Perverse Incentives

Companies cut hours of full-time employees to avoid providing health care under new rules

"Three years after the passage of Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, labor advocates are warning that it could have the unforeseen consequence of harming some of the very low-wage employees it seeks to aid. The legislation’s incentive scheme, they say, could cause a shift toward part-time work that extends beyond companies like Papa John’s and Darden Restaurants, which last year publicized their plans to cut employee hours to avoid costs under the new law. Such worries are reflected in California, where the state union federation is exploring legislation to lay over the Affordable Care Act to fix the potential problem." Continue reading →

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Feinstein’s Assault Weapons Bill: Dead on Arrival

"Feinstein is not just a liberal. She is a California liberal. She is a feminist California liberal. That is, she does not have a lick of political sense. Her bill is creating the biggest wave of gun buying we have seen in my lifetime. Across the nation, there is massive demand to buy guns. Every time Feinstein opens her mouth, another American who never thought of buying a gun heads for Walmart to buy a shotgun or some other weapon. Feinstein is the gun industry’s manna from heaven. Like manna in the wilderness, she keeps coming back every day." Continue reading →

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United Nations report: ‘Designer drug’ use, abuse and production surging

"Designer drugs are multiplying at a worrying rate and increasingly sending users to hospital, a UN-affiliated report said Tuesday, calling for international efforts to stem the spread of these substances. Aggravating the problem further was the fact that these drugs were not subject to international control regimes and were readily available on the Internet, requiring states and international institutions to find new ways to identify the drugs and stop their distribution. Another problem was the rise in prescription drug abuse, including painkillers, sedatives and others used to treat epilepsy, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and mental illnesses." Continue reading →

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Southwestern Pa. hospital to stop baby deliveries due to Obamacare

"A southwestern Pennsylvania hospital will stop delivering babies after March 31 because its obstetricians are either leaving or refocusing their practices, and because hospital officials believe they can't afford it based on projected reimbursements under looming federal health care reforms. Hospital officials say the population of women of child-bearing age is dropping and that the number of births the hospital would be called upon to perform isn't enough for it to provide the service in the face of lower reimbursements under the federal Affordable Care Act." Continue reading →

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Themes for 2013: Eight trends to follow in 2013 and beyond.

"Rather than attempt to predict the unpredictable – that is, specific events and price levels – let’s look instead for key dynamics that will play out over the next two to three years. Though the specific timelines of crises are inherently unpredictable, it is still useful to understand the eventual consequences of influential trends. In other words: policies that appear to have been successful for the past four years may continue to appear successful for a year or two longer. But that very success comes at a steep, and as yet unpaid, price in suppressed systemic risk, cost, and consequence." Continue reading →

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Secrets and Lies of the Bailout

"It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it." Continue reading →

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France’s Financial Transaction Tax Experiment Is Turning Into The Worst Kind Of Failure

"Investors who own French shares are selling them and taking positions on them through derivatives instruments such as contracts for difference, structured products and ETFs, according to a Paris-based lawyer. 'Most structured transactions remain outside the tax,' he says. 'It is due only if you have actually purchased the shares.' In other words, instead of curbing excessive speculation, the tax is simply forcing those speculative activities into darker, less-regulated corners of the market." Continue reading →

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Health care law may mean less hiring in 2013

"Many businesses plan to bring on more part-time workers next year, trim the hours of full-time employees or curtail hiring because of the new health care law, human resource firms say. The so-called employer mandate to offer health coverage doesn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2014. But to determine whether employees work enough hours on average to receive benefits, employers must track their schedules for three to 12 months prior to 2014 — meaning many are restructuring payrolls now or will do so early next year. About a quarter of businesses surveyed by consulting firm Mercer don't offer health coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours a week." Continue reading →

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Meet the Weeds That Monsanto Can’t Beat

"When Monsanto revolutionized agriculture with a line of genetically engineered seeds, the promise was that the technology would lower herbicide use—because farmers would have to spray less. In fact, just the opposite happened. Sixteen years on, Roundup (Monsanto's tradename for its glyphosate herbicide) has certainly killed lots of weeds. But the ones it has left standing are about as resistant to herbicide as the company's Roundup Ready crops, which are designed to survive repeated applications of the agribusiness giant's own Roundup herbicide." Continue reading →

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Why You Might Only Be Able to Get Part-Time Work in 2013

"Here is what I am doing for the rest of the year -- working with every manager in my company so that as of January 1, 2013, none of our employees are working more than 28 hours a week. We have got to get our company under 50 full time employees or else I am facing a bill from Obamacare in 2014 that will be several times larger than my annual profit. I love my workers. They make me a success. But most of my competitors are small businesses that are exempt from the Obamacare hammer. To compete, I must make sure my company is exempt as well. This means that our 400+ full time employees will have to be less than 50 in 2013." Continue reading →

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