SEARCH BLOG: ECONOMY
The financial markets are based on expectations. Stocks go up when the economy is bad if enough people believe that a recovery in profits is coming. So this tells, from The Wall Street Journal us that the financial markets are expecting bad things:
Subscription article.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE 
The AMA should be warning doctors not to be sending this kind of information out to anonymous recipients. Of course, doctors should be smart enough to figure that out, but some might be pissed off enough to not think this through.
This is the Facebook link for the site. Again, no real information about the person[s] behind this.
Regardless, this is potentially an interstate scam that needs to be investigated by the FBI. Of course, that doesn't address the REAL PROBLEM.
SEARCH BLOG: GOOGLE and GOVERNMENT
This was in Thursday's The Wall Street Journal:
The connection seemed obvious to me... and ironic. As the United States moves toward the European approach of government-controlled, economy-crippling social welfare, Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google, was willing to risk a large loss of revenue for his company to fight for the principle of freedom... freedom to do business without interference from a central government.
As The Wall Street Journal reported:
Does it take being born in a country with a strong central government to teach the lesson that freedom is important?
This is not to imply that he is politically aligned with the Tea Party... at least consciously... but it does show that when it gets personally and professionally important, he shares the principle that less government is better.
Read the article here.
SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS
Strange bedfellows, indeed. Barack "Expand-the-war-in-Afghanistan" Obama and left-wing "dismantle-the-military" activists. Fiscal conservatives and religious conservatives.
That's the problem with having really only two party choices. You try to tie up a "best fit" and you get fit to be tied. There's not a lot of logic or reason to the combinations... other than an alignment of who you oppose.
In The Netherlands, you have many more political parties:
My view is that the Founding Fathers got it pretty much right: the more the government is "hands off" the people, the better; the more religion is "hands off" the government, the better.It would have worked better in Russia and China; it would have worked better in Iran and Afghanistan; it works better in the United States.
SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS
Rep. John Conyers; Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee:
Committee on the Judiciary (Chair)H/T rightmichigan.com
* Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law
* Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property
* Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS
"Making the news" used to mean that some event was newsworthy enough to be broadcast or written about in the major media. Now it is more literally "making up the news."
In order to do so, you have to have a forced "confrontation" and a distortion of what happened during that situation. Then you have to have those in a position to spread the distortion actively do so.
Gateway Pundit has the ultimate example.
SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS
I was in the
area, so I stopped in at Mike Cox's campaign headquarters. Mike [photo with family at right] is running for the Republican nomination for Michigan Governor. Because he is presently busy as Michigan's Attorney General, Mike was not at the HQ, but I did get to meet with his PR chairman, Nick DeLeeuw [photo at left from his Facebook page].
Nick showed me around the cavernous and empty offices, but it is obvious that they are planning to gear up fairly rapidly. Nick was active at RightMichigan.com for quite awhile and I had established a casual email relationship with him and Jack McHugh of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. I met Jack for the first time a couple of weeks ago, so I took a chance that Nick might be hanging around the campaign offices.
Nick had sent out a link to Mike's 92-point plan for Michigan which I scanned. My reaction was that it reminded me of Obama's plan for everyone and everything on the presidential campaign website. I wanted to have a clear statement of Cox's goals, priorities and strategies before wading through the details. This could have come from Obama's website, but it didn't:
Today I am releasing the first steps on changing Michigan. The time for small changes and timid acts is past; we must make bold and revolutionary changes.I understand perfectly that Mike's positions are quite different from President Obama's, but the point was that a lot of "things to do" around the theme of change just doesn't excite me like it should... for some odd reason. I want a businesslike approach ... something that Alan Mulally might do if he were running the state... not more slogans. That's not to say that the individual 92 points don't have merit. It is to say that if you are going to "make bold and revolutionary changes" you damn well better have a clear vision of what that is and where it is going to take you... something akin to Mulally's One Ford.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
You can't be tossed out by an insurance company for a pre-existing condition... but you can be tossed out by your doctor... ooops!
A Health Care Storm Is Coming
Marc Siegel, 03.23.10, 02:50 PM EDT
The reform bill will make doctors' jobs even harder.
Under Obamacare my networks for referring patients will dry up, as more and more doctors can no longer afford to accept the low-quality insurance that will spread like a plague. Even as this insurance expands to cover all patients, many doctors who don't quit will stop accepting this insurance.What kind of universal health care is that?
Marc Siegel, M.D. is an associate professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE and TAXES
Important feature of the new health care legislation:
DERMATOLOGISTS and plastic surgeons may find themselves off the hook. Last weekend, the Senate replaced a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic procedures with one on indoor tanning services in its proposed health care bill... [full story]Because we are such a health care oriented nation now, I suggest that anyone presently in the tanning salon business reclassify themselves as a "Vitamin D Irradiation Center" and figure out how they can get paid by the federal government for providing a preventive health care service rather than pay taxes for being a frivolous cosmetic enhancement center.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
Much has already be written about President Obama's real long-range health care goal: a single-payer system.
... Slow-Motion Public Health System Falters ....Be careful what you wish for; you may get your wish.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
Sebelius pointed to provisions in the House- and Senate-passed health reform bills that would require insurers to spend 80-85 percent of premiums on medical claims.Option 1: Insurance companies significantly raise rates so that they can still cover administrative costs... for some reason insurance companies cannot run on autopilot.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
Opt out or cop out?
So, let's get this straight... if you are poor and the target of the "insurance reform" legislation, you can't opt out because the government covers you. If you are not poor, but don't want to pay for the insurance, you are covered in emergencies or by other programs, you can opt out and the funds the government was counting on to pay for covering the poor will diminish... so taxes would have to be raised.The rationale for the [health care insurance] mandate is that it is necessary to carry out the other reforms of insurance that the public overwhelmingly approves -- in particular, ending pre-existing-condition exclusions by insurance companies. If legislation banned those exclusions without a mandate, healthy people would rationally refuse to buy coverage until they got sick, and the entire insurance system would break down. The mandate is designed to deter people from opportunistically dipping into the insurance funds when they are sick and refusing to contribute when they are healthy.
But Congress could address this problem more directly. The law could give people a right to opt out of the mandate if they signed a form agreeing that they could not opt in for the following five years. In other words, instead of paying a fine, they would forgo a potential benefit. For five years they would become ineligible for federal subsidies for health insurance and, if they did buy coverage, no insurer would have to cover a pre-existing condition of theirs.
The idea for this opt-out comes from an analogous provision in Germany, which has a small sector of private insurance in addition to a much larger state insurance system. Only some Germans are eligible to opt for private insurance, but if they make that choice, the law prevents them from getting back at will into the public system. That deters opportunistic switches in and out of the public funds, and it helps to prevent the private insurers from cherry-picking healthy people and driving up insurance costs in the public sector.
In the United States, an opt-out would not apply to anyone whose income was close enough to the poverty level to qualify for Medicaid. It would be available on a new income-tax form on which people with incomes above that threshold could choose between paying a fine for failing to insure or taking the five-year opt-out. (Taking the opt-out would not affect eligibility for veterans' health care, Medicare, emergency care, or any program entirely funded by a state or out of charitable donations.)
SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA
Regardless of your political persuasion, you have to hand it to President Obama and his ability to "marshal the troops" to get his agenda passed... all in the face of intense opposition by a distinct minority in Congress and a distinct majority of U.S. citizens. You can just hear him exclaiming, "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead."
So, the big question is: what's next?
SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT
We've b
een stupaked! Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan voted his Party because he really didn't have principles. That's understandable. Politics is generally the placement of party ahead of principles. It's just that Rep. Stupak made a great show of his principles... before he didn't.
So, we've been stupaked. Royally stupaked. There's no need to call Rep. Stupak's office. You'll just get a recorded message that says, in effect, "Stupak you!"
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE 
Cox Files Constitutional Challenge to Federal Health Care Legislation
Contact: John Sellek or Joy Yearout 517-373-8060
Agency: Attorney General
March 22, 2010
LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox today announced that Michigan has joined the State of Florida in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of health care legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Sunday night (H.R. 3590).
"Congress' attempt to force Michigan families to buy health insurance - or else - raises serious constitutional concerns," said Cox. "We will fight to defend the individual rights and freedoms of Michigan citizens against this radical overreach by the federal government."
Read more....
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
When it happened in Cuba, that was because of world communism. When it happened in Venezuela, that was because of big oil. When it happened in the United States, that was because... because... because...
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. - Benjamin Franklin.
SEARCH BLOG: WEATHER
We always hope for March to be like this in Michigan, so when the skies are clear and the temperatures are in the mid-60s we ignore what everything looks like and get right into the barbecue mode.
While that looks like a large wave about to flood the shore, it is just a very unusual area of ice in the center surrounded by open water. Click on the images for a larger view.
The burgers were great! We didn't even mind the first yellow jacket of the season. Unfortunately, yesterday's high was 35°F which put a bit of a damper on the end of winter. But sunshine and low 50s are forecasted for the week which is seasonal for the beginning of Spring.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
From The Washington Post:
House leaders announce $940 billion health-care compromise bill Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 19, 2010
Pushing toward a Sunday vote that could transform the nation's health-insurance system, House leaders announced a $940 billion compromise Thursday that would extend coverage to the vast majority of Americans, cut billions of dollars from Medicare, and impose new taxes on the wealthy and the well-insured.
Read more....
With millions of "Baby Boomers" heading into social security... you know, that big group of births right after WWII... the Democratic Party is writing its ticket into a tiny minority. All of the welfare cases and illegal immigrants can't make up for the group that is going to get screwed during their last years of employment and then see the Medicare system into which they paid for 40 years suddenly get "thrifted" to pay for those who have paid little or nothing.
SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT
One can learn a lot from our government leaders. For example, I always thought that making a choice meant that a choice was actually made, but now I know that you can "deem" to have made a choice. This is very valuable information... especially when interacting with governmental agencies.
We just received this once-in-a-decade form from the government:
By all appearances, it is a form with filled with information from which you make choices to let the government know more about who is living where. Some portions contain many possibilities from which you have to choose. This is time-consuming. And sometimes what you think is right is not offered as a choice, so you have to spend more time actually writing in your choice.
Can there be anything better coming out of Washington D.C. than that? Oh, sure, you may have read this someplace:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100.That's all taken care of now. As the old song goes, "All I have to do is deem." Maybe I should run for Congress....
SEARCH BLOG: ECONOMY and POLITICS 
Recently, I attended a meeting at the Westland AMVETS where Jack McHugh
of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy was giving a presentation. Jack and I had not met before then although we communicated occasionally by email. I have great respect for Jack's work and opinions, but we have have one slight difference in our viewpoints: China. Jack even acknowledged that in a friendly, off-hand remark at the meeting.
Jack and I both believe in the benefits of free trade. Where we differ with regard to China is my opinion that trade with China is highly manipulated by China to the detriment of U.S. manufacturers and is done so because China's interests are strategic first and economic second.
Jack rightly points out that manufacturing has been a declining segment of the U.S. economy for decades as it regards employment. It is a function of production efficiency that fewer workers are required to produce more goods. Besides, no one wants to be a production worker... do they? In my mind, that is not the point entirely. Trading with China is unlike trade with Germany or India or Brazil.
China has a far-reaching goal in which trade is simply a tool to be used in any way that gains a strategic advantage.The series of posts dealing with this strategic goal is summarized here, but this is the key graphic:
China views trade as the hammer for its long-term strategic goals... and the U.S. is just another nail to be pounded. While others like Jack and the Telegraph view trade with China as primarily economic in nature, I continue to view it as a strategic struggle for power with the economic aspect as the "red herring."
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Chinese ambassador to America Zhou Wenzhong on the Great Wall of China Photo: ReutersChina has succumbed to hubris. It has mistaken the soft diplomacy of Barack Obama for weakness, mistaken the US credit crisis for decline, and mistaken its own mercantilist bubble for ascendancy. There are echoes of Anglo-German spats before the First World War, when Wilhelmine Berlin so badly misjudged the strategic balance of power and over-played its hand.
Read full story....
Jack's email response:Good stuff.I don't disagree that with China, "the economic is the geopolitical," but I certainly wouldn't characterize the economic competition as a "red herring," and here's why: It would be just as fair to say that with China "the geopolitical is the economic." IOW, one is not the second fiddle to the other; rather they are two faces of a single holistic entity, The Middle Kingdom.In China's view it is only right and proper that the largest country with the oldest civilization - whose people are bloody smart and endowed with a Confucian work ethic that makes everyone else including us look like slackers - should become the preeminent world economic power. Naturally, with that position comes strategic geo-political concerns, just was the case with Britain in the 19th C, and the U.S. in the 20th. Like the U.S. in the 20th C, China doesn't have imperialistic territorial aspirations beyond its periphery, but that doesn't mean it has no interest in mucking around in distant places in furtherance of its interests.As I said in an earlier exchange, in the 20th C China was stupid and poor, but it was unrealistic to think they would stay that way forever.The Middle Kingdom is a tough, worthy competitor in both the economic and the geo-political realm. No they don't "play fair" according to conventional western conventions. In their pursuit of economic and geopolitical preeminence they aren't inhibited by the kind of moralistic considerations that often enliven foreign policy debates in this country. One might think of them as an Asian "France" in this regard.We can't take our marbles and go home when they behave in ways we don't like. If we raise restrictive trade barriers, that will make us poorer and less capable of competing. If we whine and beg, "Can't we all just get along," that will be correctly interpreted as weakness and opportunity.
So what can we do? Get in the game, economically and geo-politically. Sharpen up our game on both fronts. How? Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center have the domestic economic agenda for that. Organizations like the Center for Strategic and International Studies have the program on the geo-political front.
I suspect that Bruce Hall and I have no fundamental disagreements on this part.Jack McHugh
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
Update:
Rep. Peters had a "Town Hall" telephone conference call. It was obvious that the majority of the callers were supporting the health care bills [about 70% based on polling questions during the call] and a great deal of discussion revolved around trade that sent jobs overseas or extending unemployment benefits. Rep. Peters was vocal for more jobs in Michigan, but he never addressed the issues of why jobs were leaving other than "unfair trade." I agree with some of the points regarding China's tactics that undercut American manufacturing, but there are real cost issues related to unions that were never mentioned.
Rep. Peters dismissed the Rep. Slaughter approach of "deeming" a vote had occurred on the Senate bill by saying it was common practice and enumerated how many times it had been used in recent decades. I think the point was missed that such a procedure was never used for anything of this magnitude where differences between the Senate and House versions of a bill were so great and the stakes of passing or rejecting a bill were so high.
I left a voice message that asked how we could have any confidence in the government to "fix" our health care system when the government could not "fix" the Veterans hospitals, the Medicaid mandates that are bankrupting the states, the Medicare program that is fraught with fraud and waste and underpays doctors by so much that doctors are increasingly refusing to see medicare patients, and on top of all that the Budget Office projects huge deficits from these "deemed" bills.
I'll let you know if I get a response... and I will display it here.
Original post:
I attempted to send a message to my Michigan representative in Congress, Gary Peters, regarding the health care bill/non-voting scheme. So I clicked on the "Contact Us" link on his Congressional home page...
and got...
If you are out there Rep. Peters, this is my message.
SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE
From The Washington Post:
By Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane"I voted for it before I didn't vote at all... so don't blame me if you don't like the bill." - Nancy Pelosi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.
Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.
The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.
"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."
Read more....
Democrats, the people voted for you before they never voted for you again... so don't blame the people if you are not elected again.Let's see what the Supremes have to say about this. Will that Latina experience clarify it for all of us?
SEARCH BLOG: INSURANCE
The insurance industry is about to get hit with new laws that:
[source]SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES 
This morning, I was privileged to attend a briefing on Ford's future products. Some of what was shown has already been introduced to the public, including the 2012 Ford Focus.
The purpose of the briefing was to give past and present employees a glimpse into the future and an opportunity to ask some questions... perhaps giving Ford's top management team who were present an opportunity to get either reinforcement or pause for thought. The briefing included three major areas: exterior design, interior design, and enhancing the driving experience.
While I cannot go into details about any of these because of confidentiality, J. Mays, who heads up Ford's design team, was clear... before revealing Ford's vehicles... about what Ford's design philosophy was not. I can attest that these images are nothing like Ford's vision of the future. [left: Chevy Spark; right: Nissan Qazana concept]. I can also attest that the general response from those present was one of extreme approval. Personally, I would have to give Ford an A+ on what I saw and heard.
Ford's rise to the top of the U.S. market may well be unstoppable by any of their competitors. It is a focused and dedicated organization that is clearly prepared to be on the leading edge of automotive innovation. With GM and Chrysler hampered by governmental and organizational issues and Toyota reeling from bad press about safety and vehicle body integrity [rust], it would seem that the only thing that will stop Ford is Ford itself losing sight of what is bringing them to the verge of enormous success.
SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES 
Today, I will have an opportunity to see some of Ford Motor Company's future designs. Due to the nature of the event, I will provide Ford a signed confidentiality agreement which includes an agreement to neither photograph the designs nor provide a public description of them.
I do believe that I can give you my reaction ... positive, negative, or not sure ... without breaching the agreement. More than that, I am hoping that Ford is open to feedback about their vehicles' designs, including interior features and comfort. Last year and this year I purchased vehicles. The vehicles were selected on 1) perceived value, 2) comfort and 3) overall performance and features. You might have noticed that styling was not necessarily among my personal top priorities. 
Of course, I don't believe I would have selected a vehicle that was grotesque [something on the order of the Pontiac Aztek shown here] despite achieving high marks in the top 3.
Given the styling of the already revealed new Fiesta and Focus and the readily available pictures of the 2011 Explorer, I expect that Ford will offer some appealingly styled vehicles. But Ford needs to remember that the Boomers who are retiring and will be traveling much will demand pretty much what my priorities are... in addition to some exciting styling.
By the way, a number of vehicles I looked at that met my requirements 1 and 3 managed to miss the mark by quite a bit for requirement 2. Looking good and feeling good are not always the same... and older drivers are much more in tune with feeling good.
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious."Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.”January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?
Current Activity
| 
| | "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams"An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight." - Thomas Jefferson
As of Sept. 15, the current solar minimum ranks third all-time in the amount of spotless days with 717 since 2004. There have been 206 spotless days in 2009, which is 14th all-time. But there are still more than 100 days left in the year, and Perry expects that number to climb. Perry, who studies sunspots and solar activity in his spare time, received an undergraduate degree in physics at Kansas State University and a Ph.D in physics and astronomy at The University of Kansas. He also has spent time as a meteorologist.
From Icecap
