Topical Emails from all different sites. Pulled from my In-Box and which I have no time to write about. Thinking, they still may be of interest to readers who visit Angry Bear. Please be topical or at least close. Healthcare Our Healthcare Data Infrastructure Is Abysmal, MedPage Today, John (Xuefeng) Jiang. Is our healthcare data infrastructure prepared for the next health crisis? Our research indicates it is alarmingly unprepared. A New...
Read More »Total Income, and the Collapse of the Household Labor Share
The decline in workers’ share of the total pie is far more extreme than standard measures suggest. Total Income, and the Collapse of the Household Labor Share, Wealth Economics, Steve Roth The best way to start this post is with a graph that many will find surprising, even eye-popping. The graph kind of speaks for itself — pretty dismayingly, especially post-covid. The rest of this post just explains it. This graph answers a question...
Read More »Banks and Private Equity Cash in When Patients Can’t Pay
It is bad enough with high healthcare costs for doctors, hospitals, medicines, care, insurance, etc. But when all of them start to allow you credit so they can collect their moneys leaving you to fend for yourself, it becomes outrageous. A common interest rate for payment plans is 16% to 19% with private equity. It is a rip off of those who are ill and the families who are willing to sacrifice all. It is unfortunate banks, etc., are willing to...
Read More »Fixing the 340B Program, a Critical Safety Net for Uninsured and Low-Income Patients
Angry Bear has posted about the 340B Drug Pricing program several times now. What is key to this program is it making available medicines which are out of reach for those who are lower income and uninsured patients. However, the program is being used to divert funding to other hospital facilities. Some are going as far as closing portions of a facility, moving the care to other facilities, and maintaining the original facility so as to be eligible...
Read More »Social Security The Wall Street Journal And The Art of Lying
Dale Coberly discusses an article written by Andrew Biggs “No, Social Security Isn’t ‘Earned’,” WSJ [Dear reader: this is very long. It had to be to refute all the claims made by the author of the WSJ op ed. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to, or all of it, or all in one sitting. But I hope it will help you understand the truth about how Social Security works.] I read an article the other day [December 8] in the Wall Street...
Read More »Chatting With AI On Better Government
J.P. at J.P. McJefferson blog took up a rather interesting conversation with AI/ChatGPT. J.P. McJefferson: Chatting With AI On Better Government, jpmcjefferson.blogspot.com. ME What ideas do you have for improving U.S. governmental decision-making? ChatGPT Improving U.S. governmental decision-making is a multifaceted challenge that involves addressing various aspects of the political process. Here are some ideas that could contribute...
Read More »In-Box Topics Which May Be of Interest
Topics pulled from my In-Box which I have no time to write about. Thinking, they still may be of interest to readers who visit Angry Bear. Please be topical. Healthcare Some Reasons to Get Off the Fence About COVID Booster, medscape.com, Debby Waldman. Researchers found that getting vaccinated led to a 69% reduction in long-COVID risk among adults who received three vaccines before being infected. Doctor ‘Wage Theft’ Is Not Without...
Read More »A new rule that would grant exemptions on swap trades
Here we are agin, trying to make it easier to trade derivatives. Never mind the lessons we thought we learned when Goldman Sachs called on AIG to ante up. There were little in reserve for the swaps and AIG was ready to collapse. Congress and the Fed (or reverse) saved them and the economy. The issue was Wall Street and Greenspan did not take swaps/derivatives seriously even after the Bankers Trust and Long-Term Capital Management. LTCM crisis –...
Read More »US Postal Stamp Scam
Maybe you have noticed this and maybe you have not? The USPS or the United States Postal Service does not sell stamps at a huge discount. You may get a few bucks off at Costco. It is not going to be 25% or 50% off what they are sold for as shown here: Lower left-hand corner of the first roll of stamps. Imagine that! The USPS selling 1st class mail stamps for 16.99 cents a stamp? Yeah, right. Facebook allows this advertising scheme of cheap...
Read More »Social Security and Medicare: Fun with Numbers Time
I have added little to this commentary. Economist Dean Baker has taken a position on various aspects of the economy. A positive position which you will see many other commentaries trashing. We avoided one hell of a recession to date which would have been the equal to the 2008 collapse due to Wall Street’s addiction to gambling. You will not hear the news media promoting this. I will be posting more on this issue. Meanwhile, there exists a lot...
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