Please edit your nytimes profile.
The hole in the world economy centered on Germany just keeps getting deeper. Only the banks are digging today but there are good indications
that the digging will speed up tomorrow or the next day.
Unilever sees 'return to poverty' in Europe
27 Aug 2012
| 20 Comments Death in Venice becomes cheaper as bidding war breaks out between funeral operators
27 Aug 2012
| 9 Comments German business confidence slumps
27 Aug 2012
| 172 Comments Government unlikely to meet deficit targets, warns CPS
27 Aug 2012
| 9 CommentsExtended auto warranties are a business dependent on profit.
They are a form of insurance.
Loyd's has a principle that there are no bad risks.
There are only bad premiums.
On a modern unmodified auto the risk of a covered problem is very low.
The payment is significant.
A ten year old car might cost a thousand dollars. The warranty costs about six hundred dollars a year. Two years more than eats the replacement cost.
A road service contract like AAA is much more to the point.
A risk does not go away for being spread over several underwriters.
It is not reduced.
The possible loss is distributed. The probability of loss is unchanged.
Loans are made against future income.
If there is no income the recipient defaults.
The note is unpaid.
The entity that made the loan is out the cash and the unpaid interest.
What was an asset becomes a liability.
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/57883
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 1. SLOW DISSIPATION Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, speaking on public radio on Sunday after his visits to Paris and Berlin, said that whatever negative views existed in Europe about the country’s financial problems are "ever so slowly" beginning to dissipate. "We're waging this battle, beyond and above political parties and the howls being heard. We'll continue to wage this battle because this is something our country demands, and this is what we are obliged to do," he said. 2. TROIKA RETURNS International lenders will return to Athens in early September to begin the concluding phase of the review of the bailout programme, an EU executive said on Monday. Asked when the final troika report would be ready, Commission spokesman Simon O'Connor said “You can expect that the mission will take a couple of weeks, but I cannot tell you if we are looking more at late September or early October - it will depend on the progress of the work on the ground.” 3. PRESIDENT PAPOULIAS President of Republic Karolos Papoulias will receive Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Tuesday at 2pm at the Maximos mansion. Samaras will brief Papoulias on his recent meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and with French President Francois Hollande in Paris. Papoulias also received a letter of support from Hollande, which reads "I am aware of the difficulties and woes that a section of the Greek people is experiencing, as well as of the questions to the future. The two countries are linked with profound bonds of friendship and are always at each other's side in difficult moments.” 4. SAMOS CROSSING Undocumented migrants are increasingly landing on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, the closest large isle to the Asia Minor coast, a fact that authorities attribute to the conflict in Syria and increasing patrolling of the land border with Turkey along the Evros River. On Sunday a Frontex patrol vessel spotted a dinghy northeast of Samos carrying 40 illegal migrants - 26 men, six women and eight minors - who destroyed the inflatable craft and jumped in the water when they spotted the patrol vessel. 5. CARETTA CARETTA Ten environmental organisations have signed a petition for the relocation of an illegal landfill on Lagana beach, Zakynthos, which is protected by the island’s National Marine Park. Lagana beach serves as a nesting site of the endangered Caretta caretta turtle and according to Skai TV the landfill has been operating illegally for seven years, since it reached full capacity. Environmental organisations say that toxins released from the garbage pose an imminent threat to the species. | |||||
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/voucherizing-medicare/
Voucherizing Medicare
So there it is: the draft Republican platform says of Medicare and Medicaid,
No doubt I and others will have much more to say about this, but let’s just ask the question: why is this “fiscally sound”?
Bear in mind that health expenses will still have to be mainly paid for by some kind of insurance; that’s in the nature of medical care, with its high but unpredictable cost. So what we’re doing here is replacing government insurance with a program that gives people money to buy private insurance — that is, adding an extra layer of middlemen. Why would this save money? I guess the answer is supposed to be the magic of the marketplace — but we have the experience of Medicare Advantage, plus studies of Medicaid versus private insurance, plus the raw fact that America relies more on private insurance than any other nation and also has by far the highest costs. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the record suggests that this will do anything other than make health care less efficient.
And for those demanding documentation, it’s coming; too busy today.
So where are the savings? The answer is, it’s basically a way to deny health care to people while denying that you’re doing so. You don’t say, “we won’t pay for this care”, you just hand people a voucher and let them discover that it won’t buy adequate insurance. It’s health-care rationing — but by money instead of deliberate choice.
It would be far more cost-effective, not to say humane, to make actual choices — to decide that Medicare won’t pay for procedures of little or no medical value. (As always, individuals who can afford it can buy whatever care they want). And Obamacare makes a start on that. But hey, that’s death panels.
So instead of making choices, we’ll let people die because of inadequate assets. Fiscal responsibility!"
The first step is to move the two programs away from their current unsustainable defined-benefit entitlement model to a fiscally sound defined-contribution model.That means that instead of Medicare as we know it, which pays your medical bills, you’d get a lump sum which you can apply to private insurance — they’ll yell when we call it a voucher, but that’s what it is.
No doubt I and others will have much more to say about this, but let’s just ask the question: why is this “fiscally sound”?
Bear in mind that health expenses will still have to be mainly paid for by some kind of insurance; that’s in the nature of medical care, with its high but unpredictable cost. So what we’re doing here is replacing government insurance with a program that gives people money to buy private insurance — that is, adding an extra layer of middlemen. Why would this save money? I guess the answer is supposed to be the magic of the marketplace — but we have the experience of Medicare Advantage, plus studies of Medicaid versus private insurance, plus the raw fact that America relies more on private insurance than any other nation and also has by far the highest costs. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the record suggests that this will do anything other than make health care less efficient.
And for those demanding documentation, it’s coming; too busy today.
So where are the savings? The answer is, it’s basically a way to deny health care to people while denying that you’re doing so. You don’t say, “we won’t pay for this care”, you just hand people a voucher and let them discover that it won’t buy adequate insurance. It’s health-care rationing — but by money instead of deliberate choice.
It would be far more cost-effective, not to say humane, to make actual choices — to decide that Medicare won’t pay for procedures of little or no medical value. (As always, individuals who can afford it can buy whatever care they want). And Obamacare makes a start on that. But hey, that’s death panels.
So instead of making choices, we’ll let people die because of inadequate assets. Fiscal responsibility!"
I cleared my spam folder. It was gathering trash.
Sooner is better. As soon as you can is best
The decades make differences.
I will post again late.
.
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