Middle Class Dismissed

Mike Gogulski: We Need Freedom of Speech in our Financial Commerce

"Financial privacy has almost completely disappeared, except for the very wealthiest. Cash transactions larger than $10,000, €5,000, €2,500,€1,500, €1,000 and now even €500 are being or have been outlawed in some places. And on and on. The suppression of financial speech is being used as a weapon of war against the people of this planet just as surely as drone strikes, pervasive surveillance and land mines are and have been. The time has come to begin separating money and currency from state, irrevocably and irretrievably. Free people and a free world deserve currencies that they control directly." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMike Gogulski: We Need Freedom of Speech in our Financial Commerce

ObamaCare Pushes Big Medical Practice Changes

"More than half the doctors are now working for hospitals and other institutions, rather than in private practice. Hospitals are using their new doctor employees to get more money out of Medicare. The other major unintended consequence is the boost to consumer-directed health care. The cheapest plans are going to have deductibles of $5,000 or more. Millions of patients are going to be buying care with their own money, rather than with a third-party payer’s money. Accenture predicts the number of walk-in clinics is going to double in the next few years. They are doing what the ACOs are unlikely to do: lowering costs, increasing quality, and improving access to care." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObamaCare Pushes Big Medical Practice Changes

Don’t Be Fooled, ObamaCare Will Drive Up Unemployment and Healthcare Costs

"To the extent that prices are prevented from rising, it will create enhanced rationing by waiting. And almost anything patients and doctors to do circumvent the cost of waiting will also add to the money cost of care. For example, an increasing number of primary care doctors are becoming concierge doctors. For a fee of about $2,000 a year, patients get same day or next day appointments, more time with the physician and someone who acts as their agent in dealing with other parts of a complex heath care system. Yet physicians who become concierge doctors typically replace a practice that sees about 2,500 patients with one that sees only about 500." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDon’t Be Fooled, ObamaCare Will Drive Up Unemployment and Healthcare Costs

2009 Promise of Cheaper Health Care Has Morphed Into 2013 Price Hikes

"Remember when President Obama promised back in 2009 that his health care reform plan would cut insurance premiums for the average family by $2,500? Four years later, those promised cuts have morphed into admissions of price hikes. According to a new study from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, 70 percent of chief financial officers cite health costs as their top concern, up from 51 percent last year, mainly because of what they expect Obamacare to do to costs. Many smaller companies are contemplating dropping family coverage — and will instead offer benefits to workers only, thanks to the higher costs on the way because of Obamacare. Continue reading →

Continue Reading2009 Promise of Cheaper Health Care Has Morphed Into 2013 Price Hikes

Chicago Braces for the First Day of School; Safe Passage Routes

"Thousands of Chicago children will be walking a different route to school as they begin the new academic year on Monday morning after the city closed about 50 elementary schools to help plug a projected $1bn education budget gap. Most of Chicago’s cuts have taken place in the predominantly poor, African-American and Latino south and west sides, which is also where the majority of the city’s record 506 murders occurred last year. The city has created 600 'safe passage' routes manned by adults and meant to try to ensure the safety of students crossing gang territories. But in recent weeks at least two people have been killed on those paths." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChicago Braces for the First Day of School; Safe Passage Routes

Millions spent to begin razing of 7,000 abandoned properties in Dayton

"Kevin Powell, the city’s acting manager of housing inspection, says officials plan to use $5.2 million to raze 475 abandoned properties by the end of September. The city knocked down 1,172 abandoned structures - single-family homes, strip malls, multi-unit buildings, commercial properties etc. — between 2009 and 2012, using money that included $8 million in federal funds. The average cost for a demolition, which includes asbestos removal, is $11,000. Abandon properties have a negative impact on the city’s tax collection, which are used to remove abandon properties and pay for other city services. 'It’s a complete circle that keeps eating upon itself,' Powell said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMillions spent to begin razing of 7,000 abandoned properties in Dayton

Housing Vouchers: Equal Opportunity Crime-Sharing

"There is an alliance. Libertarians do not like tax-funded education, so they oppose vouchers. The teachers' union does not like inter-school academic competition, so they oppose vouchers. Suburban parents do not like forced integration, so they oppose vouchers. All in all, vouchers have been a gigantic failure. After 50 years of failure, HUD has decided to use another form of vouchers: vouchers that are not subject to local voting. HUD has broadened the scope of vouchers. Entire families will be granted tickets out. HUD will offer subsidies of all kinds to persuade cities to let the inner cities of America spread into the suburbs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHousing Vouchers: Equal Opportunity Crime-Sharing

IRS makes useless paperwork less onerous for U.S. Persons in one country

"You do the math: 190-odd other countries & territories, each with their own unique kinds of purpose savings accounts, most speaking languages other than English, and fewer than a million affected filers in each to lobby for change. How long will it be before U.S. Persons finally have the freedom to move to any country on Earth without incurring unreasonable paperwork requirements, and the folks in the District of Columbia can start figuring out what to do with all those non-filers who moved to Mars in the intervening centuries?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS makes useless paperwork less onerous for U.S. Persons in one country

Bank of America intern’s death puts banks’ working culture in spotlight

"Moritz Erhardt, 21, had won a place as a summer intern at the London city offices of the US bank and was nearing the end of his placement when he was found dead in the shower at his temporary accommodation in east London. Merrill Lynch did not comment on the length of Erhardt's working hours, and also declined to comment on whether interns – who are understood to be paid £45,000 pro rata – are routinely made to work longer than 12-hour days. A fellow intern at the bank described the aspiring student as a 'superstar', adding: 'He worked very hard and was very focused. We typically work 15 hours a day or more and you would not find a harder worker than him.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBank of America intern’s death puts banks’ working culture in spotlight

Striking teachers block access to Mexico City airport

"Thousands of teachers severely disrupted access to Mexico City’s international airport, forcing some travelers to abandon cars and roll suitcases on foot during a protest against education reform. President Enrique Pena Nieto pushed through Congress changes to the constitution in December in order to put education, which was in the hands of powerful unions, back under government control and require teachers to undergo mandatory performance appraisals. More than 70,000 teachers went on strike in southern Mexico, leaving more than one million children without classes at the start of the school year this week." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStriking teachers block access to Mexico City airport