric cars in
Denmark,” the company’s Danish spokesman, Esben Pedersen, told Berlingske
Business.
Tesla said that the government’s plan, which will
see prices on Tesla’s luxury models jump much higher than the increases on
smaller and cheaper models, is unfair. The company plans to file a complaint
to the EU.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
One of the reasons bicycles are so popular in Denmark is that middle class
people cannot afford cars. Car ownership is considered a luxury. Tesla
ownership is a dream.
Tax Breaks for the 1%: Tesla Model X Buyers Get $35,000 Tax Break
---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/10/tesla-model-x-buyers-get-35000-tax-break.html
Jensen Comment
Whew! I was so worried that electric car tax breaks for the wealthy would be
eliminated by President Obama. It was even further of concern that Tesla owners
would have to start contributing a few dollars to pay for road a bridge
maintenance. But Tesla owners continue to get a free ride on top of their
$15.000 tax break on each Tesla purchased. Only the proletariat pay for bridge
and road maintenance (except in Oregon).
"The Mullahs Say Thanks: Iran
becomes more belligerent in the wake of the nuclear deal," The Wall
Street Journal, October 12, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-mullahs-say-thanks-1444690790?mod=djemMER
President Obama and his foreign-policy
admirers—a dwindling lot—hoped that the nuclear deal would make Iran more
open to cooperation in the Middle East and with the U.S. Mark this down as
another case in which the world is disappointing the American President.
Iran’s judiciary on Monday announced that Jason
Rezaian, the Washington Post’s Tehran correspondent, has been convicted. He
was on trial for “espionage.” Security forces arrested Mr. Rezaian and his
wife, journalist Yeganeh Salehi, in July 2014. Ms. Salehi was later
released, but the regime has held Mr. Rezaian “in a black hole for 14
months,” as his brother, Ali, told us. Mr. Rezaian, a U.S. citizen, has been
denied even the basic rights the regime sometimes affords political
prisoners, including bail and phone calls.
The timing of the conviction won’t escape students
of history. Friday was the 444th day of his captivity. That was the number
of days U.S. diplomats in Iran spent as hostages following the 1979 Islamic
Revolution. Mr. Rezaian’s conviction three days later is the mullah
equivalent of mailing a dead fish to an adversary.
Mr. Rezaian’s brother also told us that “I’d like
the U.S. government to say [about Jason’s detention]: This kind of behavior
has consequences. Up to now this has had no consequences. What have been the
consequences? It hasn’t stopped them from getting their nuclear deal. And it
hasn’t stopped them from getting over half a billion a month in sanctions
relief since we started talking to them.”
The Iranian judiciary answers to Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei, who last week issued an edict banning any talk with Washington.
Supporters of the Iran deal are sure to blame Mr. Khamenei and his hard-line
faction for the Rezaian case and the regime’s permanent anti-American
posture. President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, deal
supporters say, don’t share Mr. Khamenei’s view of America as the Great
Satan.
Perhaps. But in a theocracy led by a man who rules
as the Almighty’s vicegerent on Earth, the views of Messrs. Rouhani and
Zarif count for little. That’s doubly so when it comes to Iran’s weapons
programs. There, too, Tehran is already defying the U.S. and reneging on
previous commitments.
On Sunday the regime tested a new long-range,
guided ballistic missile code-named Emad (“Pillar”) in violation of the
nuclear deal. United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231—which passed
shortly after the agreement to harmonize its provisions with international
law—prohibits Iran from conducting ballistic-missile work for eight years.
But the mullahs are nothing if not impatient, and
the Islamic Republic has already made clear that it doesn’t intend to abide
by the provisions of Resolution 2231 it dislikes. Testifying before the
Senate over the summer, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly vowed
to sanction Iran if it cheated on missiles. Well, here’s an early test case,
Mr. Secretary.
The more likely outcome is that the Obama
Administration will find a way to explain that the missile test doesn’t
violate the nuclear accord that Mr. Obama considers a crowning achievement.
Meanwhile, Iran’s government will bank up to $150 billion that it can deploy
to back its militia proxies in the Middle East. Add the new Iran-Russia
offensive in Syria, and Tehran would appear to have taken the nuclear deal
as a signal that it can now do whatever it wants without consequence.
What Putin Really, Really Despises
is the Leftist Movement in Europe and the USA: To Him Tens of Millions Refuges
Fleeing to the West Will Create Turmoil and Belatedly Put an End to the West's
Leftist Movements
So Ukrainian experience gives reason for skepticism
about Putin’s claim that Russia is intervening in Syria to help Europe with its
refugee problem. The politics might well be exactly the opposite. Having found a
powerful ally in its quest to end European integration, the European far right
has followed Moscow’s lead on the Ukrainian conflict. But the natural subject of
Putin’s allies in Europe is immigration. By supporting the Assad regime, Russia
helps to produce the refugees that drive European politics rightward. Syrian
refugees who arrive in Europe must be treated humanely and according to law. At
the same time, European leaders might consider the possibility that Russian
policy in Syria is aimed toward the
transformation of the country into a refugee factory.
In Ukraine, Russian intervention generated two million refugees among precisely
the people Moscow claimed it was protecting. In Syria, it has been the Assad
regime, which Russia has now supported, that has been responsible for the vast
majority of the refugees.
Time Magazine, September 30, 2015 ---
http://time.com/4054941/putin-russia-syria/?xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
Or to put it more simply if your own economy is awful you can look relatively
better by dragging down the prosperous (think Norway, Sweden, Germany, and the
USA) economies with a "Refuge Making Machine" But think what might happen if
one day one of those refugee families with lots of kids tries to cross the
Russian border?
Why the E.U. Is Offering Turkey
Billions to Deal With Refugees
Time Magazine, October 20, 2015 ---
http://time.com/4076484/turkey-eu-billions-dollars-refugee-slow/?xid=newsletter-brief
Can there be billions in profit in the refugee business?
Forwarded by Naomi Regan on October 16, 2015
A Very Syrious Matter
By Tabitha Korol
The Jewish Community Federations of North America have come together to
provide humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees. The organizations, paid
contractors who are identified in the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief,
are too numerous to mention here, but include AIPAC, AJC, B’nai B’rith
Int’l, HIAS, ORT America, and National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), who
are furthering the cause of population redistribution. Refugees, unlike
migrants, are defined as those who flee their homes because of persecution.
President Obama authorized the State Department to admit 85,000 refugees
fleeing humanitarian crises worldwide in 2016. Just as these Islamists have
invaded Europe, so our multiculturalists are funding their invasion into
America, and despite Saudi Arabia’s air-conditioned tents that are erected
and ready to accommodate three million for their annual pilgrimage to
Medina, no “Syrians” are welcomed within the Islamic world. By definition,
not only are these Syrians not refugees, but the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) has confessed that they have no screening process for “Syrian
refugees.”
ISIS/IS promised a “sea of chaos” to flood the West
with 500,000 refugees – not merely to create a humanitarian crisis and
strain our resources, but to also include jihadists to force Islamic
conversion and establish Sharia as the law of the land. Islamic countries
claim to have declined the Syrians because of terror risks, and the Jewish
Federations have turned a blind eye. Historian Serge Trifkovic wrote: “The
refusal of the Western elite class to protect their nations from jihadist
infiltration is the biggest betrayal in history.” And who are these Syrians?
The Federation’s announcement contained a particularly deceptive photo of a
wide-eyed, blonde toddler complete with Teddy bear, but the refugees are
primarily able-bodied young men, weaned on anti-Semitism and hatred of the
West and democracy, who are seen stomping on or burning our flags,
brandishing rifles, hurling fire bombs, and wielding swords for
decapitation. These are Islamists who have waged wars against Jews and
Christians, and brought theirsavagery to Europe, complete with their methods
of intimidation – riots and rapes of children and women. The rape count was
more than 5,000 in 2008 and more than 6,000 in 2009; Muslims account for 50
to 75 percent of all rapes of women in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and
these are the men who are designated to receive Federation funding. The
BBC’s website of 200 images is also dishonest in its refugee presentation –
providing a 53% focus on children, 36 percent men, and 10 percent women,
whereas the United Nations Refugee Agency revealed that 75 percent of
“refugees” were young men. Interestingly, the largest Muslim charity, with
its link to terror financing and settling refugees from terror-torn Syria,
has an operating budget of $240 million in over 30 countries. The charity is
part of a network calling for the settlement of thousands of Syrian refugees
into “rich countries.” Indeed, this is Barack Obama’s 2008 promise to
fundamentally transform America, and the Islamic State’s threat to flood the
West. Jusuf Al Qaradawi of the Muslim Brotherhood declared their mission “to
free the occupied lands of the laws and the tyranny of disbelievers. It is
undoubtedly a case of jihad for the sake of Allah.” Are we to believe that
the Federations (and the BBC) are unwittingly complicit as they aid and abet
those who would bring their misery to the West? Crain’s Cleveland Business
reported that David Fleshler, chair of the board of directors of Global
Cleveland, seeks to invite 100,000 foreigners to Ohio. Is it possible he is
unaware that Ohio is one of eleven states that already have more people on
welfare than are employed, and that the Qur’an prohibits Muslims from
assimilating into kaffir lands? He alleges that immigrants will integrate
and be employable, while Darrell Hamm, director of the non-profit The
Refugee Response, claims to assist refugees with their adjustment.
Judicial Watch’s Corruption Chronicles states:
“Conveniently omitted are the devastating impacts of illegal immigration
like the billions of dollars American taxpayers spend annually on their
education, healthcare and incarceration,” as Germany is now experiencing.
They bring with them greater demands for intolerance and accommodations,
destruction of the existing cultures, rioting and violent crime, as they
perform the Qur’anic edicts to establish jurisdiction in lands of the
infidel. Judicial Watch’s recent report shows that 1,519 foreigners with
terrorist ties were granted special exemptions and residency or asylum
through a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program, to which President
Obama appointed Fatima Noor to the post of assistant director for US
Citizenship and Immigration. Where prior to 2014, they would have been
banned from entry, these 1,519 are currently in the US with the same rights
and benefits afforded legal residents. At a time when restrictions were
being eased during an asylum fraud of February, 2014, the administration
unilaterally altered the Immigration and Nationality Act while also
announcing our projected acceptance of refugees to 100,000 yearly by 2017.
NumbersUSA reported that a new Pew study found that immigration will account
for 88 percent of US population growth over the next 50 years. The
Frankfurter Allgemenie and international statistics show that these
foreigners are not “refugees,” but “migrants” who are not under threat of
war or persecution. The migration is their hijrah, a 1400-year-old strategy
of Islamic expansionism, which, coupled with military conquest, will subvert
and subdue the host and begin the complete transformation of that country.
These are migrant warriors. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wisely
warned that the wave of mostly Muslim refugees coming to Europe threatens to
undermine the continent’s Christian roots. “They represent a profoundly
different culture.” All too obvious is the dearth of Christian and Jewish
refugees who truly need asylum from the jihadists. Meanwhile, the
International Rescue Committee (IRC), headed by former British Foreign
Secretary David Miliband, and Labour politician, praises the intake of
Muslims into Germany (as the Germans march and rebel against Islamization),
Iceland and Sweden, and demands that Obama admit 65,000 mostly Muslim
Syrians to the US. Miliband, who is affiliated with George Soros, Hillary
and Bill Clinton, and Samantha Power, reminds us that more than 11 million
Syrians have been made homeless by conflict and Syria is host to 33,000
asylum seekers and refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. Miliband
will not admit that Arab states refuse their brethren, but he is sure to
remind us that no matter how many we take in, the number will be
“unacceptable.” The very lucrative refugee resettlement progams are used by
those who hate non-Muslim countries and wish to replace their laws with
Sharia. Breitbart News reveals that the US already admits more than a
quarter of a million Muslim migrants each year. Obama wants to add 10,000
Syrian migrants to that number. The Jewish Federations, Catholic Charities,
World Council of Churches, and other “altruist” counterparts are conspiring
against democracy, unintentionally or deliberately, to destroy Western
civilization. To support them is to hasten some very Syrious and irreparable
consequences.
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.
Babe Ruth,
And he wasn't
even thinking about
Jihads in those days but I am thinking Jihads these days
With Russia in Syria, a geopolitical structure that
lasted four decades is in shambles. The U.S. needs a new strategy and
priorities.
Henry A. Kissinger ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-path-out-of-the-middle-east-collapse-1445037513?mod=djemMER
Did you notice that CNN tossed out fluff ball questions in the First Democratic
Debate without even asking about the Middle East?
"The US Supreme Court could ruin Elon Musk's plan for Tesla,"
by Seth Blumstack, Business Insider, October 15, 2015 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-supreme-court-could-ruin-elon-musks-plan-for-tesla-2015-10
Jensen Comment
This article most likely overstates the importance of power company payments for
lowered usage of electricity under Order 745. Firstly, battery-powered car
owners would probably still find it cheaper to buy electricity than to pay fuel
prices at the pump, especially since fuel prices are expected soon to soar
upwards. Secondly, home owners will soon be generating more of there own power
off the grid. Electric cars are, in my opinion, much more dependent on tax
subsidies on purchase prices and free rides on having to pay nothing for road
and bridge maintenance.
Furthermore, Blumstack overestimates the concerns of Tesla
owners about what they're paying for electricity. Tesla owners are probably in
the top 10% in terms of income given the price of any Tesla vehicle.
Tax Breaks for the 1%: Tesla Model X Buyers Get $35,000 Tax Break
---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/10/tesla-model-x-buyers-get-35000-tax-break.html
Jensen Comment
Whew! I was so worried that electric car tax breaks for the wealthy would be
eliminated by President Obama. It was even further of concern that Tesla owners
would have to start contributing a few dollars to pay for road a bridge
maintenance. But Tesla owners continue to get a free ride on top of their
$15.000 tax break on each Tesla purchased. Only the proletariat pay for bridge
and road maintenance (except in Oregon)..
TerraPower ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower
Bill Gate's Enormous Investment in Nuclear Power
The Atlantic Video: The Company Determined to Fix Nuclear Energy ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/410029/the-company-determined-to-fix-nuclear-energy/?utm_source=BI
Meet the leaders of
TerraPower,
a new company that hopes to solve some of nuclear
energy's biggest challenges. TerraPower is one of Bill Gates's biggest bets
in the search for an energy miracle—and their strategy is to tackle the
issues that surround nuclear energy head on in order to mitigate its
problems. Gates looked at solar and wind energies, but according to John
Gilleland, CTO of TerraPower, "Nuclear is
the only source of energy which could provide the necessary huge quantities
that we need on a global basis." Read more about Gates's commitment
to moving the world beyond fossil fuels in the
November 2015 issue of The Atlantic.
Momma Don't Let Your Babies Choose These
Careers
Cowboy careers are already gone except maybe in Argentina
15 Types of Jobs That Will Soon Disappear
---
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-jobs-that-are-quickly-disappearing-2015-10
- Printing worker
- Fishing men and women
- Desktop publisher
- Metal or plastic machine worker
- Insurance underwriter
- Flight attendant
- Power-plant operator, distributor, or
dispatcher
- Floral designer
- Logging worker
- Jeweler or precious-stone and metal worker
- Travel agent
- Reporters, correspondents, or
broadcast-news analysts
- Farmer or rancher
- Semiconductor processor
- Postal-service worker
Jensen Comment
Among the most secure jobs are those that will be hardest to replace by robots
such as those that require the most personal and social interaction such as
teachers, counselors, sex workers, hospital room nurses, etc. It will be a long,
long time before truck drivers, pilots, beauticians, police officers, and
firefighters disappear from the labor market.
Many careers will change greatly. Increasingly
robots will greet patients arriving for medical services. We will still need
nurses but not the ones that feed data into laptops as patients arrive in
hospitals and physician offices. Interactive robots will collect that data
before patients are directed to where the medical treatments take place.
Computers will do more and more of the medical diagnostics and even some medical
treatments but most certainly not all the treatments such as stitching up a
wound on a wailing and wiggling child.
Much of the robotics displacements will take a
very long time. How long will it be until a robot pianist can perform better
than any human in history? The return of the big hotel ballroom dance bands is a
long way off when all of the musicians in the orchestra are robots..
Robots will do much of the legal work now
performed by humans, but the last living beings on earth will probably be
cockroaches and lawyers. Many of us would prefer to be governed by robots but
politicians are among the lawyers that will be the last to go. I forgot to
mention that accountants (not bookkeepers) will be among the last to go because
the living world will always need creative accounting.
Where There's Almost No Diversity in Higher Education
Cornell Faculty Donations Flood Left, Filings Show ---
http://cornellsun.com/2015/10/15/cornell-faculty-donations-flood-left%E2%80%88filings-show/
. . .
The Sun’s analysis of Federal Election
Committee data reveals that from 2011 to 2014, Cornell’s faculty donated
$573,659 to Democrats, $16,360 to Republicans and $2,950 to Independents.
Each of Cornell’s 13 schools — both graduate and undergraduate — slanted
heavily to the left. In the College of Arts and Sciences, 99 percent of the
$183,644 donated went to liberal campaigns. The law school demonstrated the
strongest conservative showing, with nearly 26 percent of its approximately
$20,000 worth of donations going to Republicans.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
In the USA college faculty are less and less diverse in terms of political
leanings
Liberal Bias in the Media and in Academe ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#LiberalBias
The tumultuous history
of the diesel engine ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/fuel-economy/the-tumultuous-history-of-the-diesel-engine/ar-AAfaG8D?ocid=spartandhp
"California’s Diesel Rule Scam: The state imposes a rule
based on phony science on all U.S. truckers," The Wall Street Journal,
October 18, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-diesel-rule-scam-1445212223?mod=djemMER
The Environmental Protection Agency and California
Air Resources Board (CARB) are riding high after exposing Volkswagen ’s
emission scam. But the self-proclaimed guardians are running their own
regulatory racket. See their shakedown of Virginia-based trucker Estes
Express Lines.
Under the Clean Air Act, the Golden State enjoys
unique authority to impose stricter emission standards than the EPA, but
only within its sovereign borders. Yet CARB exported its vehicle emission
standards nationwide by forcing auto makers to re-engineer their fleets to
state rules. Now the agency is trying to bring out-of-state truckers to
heel.
In 2008 CARB banned diesel engines manufactured
before 2010 from California roads. Under the rule, over a million truckers
who operate in California, including 625,000 registered out of state, are
required to replace their engines with a newer model or install a diesel
particulate filter, which can cost more than their vehicles are worth.
This month CARB and EPA announced a $390,000
settlement with Estes—$100,000 of which goes to the U.S. Treasury—for
failing to install filters on 73 of 500 trucks it operated in California
between 2012 and 2014. Estes has since upgraded its entire California fleet.
CARB doesn’t have authority to subpoena documents
from out-of-state businesses, so EPA assisted the investigation by asserting
jurisdiction under California’s 2012 State Implementation Plan of the Clean
Air Act that includes the truck rule. Last year EPA demanded that a dozen
interstate trucking companies show compliance with California’s rule. A CARB
spokesperson says the prosecution is “the first of what we hope are many
cases.” Caveat trucker.
Not surprisingly, the green police claim they are
protecting Californians. According to EPA, the truck rule will prevent 3,500
premature deaths between 2010 and 2025. Yet there’s little evidence linking
diesel particulate matter with an increase in mortality in California, which
has among the lowest age-adjusted death rates in the country.
Studies show a weak association between mortality
and particulate matter in Appalachia and the Midwest, but virtually no
correlation in the western United States. This may be because the chemical
composition of particulate matter—which can be generated from dust,
wildfires, pollen, power plants, mining and farming—varies by region. Diesel
exhaust makes up a small fraction of these fine airborne particles.
Notably, the epidemiological study that CARB used
to justify its truck rule in 2008 had to be corrected after it was revealed
that the report’s lead staff scientist had purchased his statistics
doctorate for $1,000 from a diploma mill. CARB later revised its estimates
of premature deaths prevented by the rule down to 3,500 from 9,400. After
discovering the deceit, CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols failed to inform the
board and went ahead and propounded the regulations for adoption.
In other words, the regulations under which EPA and
CARB are prosecuting truckers are based on dubious science. But when the
cause is green virtue, such details don’t matter.
Jensen Comment
Guess who pays for the increased cost of commerce via the big rigs?
Perhaps this should be called the Air Transport Subsidy Act.
Finding and Using Health Statistics ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
We'd rather be obese on
benefits than thin and working.
Janice and Amber Manzur
John Hill,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11347454/Mother-and-daughter-weigh-a-total-of-43-stone-and-get-34k-a-year-handouts-but-refuse-to-diet.html
Moocher Hall of Fame ---
https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/the-moocher-hall-of-fame/
"Psychologist Barry Schwartz on What
Motivates Us to Work, Why Incentives Fail, and How Our Ideas About Human Nature
Shape Who We Become," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, October 5,
2015 ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/10/05/barry-schwartz-why-we-work-ted-books/?mc_cid=91738e7dd6&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
The
organism we call culture — all of our art and literature and
human thought — is in a constant symbiotic dance with human
nature. Our culture both reflects who we are — our values,
our hopes, our fears, our ideals — and shapes who we become
by immersing us in its collectively agreed upon mythology,
systematically perpetuating certain values and negating
others. E.B. White knew this when he
considered the responsibility of the writer
and asserted that “writers do not
merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape
life.” It’s a perennial dialogue between our nature and what
we come to believe is our nature, perhaps best captured by
the physicist David Bohm in his
1977 Berkeley lecture:
“Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true
is what we believe… What we believe determines what we take
to be true.”
In a particularly palpable
manifestation of this symbiotic dance,
the rise of workaholism and
the toxic mythology of work/life balance
have warped our understanding of why
we work, what meaningful labor means, and how we can avail
ourselves of the true rewards of our vocation. That’s what
psychologist Barry Schwartz explores in
Why We Work (public
library) — an inquiry into
the diverse sources of satisfaction in work, the
demoralizing effect of incentives, and how we can reimagine
work culture to enlarge the human spirit rather than
contract it.
Schwartz, who has previously studied
the paradox of choice and
the moral machinery of practical wisdom — casts the issue against the
staggering statistic that, according to a recent Gallup study of 230,000
full-time and part-time workers in 142 countries, only 13% of people feel
engaged and fulfilled by their jobs. He writes:
Work is more often
a source of frustration than one of fulfillment for nearly 90 percent of
the world’s workers. Think of the social, emotional, and perhaps even
economic waste that this statistic represents. Ninety percent of adults
spend half their waking lives doing things they would rather not be
doing at places they would rather not be.
This, of course, is far from new — one
need only look at that marvelous 1949 manifesto for avoiding work to
appreciate that enduring frustration. But Schwartz’s central point is that,
far from a necessary sunk cost of making a living, this profound
dissatisfaction with work is one of our own making — the product of how
we’ve designed our institutions, how that design has shaped our core
beliefs, and how those beliefs in turn shape who we become. By examining the
dichotomy between discovery and invention — one I think about often —
Schwartz argues that human nature is something we actively invent:
Does the market
cater to consumer desires or does it create consumer desires? Do the
media cater to people’s tastes in news and entertainment or do the media
create those tastes? We are all accustomed to the difficulties
surrounding discussion of these issues in modern society, and we may all
have fairly strong opinions about the “cater/create” debate. Questions
of just this sort are all around us, and finding the right answer to
them can have profound consequences for the future of society. In a
sense, the distinction I’m making is between discovery and invention.
Discoveries tell us things about how the world works. Inventions use
those discoveries to create objects or processes that make the world
work differently. The discovery of pathogens leads to the invention of
antibiotics. The discovery of nuclear energy leads to bombs, power
plants, and medical procedures. The discovery of the genome leads, or
will lead, to untold changes in almost every part of our lives. Of
course, discoveries also change the world, by changing how we understand
it and live in it, but they rarely change the world by themselves.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
The fundamental difference between capitalism and communism is the setting of
wages. In capitalism the theory is that wages are set by supply and demand. In a
world where over half the work force is unskilled wages will be low such as the
hourly rate for washing dishes in a Denny's Restaurant. Accordingly, workers get
paid more for skills in great demand such as the skill in removing tumors deep
within human brains. A disappointing aspect of capitalism is that the market
price of unskilled labor may be so low that it's not even a living wage, thereby
we have lobbying for minimum wages and welfare. Another disappointing part of
capitalism is that labor requiring great skill is paid very little if there is
almost no demand for the skill relative to the supply of workers with that skill
such as the skill of being a violinist living in western Nebraska or even in
Boston.
A disappointing aspect of Communism is in
making transfer payments for skilled labor not in demand. Another disappointment
is in not being able to pay premiums for highly skilled labor in great demand.
Another disappointment is that if workers can choose jobs they enjoy there will
be virtually nobody wanting to clean toilets and wash dishes in restaurants.
How to Mislead With Statistics
Link Between State Gun Laws and Fatal Shootings Not as Simple as It Seems
---
https://reason.com/archives/2015/10/11/about-that-national-journal-gun-chart
Jensen Comment
Irrespective of political leanings, this is an interesting study of statistical
analysis.
"Elizabeth Warren’s Latest Appointment : The Massachusetts liberal
nominates (read that dictates) a new SEC commissioner," The Wall Street
Journal, October 21, 2015 ---
http://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warrens-latest-appointment-1445381771?mod=djemMER&alg=y
President Obama has become famous for exercising
powers he doesn’t hold, such as the ability to declare Congress in recess
and rewrite immigration law. But as he heads toward his final year in
office, Mr. Obama is ceding to a Member of Congress the appointment power he
really does hold.
On Tuesday Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.)
appointed liberal law professor Lisa Fairfax to the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Technically, the White House announced Mr. Obama’s intention to
nominate Ms. Fairfax. But that was only after the progressive darling showed
up on a list of candidates that Ms. Warren deemed worthy of consideration.
This followed an angry letter in June from Sen.
Warren to SEC Chair Mary Jo White alleging problems from Ms. White’s
recusals due to her previous legal work defending corporations. The letter
torpedoed the potential nomination of Democratic securities lawyer Keir
Gumbs, who was experienced but had committed the sin of representing
profit-making businesses.
Continued in article
Jensen Comment
This is an illustration of what could easily happen if a government agency wrote
all or most accounting standards. One can imagine Senator Bernie Sanders
dictating the new set of Socialist Accounting Standards for the USA.
Finding and Using Health Statistics ---
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/usestats/index.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on economic statistics and databases ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics
Jensen Comment
It might be interesting to have accounting students investigate how much it
costs local hospitals to provide charity services?
Hint
Such studies ideally show both the gross cost and the net cost after various
subsidies. For example, when I lived 24 years as a homeowner in San Antonio, the
Bexar County Hospital provided the most charity services. However, over $1,000
each year was designated each year as going for charity services at the Bexar
County Hospital. Virtually all hospitals that have emergency rooms provide some
charity servicves. However, when there are two or more hospitals in a given
county it's increasingly common for a hospital to drop its ER services. For
example, the New England Baptist Hospital in the vicinity of the Harvard Medical
School specializes in orthopedic surgeries and at one time had ER services. By
the time my wife started having spine surgeries at this hospital, there were no
more ER services available from this hospital. It would be interesting to see a
case study on the decision by the hospital to drop its ER services.
"How Much Charity Care Do Hospitals Really Provide?" by A. Barton
Hinkle, Reason Magazine, October 12, 2015 ---
https://reason.com/archives/2015/10/12/how-much-charity-care-do-hospitals-reall
Jensen Comment
This article illustrates somewhat how difficult it is to estimate the cost of a
hospital's charity services. An enormous problem is that there are so many
joint, common, and fixed costs (and semi-fixed costs) of hospital services. By
the way, a joint cost is not the same as a common cost. The article does not
delve into these costs that are near and dear to accounting researchers and
savvy economists.
There is a huge problem at get go in defining a "charity service." For
example, various studies of hospital costs and Medicaid reimbursements contend
that Medicaid only pays have the cost of delivering hospital services. But
there's a huge problem of defining the "cost" of Medicaid services. Something
similar happens to a lesser extent with Medicare and Obamacare patients.
Bob
Jensen's universal health care messaging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
"Insurance Dropouts Present a Challenge for Health Law," by Abby
Goodnough, The New York Times, October 12, 2015 ---
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/insurance-dropouts-present-a-challenge-for-health-law/ar-AAflcIC?ocid=spartanntp
. . .
Though there is no comprehensive data on why people
drop or lose their marketplace coverage, enrollment counselors, health care
providers and consumers say cost is a factor. In some cases, people lost
jobs or their income dropped after they enrolled. Other people signed up for
coverage only to decide later that they could not afford it. Still others
dropped their insurance after their federal subsidies — intended to help pay
premiums — were reduced or eliminated because the government could not
verify their incomes or concluded that they were earning more than they had
reported on their applications.
The cost of marketplace coverage may be
particularly challenging for some in Mississippi and 19 other states that
have not expanded Medicaid to provide largely free health care for people
earning up to 138 percent of the poverty line. Many of these people can
receive federal subsidies to help pay for private plans. But the subsidies
do not always help enough.
In Mississippi, even though 95 percent of those who
enrolled — more than in any other state — received subsidies, the state
still has had among the highest rates of attrition from marketplace plans
this year. From March 31 to June 30, the number of enrollees dropped by 8
percent, to 73,223 from 80,011, according to the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services.
Experts also point to another factor behind
dropping or losing coverage: confusion. Some who signed up for coverage this
year lost it within months because they did not understand what information
they had to supply or even that they were required to make monthly payments,
according to counselors who help people enroll in marketplace plans. In many
cases they may have simply failed to provide a Social Security number on the
application and did not respond to follow-up requests for it. Mikel Rogers,
an enrollment worker at Brooklyn Family Health Center outside Hattiesburg,
Miss., said letters from the marketplace asking for additional documents
were hard to understand, especially for people who had never had health
insurance before.
“I’ve looked at these letters and said, ‘O.K., I
have a bachelor’s degree and I wouldn’t understand this, either,’ ” Ms.
Rogers said. “It’s just not worded clearly.”
Monica Gonzalez, navigator program manager at the
Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, which has a federal grant to enroll people
in marketplace plans, said that, for many who lost coverage this spring, the
problem began when the marketplace could not verify the annual income they
listed on their application, or their citizenship status.
About 423,000 people in the 37 states that use the
federal marketplace lost their 2015 coverage by June 30 because they had not
provided sufficient documentation of their citizenship or immigration
status, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And for
about 967,000 households in those states, their premium subsidies — and for
some, a separate category of subsidies that helps cover their co-payments
and deductibles — were recalculated because of “income inconsistencies.”
Although some people’s subsidies could have
increased under that scenario, others abruptly began receiving smaller
subsidies or lost them completely, according to enrollment counselors and
consumers in half a dozen states. In some cases, these people did not
realize their subsidy had shrunk or disappeared until they started getting
higher bills from the marketplace or their health care providers.
Walter Whitlow, 56, a remodeling contractor in
Volente, Tex., said he had never seen the emails the federal marketplace
sent him asking for additional proof of income after he signed up for a
Humana plan in January. Doctors diagnosed throat cancer in February, and in
June he learned from his oncologist’s office that his monthly premium had
gone to $439 from $103 and his deductible to $4,600 from $900.
Mr. Whitlow was able to keep his plan, but only
because his sister, Ali Knight, had taken over his premium payments after
his cancer diagnosis and could afford to cover the higher price.
Continued in article
Cadillac Insurance Tax ---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_insurance_plan
From the CFO Journal's Morning Ledger on
October 20, 2015
The spa-like day-long health checkups that many executives enjoyed in years
past are going the way of the corporate country-club membership,
CFO Journal’s Emily Chasan reports.
Faced with the “Cadillac tax” on
health benefits that exceed certain thresholds, as well as pressure to limit
the inequalities in employee benefit packages, companies are eliminating or
paring down platinum-level health benefits.
Only 6% of
chief executives at the 500 largest U.S. companies had supplemental
health-insurance benefits last year, compared with 14% in 2008, according to
a study by consulting firm Towers Watson. Those benefits typically reimburse
executives $10,000 to $50,000 for out-of-pocket costs and copays.
In
addition to the Cadillac tax, companies are still waiting for the Internal
Revenue Service to write ACA-required regulations on discrimination in
health-care benefits. Those rules charge hefty penalties if companies
discriminate in the health care they offer to highly compensated employees
versus the rest of their workers.
Jensen Comment
I wonder if taxpayers are paying the Cadillac Tax for the luxury health
insurance of members of the House and Senate. If so it's a waste of money
keeping those incompetents alive.
Bob
Jensen's universal health care messaging ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
medicine ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2-Part2.htm#Medicine
The Atlantic: Health: Family ---
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/category/family/
Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm
Bob
Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
Summary of Major Accounting Scandals ---
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals
Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:
Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm
Current and past editions of my
newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm
Enron ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm
Rotten to the Core ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm
American History of Fraud ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm
Bob Jensen's fraud
conclusions ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on
corporate governance are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
·
With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review
(TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier
·
With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish
Gangolly and Paul Williams
·
With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy
Ignores TAR
·
With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into
Undergraduate Accounting Courses
Shielding
Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen
What went
wrong in accounting/accountics research? ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong
The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most
Accountants ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW:
1926-2005 ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1
Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm
Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics
---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So
Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox)
that probably will never be solved
---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews
Bob
Jensen's economic crisis messaging
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm
Bob
Jensen's threads ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm
Bob
Jensen's Home Page ---
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/