1
Opinion
The Bad News for Local Job Markets
The number of education and health care jobs could grow in the coming years, but this does not imply job growth in small and midsize cities that depend on these sectors.
2
T:Style
Food Matters | Fifteen Tons of Groceries, Sailing Down the Hudson
The Vermont Sail Project explores more responsible food distribution methods (the “to” in “farm to table”) by transporting edible cargo using a wind-powered barge.
3
Business Day
Video: The Numbers Behind the Job Numbers
A look at how Janet Yellen, President Obama’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, may interpret the latest jobs report, and what those numbers say about how how the economy is really doing.
4
World
Response to a City’s Smog Points to a Change in Chinese Attitude
Rising concern about pollution in China and a more active response signal that some officials are serious about tackling the chronic problem.
5
Opinion
Freedom of Speech Online
A college student writes that freedom, however flawed, is better than censorship.
6
World
Iran Executes 16 Sunni Insurgents in Retaliation for an Attack
Though the insurgents were not believed to be connected to an attack that killed 14 border guards the day before, an official described the Sunnis as “bandits linked to groups against the system.”
7
Business Day
New Claims by Jobless Fall Less Than Hoped
Initial applications for state unemployment benefits fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Department of Labor said.
8
World
Dozens Killed in Southeast India Floods
Days of torrential rains have unleashed floods in southeast India that have killed dozens of people and forced the evacuation of more than 70,000 others from hundreds of low-lying villages.
9
World
Remembering, and Forgetting, the Flying Tigers
A neglected graveyard in south China has reopened a debate over how the country remembers its World War II veterans.
10
Opinion
Intellectual Disability and the Death Penalty
The Supreme Court is right to revisit a 2002 ruling, which gave states too much leeway to define intellectual disability.
11
Job Market
The Horse Sense That Builds Trust
Horses are natural peacemakers, and their herd dynamic can be a model for human group behavior in the workplace.
12
U.S.
Cruz Takes His Stand on the Road to Iowa
Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, argued that the battle over the health care law would invigorate Republicans in next year’s elections.
13
Opinion
Don't Arm Thy Neighbor
If the U.S. Senate fails to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty, America will be handcuffed by its own reluctance to lead.
14
1968: Black Power Protest at the Olympics
The Herald’s coverage of one of the most iconic statements in the history of the civil rights movement.
15
World
Tibetans Call China’s Policies at Tourist Spot Tacit but Stifling
Behind closed doors, many Labrang Monastery monks complain about intrusive government policies that they say are strangling their culture and identity.
16
Business Day
The Chatter for Sunday, October 27
Notable quotes from business articles that appeared in The New York Times last week.Why Is Obamacare Complicated?
Mike Konczal
says most of what needs to be said about the underlying sources of
Obamacare’s complexity, which in turn set the stage for the current tech
problems. Basically, Obamacare isn’t complicated because government
social insurance programs have to be complicated: neither Social
Security nor Medicare are complex in structure. It’s complicated because
political constraints made a straightforward single-payer system
unachievable.
It’s been clear all along that the Affordable Care Act sets up a sort of Rube Goldberg device, a complicated system that in the end is supposed to more or less simulate the results of single-payer, but keeping private insurance companies in the mix and holding down the headline amount of government outlays through means-testing. This doesn’t make it unworkable: state exchanges are working, and healthcare.gov will probably get fixed before the whole thing kicks in. But it did make a botched rollout much more likely.
So Konczal is right to say that the implementation problems aren’t revealing problems with the idea of social insurance; they’re revealing the price we pay for insisting on keeping insurance companies in the mix, when they serve little useful purpose.
So does this mean that liberals should have insisted on single-payer or nothing? No. Single-payer wasn’t going to happen — partly because of the insurance lobby’s power, partly because voters wouldn’t have gone for a system that took away their existing coverage and replaced it with the unknown. Yes, Obamacare is a somewhat awkward kludge, but if that’s what it took to cover the uninsured, so be it.
And although the botched rollout is infuriating — count me among those who believe that liberals best serve their own cause by admitting that, not trying to cover for the botch — the odds remain high that this will work, and make America a much better place."
It’s been clear all along that the Affordable Care Act sets up a sort of Rube Goldberg device, a complicated system that in the end is supposed to more or less simulate the results of single-payer, but keeping private insurance companies in the mix and holding down the headline amount of government outlays through means-testing. This doesn’t make it unworkable: state exchanges are working, and healthcare.gov will probably get fixed before the whole thing kicks in. But it did make a botched rollout much more likely.
So Konczal is right to say that the implementation problems aren’t revealing problems with the idea of social insurance; they’re revealing the price we pay for insisting on keeping insurance companies in the mix, when they serve little useful purpose.
So does this mean that liberals should have insisted on single-payer or nothing? No. Single-payer wasn’t going to happen — partly because of the insurance lobby’s power, partly because voters wouldn’t have gone for a system that took away their existing coverage and replaced it with the unknown. Yes, Obamacare is a somewhat awkward kludge, but if that’s what it took to cover the uninsured, so be it.
And although the botched rollout is infuriating — count me among those who believe that liberals best serve their own cause by admitting that, not trying to cover for the botch — the odds remain high that this will work, and make America a much better place."
17
18
U.S.
Immigration Poses Threat of Another Republican Rift
A push to bring legislation to the House floor, led by a coalition of executives, conservatives and evangelical leaders, could affect campaign contributions before the midterm elections.
19
U.S.
Promised Fix for Health Site Could Squeeze Some Users
The White House said that it would fix the insurance marketplace by Nov. 30, raising the question of how people whose current policies do not comply with the law will get new coverage in time.
20
U.S.
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