News Commentary

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

Concealed Carry Proves Guns Are Part of Solution to Gun Violence

"In his seminal work, 'More Guns, Less Crime,' scholar John Lott brought together FBI crime stats to show not only that concealed carry lowers crime but that it it lowers violent crime especially. During the early 1990s, as concealed carry laws were being instituted around the country, Lott observed the impact on crime at the county level: 'When state concealed-carry handgun laws went into effect in a county, murder fell by about 8 percent, rapes fell by 5 percent, and aggravated assaults fell by 7 percent.' Yet the mainstream media seizes on one criminal use of a gun to ban guns altogether?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingConcealed Carry Proves Guns Are Part of Solution to Gun Violence

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

How Responsible Is Obama for the Oklahoma Killing?

"If Obama's son would have looked like Trayvon, he would have also looked like James Edwards and Chancey Luna, both charged with first-degree murder in Lane's death. Although south central Oklahoma would seem to be a long way from south central LA, the national media have created a dysfunctional culture accessible to all disaffected youths everywhere, even the occasional white kid like getaway driver Michael Jones. These young thugs apparently pulled their language, their vices, their aspirations, and their prejudices-- '90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM'-from what was broadcast their way." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Responsible Is Obama for the Oklahoma Killing?

Dead Souls of a Cultural Revolution

"What can be said for an NAACP that was lately demanding a Justice Department investigation of a rodeo clown running around a bull ring in rural Missouri in an Obama mask, but cannot find its voice to address a black-on-white atrocity in Middle America? When Trayvon Martin was shot to death in a murky incident in Sanford, Fla., Jesse Jackson rushed there to declare: 'Blacks are under attack. … Killing us is big business.' Trayvon was 'shot down in cold blood by a vigilante … murdered and martyred.' After Chris Lane’s cold-blooded murder, Jesse tweeted: This sort of thing is to be 'frowned upon.' Can the president not find his voice to speak to the parents of Chris Lane?" Continue reading →

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The Real Reason College Costs So Much

"In 1964, federal student aid was a mere $231 million. By 1981, the feds were spending $7 billion on loans alone, an amount that doubled during the 1980s and nearly tripled in each of the following two decades, and is about $105 billion today. Taxpayers now stand behind nearly $1 trillion in student loans. Meanwhile, grants have increased to $49 billion from $6.4 billion in 1981. By expanding eligibility and boosting the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350, the 2009 stimulus bill accelerated higher ed's evolution into a middle-class entitlement. Fewer than 2% of Pell Grant recipients came from families making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year in 2007. Now roughly 18% do." Continue reading →

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Stat of the Day: Tuition Discount Rate

"The NACUBO tuition discount rate for 2012 was 45% and has risen every year for the last six years. Despite all the stories about tuition hikes, the fact is that many colleges that lack elite status (and huge endowments) are struggling to make money while maintaining the overall quality of their student body. Their solution appears to be to raise the sticker price while offering deep discounts at the same time, usually on a sliding scale based on student attractiveness. This Forbes article talks about schools so desperate that let students walk up weeks before school starts and get an admission decision on the spot." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStat of the Day: Tuition Discount Rate

Bill Bonner: US Market Crash Alert!

"Investors trust the Federal Reserve to protect their money...just as the Fed makes their investments less trustworthy! Because the more influence the Fed exerts over prices, the farther they move away from where they ought to be. Ah yes, dear reader, that is one of the curious, always-fascinating feedback loops that keeps life on planet Earth ‘normal’. Whenever things get too weird, something intervenes to make them less weird. And one of those things is a certain Mr. Market. It’s all very well for investors to believe the Fed won’t allow them to lose money. That’s what makes it possible for non-delusional investors to make a lot of money." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: US Market Crash Alert!

Lavabit: The Latest Dead Canary in the Privacy Coal Mine

"Private data stored with a company which is US-based and/or has servers based in the US does not have strong legal or privacy protection. The US government can force that company to turn over its customer data while also preventing it from talking about it. Are you still entrusting your private data to a US-based company or a company with servers based in the US? If you are but you value your privacy, you need to move your data elsewhere. Otherwise, that company might be compelled to violate your privacy and give up your data to the US government. And they may never be able to tell you about it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLavabit: The Latest Dead Canary in the Privacy Coal Mine

Paul Craig Roberts: Gangster State US/UK

"If the Obama and Cameron governments were in the dock at Nuremberg, the entirety of both governments would be convicted. Are there sufficient brainwashed people in both countries to sustain the US/UK myth that 'freedom and democracy' are attained via war crimes? There is no shortage of brainwashed Americans who love to be told that they are 'indispensable' and ' exceptional,' and therefore entitled to work their will on the world. It is difficult to discern in these clueless Americans much hope for the revival of liberty. But there is some indication that the British, who did not inherit liberty but had to fight for it for five centuries, might be more determined." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Gangster State US/UK